How To Turn Outlook Express Into A Spam Filter

How To Turn Outlook Express Into A Spam Filter

Spam

Don't you just hate it?

You turn on your computer, connect to the internet, open up your Outlook Express and, hey presto! Your inbox fills up with a truckload of unsolicited emails, offering products and services that you just don't want or need!
It's bad enough being cold-called by telephone sales people, but now you're getting it from your computer too!
OK, so email clients like Hotmail and Yahoo have spam filters already built in to enable you to shift the spam, but, for some reason, your very own Outlook Express continues to lack any kind of filtering software.

There is a way!

By making a few simple adjustments to the configuration of Outlook Express, you can breathe a
sigh of relief while you wave goodbye to the majority of the these cyber salesmen. By applying these simple methods, hundreds of unwanted emails will be deleted from your inbox
without you even noticing!

HOW TO DO IT:

OK, firstly, open Outlook Express and click on Tools from the top list. Select Message Tools and then select Mail.
A window called Message Tools will appear. Click on New. A new window called New Mail Rule will then appear, looking like the picture below.

Tick the check boxes Where the Subject Line contains specific words and Where the message body contains specific words in the Conditions box like in the picture below.

You then write the name of the message rule in the Name of the rule field as shown in the above picture.
You can call it what you like. I have called it Spam Filter. You will see that, in the picture above, text and links
have appeared in the Rule Description box. Ignore these for now. We will cover these in a moment.
You then tick the check boxes Delete It and Highlight it with color, like in the picture below.

OK, now click on the color link.

A small box will appear with a drop box of colours like in the picture below.

I always select Red. I suggest you do the same. I'll tell you why in a moment. After selecting the colour, click on OK.

The box will then disappear. After that, click on the Where the Subject line contains specific words link.
A box will appear where you can enter words that will trigger your spam filter.
To gather a list of spam words, all you have to do is check your spam emails. My guess is that you have received several spam emails in the short time that you have been reading this book. Look at the text in your spam emails and find words that are only contained in spam, such as mortgage,viagra, penis and porn, etc.
Once you have a list of spam words, type them into the top field ONE AT A TIME and click on Add each time.
DON'T type them all in at once.You will then see a list of your spam words in the bottom.

Once you have finished, click on OK.
Your New Mail Rule box will now look like this.

You now click on the Where the message body contains specific words link. A box will appear where you can enter words that will trigger your spam filter.

Do the same as you did with the Subject box and load in your spam words.

Once finished, click on OK.
You can load in as many spam words as you like. Once finished, click on OK. And that's it!
Your spam filter has now been set up and will now run automatically in the background. Basically, when new emails arrive, if the spam filterfinds an email containing any of your spam words, the email will be deleted as soon as it arrives and will be sent straight to the Deleted Items folder of your Outlook Express.

Now and then, it is best to check your Deleted Items folder, just in case your spam filter has deleted emails from friends. (as sometimes they may have typed words that match your spam words in their text) You'll easily be able to see the emails that the spam filter has deleted as they will be highlighted in red, which is why I suggested this colour earlier on.If you ever want to edit your spam filter, simply click on Tools from the top list, select Message Tools and select Mail. Then select Spam Filter and click on Modify.