Managing Spam with Outlook Express

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Managing Spam with Outlook Express

Managing Spam With Outlook Express

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Introduction Verizon Online Spam Detector Using Outlook Express Tools to Reduce Spam

Verizon Online

2 Managing Spam with Outlook Express


Introduction

Verizon Online is constantly working to combat the amount of unwanted e-mail (spam) flooding your inbox. Using the Verizon Online Spam Detector and the e-mail filters and Block Sender functionality from Microsoft® Outlook Express can greatly reduce the amount of spam that reaches your inbox.

Spam Detector – Identifies e-mail as spam and provides you the choice of automatically deleting it or moving it to a folder that you specify.

Block Sender – Blocks e-mail messages that originate from anyone included on the Block Sender List you create.

E-Mail Filters – Identify e-mail messages to which you can apply special processing. The rule used to identify the applicable e-mail messages also identifies how the e-mail is processed.

Introduction 3

Verizon Online


Verizon Online Spam Detector Spam Detector is a free tool provided by Verizon that drastically reduces the amount of unwanted e-mail (spam) that you get. Spam Detector works by identifying and filtering spam before it clutters your inbox.

Once activated, Spam Detector remains active until you disable it.

Controlling How Spam Is Processed You have two options within Spam Detector for processing spam. You can automatically delete e-mail identified as spam or have it moved to a “SpamDetector” folder.

To define how spam is processed:

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Click E-Mail & More in the left navigation column.

Click Check My E-mail in the left navigation column.

Click Options in the left navigation column.

Select the Rules tab.

In the Spam Filtering section, select Delete incoming spam to automatically delete all incoming email identified as spam.

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Select Save spam in the "SpamDetector" folder to temporarily store the spam in a special SpamDetector folder. Messages sent to the SpamDetector folder are stored for seven days and then are automatically deleted.


Activating Spam Detector

If you started your Verizon Online service after July 13, 2001, Spam Detector was automatically enabled for you. You may want to verify that it is still enabled.

To activate Spam Filter:

1. Go to Verizon Central at http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/site/verizon/ .

2. Click the Login button in the upper right corner of the screen and enter your Verizon Online username and password in the appropriate fields.

Note: This step can be skipped if you are already logged in to your account or sub-account.

3. Select E-Mail and More in the left navigation column.

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http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/site/verizon/

Verizon Online


4. Select Verizon E-Mail Tools in the left navigation column.

5. Select Spam Detector in the left navigation column.

6. To verify that Spam Detector is enabled, select ON and click Submit.


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Verizon Online

2. Select Message Rules from the Tools menu.


Using Outlook Express Tools to Reduce Spam Using E-mail Filters Outlook Express e-mail filters can be used to quickly categorize the e-mails you receive so you can handle them more efficiently. You can send incoming messages that meet certain criteria to a junk mail folder or even delete them, depending on how you set up the filter. Although e-mail filters cannot eliminate spam, they can further decrease the amount that reaches your inbox.

Defining E-Mail Filters E-mail filters are created by defining rules that are used to determine if incoming e-mail is spam. You create a rule that identifies what part of the e-mail is examined (e.g., To, From, Subject and CC), what specific content to search for in this e-mail category, and what to do with e-mails that meet the conditions of the rule.

To define an e-mail filter:

1. Start Outlook Express.

3. Select Mail from the Message Rules menu. The New Mail Rule window displays.


Filtering ScenarioIf you want to identify e-mails related to mortgage rates as spam: 1. Select Where the

message body contains specific words.

2. Select Move it to the specified folder.

3. Click contains specific words, enter “mortgage rate,” click Add, and click OK.

4. Click specified, browse to the folder where you want the filtered mail to be stored, and click OK.

5. Enter a name for the rule you created.

6. Click OK.

4. Select the part of the email message from the Select the Conditions for your rule section to determine the part of the e-mail that Outlook Express examines when an e-mail arrives.

Note: You can select multiple conditions in this section, but an e-mail has to meet all of the selected conditions in order to meet the criteria.

5. In the Select the Actions for your rule section, select how you want Outlook Express to process the e-mail that meets the criteria chosen in the previous step. If you are creating a filter to reduce spam, you may want to move it to a specified folder for junk mail or simply delete it.

Note: Be cautious about automatically deleting spam. E-mails that are automatically deleted never display in the inbox and are not stored in your Trash folder.

Using Outlook Express Tools to Reduce Spam 9

Verizon Online


The Rule Description section of the New Mail Rule window is used to enter the detailed information Outlook Express uses when examining incoming e-mail messages. In the top box, you chose the part of the e-mail that is examined by this rule. The Rule Description section is used to enter the exact words or phrases that are searched for in the e-mail section you chose.

The information categories that need additional information to complete the rule are displayed as hyperlinks in the Rule Description section as illustrated in the example above.

6. Click on the applicable hyperlink to display the window for entering the words or phrases that you want to use as a search criteria.

7. Enter the specific criteria in the window that is displayed. The information and hyperlinks in the Rule Description window vary depending on your choices in the previous sections.


8. Enter a name for the e-mail rule and click OK.


Verizon Online


Using Block Sender Block Sender provides another tool to reduce the spam that reaches your inbox. You create a Block Sender List of e-mail addresses or domains. E-mail messages originating from any address or domain included on this list are prevented from reaching your inbox.

How Does Block Sender Work? When you identify an e-mail address you want to block, the sender’s e-mail address is added to the Block Sender List. This list is checked each time a new e-mail is received. If the e-mail is from an address on this list, it is sent to a specified folder or deleted, depending on how you define your Block Sender rules.

You also have the option of blocking all e-mail messages that originate from a domain you have included on the Block Sender List. The domain is the portion of the e-mail address that comes after the “@” sign. For example, if the e-mail address is [email protected], the domain is “spamsender.com.”

If you block e-mail from an entire domain, you will not receive any e-mail from that domain.

Note: It is important to carefully evaluate any Block Sender rules you create. This is especially true if you block an entire domain. If the domain is a major Internet Service Provider (ISP) like Verizon.net, you will not receive any e-mail from anyone from that domain. For this reason, it is generally preferable to block specific senders rather than an entire domain.

Setting Up Block Sender You must create the Blocked Senders List before using the Block Sender functionality.


To set up Block Sender:

1. Select Message Rules from the Tools menu.

2. Select Blocked Senders List from the Message Rules menu.

3. Verify that the Blocked Senders tab is selected.

4. Click Add. The Add Sender window displays.

5. Enter the e-mail address (e.g., [email protected]) of the sender whose e-mail you want to block in the Address field. To block an entire domain, enter only the domain name (e.g., spammer.com).

6. Select whether you want to block mail messages, news messages, or both.


Verizon Online


7. Click OK.

8. Continue adding e-mail addresses or domains you want to block by repeating this process.

9. Click OK when you finish entering e-mail addresses and domains to block.

Documents

Managing Spam with Outlook Express