Mail Rules in Outlook Express, tidying up incoming e-mail

[Tinkerbell]

In Reply To: arty's post @ Aug 4 2009, 09:48 AM

Quote "Tell your friends to use the same method - and make sure you clean all address lists in e-mails you choose to forward to friends."

Excellent advice, Arty. If you only do that one thing, you will cut spam by a big percentage.

[arty]

On a slightly different slant, but still to do with Internet Security, AAPT has compiled a comprehensive list of gotchas, security issues, and recommendations. I'm sure similar compilations can be found on any number of websites in any degree of detail.

This link: http://www.aapt.com.au/Security may make life a little easier, so you don't have to hunt around for those valuable tips.

[arty]

A couple of basics to keep SPAM in check

In "Tools", "Options", tab "Security", never allow your PC to automatically return read receipts. That would only confirm to a spammer that the address is live. If anything, set it to "Ask me"; at least you know then who requested a receipt, and if it's one of your valued contacts, you can always permit the reply. But you can just as easily return a "Thank you" note to your friends.

The other suggestion: Keep e-mail addresses confidential. An e-mail that has a long list of people in the "To" or "CC" fields, can easily be "harvested" by a SPAM hunter. Use the "Bcc" ("blind copy") field instead. If the Bcc field doesn't show when you compose a message to send, click on "View" and tick "All Headers". Addresses in the Bcc field are never shown; that way, not only does that prevent the recipient from knowing who else got it, but it also prevents address harvesting.
Tell your friends to use the same method - and make sure you clean all address lists in e-mails you choose to forward to friends.

[arty]

Have you ever been confronted by the problem that your ISP flagged as SPAM e-mail you want? Or do you have reason to suspect, too much unwanted junk gets through? Ever wondered how to get those Contract Notes from your broker saved right away?
If so, you're not alone. And since a friend happened to ask me today "How do YOU ...?" I thought I'd jot down a few general ideas.

If it's not a problem for you, or if you're a whizz on Message Rules, no need to read further.

Issue # 1: "My Security Package drops Contract Notes into the SPAM folder"
Issue # 2: "My Security Package gobbles up too many resources/ is too restrictive"

Personally, I don't use Norton or similar all-encompassing Security Packages. Windows Defender is running on all my PCs. I also have a Firewall as part of my modem-router-wifi setup. While I had only one PC connected to the Internet via one modem, I used a simple software firewall from Zonelabs. I dumped Norton years ago, when Symantec built everything into the one package and "took over".

Instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, I use Firefox. Not only is that much faster, but it also has a far smaller market share, making it a far less "rewarding" target for hackers. The differences and advantages - IMHO - are legion and would fill a separate post.

But back to e-mail: Microsoft's Outlook Express will benefit from an additional SPAM filter, but most serious ISPs offer this service either for free (AAPT does) or at a small surcharge. I've set mine so it lets all headlines through to me, but flags anything that may be considered SPAM. AAPT's method is, they add a text "*** suspected SPAM ***" to the subject line. (If your ISP usues a different identifier, substitute the qppropriate text in the examples below.)
And this is, where the Mail "Rules" come in handy. Go to "Tools", move the cursor down to "Message Rules" and click on "Mail".

If it's the first time, click on "New" ; let's start with a rule that rejects anything marked as "suspected SPAM". (no worries: you can overwrite that rule later by a batch that lets "important" things through.) Tick the box "when the subject line contains..." in the upper panel; in the lower panel, click on the underlined "contains specific words", then type the specific words - without string markers, quotes, apostrophes - in this case just *** suspected spam ***
For now, click on Add and the OK button; you can add more later, using the Edit function.
The rule filters now for the text "*** suspected spam ***" in the Subject line. We want to delete any such SPAM mail, so we tick the box "Delete it" in the middle panel. In that panel, scroll down and also tick the box "Stop processing more rules".
Name the new rule "SPAM" and save it (OK).

Now let's tackle the cases where the ISP flags as SPAM newsletters, group e-mails, or contract notes. Say, you receive the Trading Diary from Colin Twiggs, and your ISP "thinks" that's SPAM. Create a new rule, named "Twiggs", and specify "Where the From line contains Colin Twiggs" to "Stop processing more rules" - and move the rule "Twiggs" above the rule "SPAM". That's all it takes.

I use another little trick in this same rule: In my "Local Folders", I created a special folder named "Newsletters"; while we're at it, I also created one folder each for each of my Online Brokers; e.g.: "ContractNotes Commsec", "ContractNotes Westpac", etc.
So, the "Twiggs" rule gets amended by a tick in "Move it to News folder" and "stop processing..." remains.
Now you know the drill: A similar rule is added "where the from line contains 'Commonwealth Securities Limited'" move it to ... folder and stop processing... etc...

To make things even less error-prone, I have created individual e-mail accounts for each bank and broker. Some ISPs let you create a certain number of e-mail accounts - at least 5 or 6. Having my own domain, that's really unlimited. So, Westpac e-mails everything to a particular address that is unique to Westpac - that's the only address I told them; Commsec uses a unique Commsec, etc.

Ever received those annoying "Confirm your user id and password" mails from morons pretending to be your bank? Well - if you don't send any e-mails from the Commsec account, nobody but your bank and you will know that there is a commbank@... your ISP. And if an e-mail were sent to your commbank@... address from anybody else - a rule could easily take care of that.

Once you have identified something that MUST BE uncouth, you can stick it into a rule, which has the simple action "Delete it from Server". The effect of that rule is, it won't even be downloaded, but diappears straight away from your ISP's mail server.
I have a bottom rule with heaps of "subject line contains..." words that get the "delete from server" treatment. Anyone offering me "v1agra" or "legal software" or anything to do with "orgasm" can rot in cyber space.

One final recommendation: When you're sure you have "allowed" all mail that you want to accept to be saved into the appropriate in-folder, and when you've monitored the "Deleted Items" folder and found indeed only legitimately rejected junk in there for a few weeks, you can quite easily replace the "Delete it" and "Stop processing more rules" by the single "Delete it from Server" command.

So much for a start. Feel free to add suggestions I may have missed. But staying with the subject would be much appreciated.