Spam & Email filters
Dealing with a lot of mail or junk mail can be frustrating. Your first line of defense is your ISP - read the help they provide on the subject. Most ISP's provide filters you can set to block junk mail so you never see it at all!
On your own computer, you should be using email software
to download, read and send email - NOT your web browser. Good
software lets you create mail filters that can automatically scan and
sort your incoming messages (by subject, author, body, etc.) into the
folders you specify.
Junk Mail Filters: Good software will also automatically
recognize junk mail. Most junk mail is not addressed to
you, so you can filter them into a folder you have created called "SPAM".
Set your filter so messages with "To or CC" that does NOT contain your
mail address are moved to your "SPAM" folder. Put this filter after any
other filters you create. Inspect the SPAM folder occasionally to check
for valid messages!
Mailing List Filters: Most lists use a unique name to
start their subject line to help you put them into a special folder if
you wish. They do not address messages to you directly so make sure this
filter comes first. A filter for the "Web Club" mailing list will look
like this:
Subject of the message contains [MyClub]
Move to folder MyClub
Outlook 2000 Email filtering
Offtopic.rwz is a rule which was created using Outlook
2000. It is unknown if this rule works in previous versions of Outlook.
A rule is a condition which organizes and processes messages as they
arrive in your inbox. This particular rule is designed to move to your
Deleted Items Folder, any email which contains the phrase
"off topic".
To use this rule, you must download the rule and save it on your computer.
Open Outlook and select from the menu:
Tools | Rules Wizard | Options | Import Rules
Then navigate to the location where you saved this rule.
This rule can be modified using the Rules Wizard. For
assistance with this, look up "rules" in the online help section of Outlook.
Use a search engine to locate Offtopic.rwz.
Netscape Mail Email filtering
In Messenger version 4, choose the Edit menu, then Message
Filters or Mail Filters. In the Message Filters
dialog box, click New. You see the Filter Rules dialog
box, where you enter information necessary to define the filter:
- Type a name for the filter (any name you wish).
- Select the "Match" option you want. Use the pop-up menus to choose
filtering criteria and type a keyword to be used in the search.
- Click More to add criteria and Fewer to remove them. Then use the
filtering action you want.
- Click New Folder to create a new mail folder.
- Type information about this filter in the Description field.
- Click Advanced to enter customized header information.
To edit a filter, select the filter name and click Edit. To delete a
filter, click Delete. To turn a filter on or off, click the dot to the
right of the filter name.
To change the order in which filters are applied, click the up or down
arrow to move a filter name. To log filter activity, which can help to
debug filtering, click the checkbox at Log Filter Use. To display the
filter log: Click View log.
Spam
How on earth do spammers get your email address? According to the Email
Abuse FAQ, they get your address by
- Running programs that collect email addresses out of Usenet [network
news] posting headers
- Culling them from subscriber lists (such as AOL's Member Profile list)
- Using web-crawling programs that look for mailto: codes in HTML documents
- Ripping them out of online "white pages" directories
- Buying a list [of email addresses] from someone who already has one
- Taking them from you without your knowledge when you visit their web
site.
- Using finger on a host computer to find online users addresses
- Collecting member names from online "chat rooms."
First, NEVER EVER reply to a spam message. The same is true with those
"removal message" that promise to remove your address. If you reply they
know your address is good and will send more!
Links:
Canadian Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE.ORG) is coordinating
the fight against spam, viruses, phishing and malware.
StopSpamHere.ca is a joint effort of the Government of Canada, industry, CAUSE and several non-governmental organizations.
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