Creative Ways to Deal with Spam
by Monica Mariani
Much has been written about how to deal with Spam. Our respected government leaders are now trying to find creative ways to regulate spam and keep our email boxes safe from unwanted solicitations.
While our government leaders are hard at work, I've found a relatively simple and easy way to deal with spam coming into my email box.
I use Microsoft Outlook 2000 as my email client. When I receive an unwanted piece of mail, I use Outlook's mailbox "Rules" to efficiently prevent unwanted mail from dropping into my mailbox. I believe most versions of Outlook have this feature. The process to set the rules may vary, depending on which version of Outlook you are using. Check the Help area of your version to determine the specific steps you'll need to follow. Here's how I do it.
Just this morning a Spam message came into my mailbox trying to convince me of some outstanding opportunity to save money on prescription medication. The first thing I did was to examine the email to determine what specific words in the email I could use to identify it as Spam. I chose the words "prescription medication."
I then went to the Tools menu in Outlook and chose the Rules Wizard menu item. In the Rules applet, I then selected New? to add a new rule. Here I selected Check New Messages when they Arrive. I then selected the conditions by which I wanted to rule to be applied. I chose, Where Specific Words Appear in the Subject or Body. In the sub-window below where I set the condition, I clicked on the hyperlink for? Specific Words and entered in the qualifying words "prescription medication."
Next, I was presented with a window to tell the program what I wanted it to do with messages that met the condition I set. From the list of available actions, I chose to Delete It. I could have chosen to Permanently Delete It, but I wanted to keep track of how many emails the system was moving to my Deleted folder over time. I'll go back later and change the rule to permanently delete it after I satisfy myself that I've out-smarted the Spamers.
Ok, moving on in the process, my next step was to determine if there might be any exceptions where I didn't want the rule to delete a message. This allows me to set any such conditions in case there are some messages with the "prescription medication" phrase that might in fact be legitimate mail. In my case, I don't subscribe to Walgreen's newsletters or any other medical related email subscription so I just moved past this window.
Finally, I gave the rule a Name and checked the selection box that allowed me to Run the Rule on Messages Already in my Inbox.
Sure enough, that new message was quickly moved to my deleted folder. So far this week I've set rules for phrases such as Viagra, Remote Control Cars, Dominic Republic, Lose Weight, Free Sunglasses and a few others. More than 200 Spam messages were moved to my deleted folder as a result of using the Outlook Rules Wizard.? Give it a try, you'll be glad you did!
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