using Outlook's rules wizard to filter content

[bj nick]

I used outlook express' rules to successfully lots of spam. I set up rules for words like mortgage, business, opportunity, cash,offer, viagra, etc, and any messages with those words in the subject heading were dumped automatically into the "spam" folder I created; I would then check that folder periodically to make sure there was nothing of value which slipped in accidentally, then deletethem. It worked well and it was a pleasure not to be inundated with garbage all the time.

Now I have outlook the complete version from the xp office suite, and it has an annoying problem: it won't allow me to separate the parameters for subject heading and the actual content of the message. In other words, if I indicate in the rules wizard the word "mortgage", it will dump any message containing that word into the spam folder, regardless of whether the word appears in the subject heading or the content of the message itself. all I want is the subject heading to be filtered. Otherwise, any message that contains one of those words anywhere in it will be dumped into the spam folder. This is ridiculous!!! Because I don't want to be deluged with silly offers from bogus mortgage people, doesn't mean I don't ever intend to use that word in the actual body of the message!

does anyone have a clue if anything can be done about this?

Thanks!

 

[BML]

Yes I have the same problem. But let me give you a tip.

It's impossible to think up of all the keywords that can identify an ad message. "mortgage" by itself isn't really a good word. if you read those emails, down to the small print, after a while you'll notice some similarities. for example, most say "to be removed from our mailing list reply with the word "remove" in the subject line" which of course is a crock of !@#@! because they'll sell your address to someone else. And there are others.

So, i downloaded a email filter program that kind of acted as a middle-man between my ISP and Outlook. I eventually chose not to keep this program however because it was just another application to use system resources. What i did was COPY a big list of their keywords. They had a list for the message body and subject line too. Then I went into rules wiz, and had to manually add (by typing the word then click "add", over and over again) and that's how I build an email rule that is pretty effective against spam and porno site emails. You can filter the message body and it will work. Believe me, my "delete" folder fills up pretty fast! I can send you the list if you'd like to create your own rule with it.

I know that some people feel that advertising is what makes America great....but i am staunchly against spam and email advertising and believe it needs to be regulated because a lot of what is advertised is bogus anyway. It's like a criminal invasion of your personal space. With an ad that the Mailman brings, at least you usually know who sent it. But email spam is covert, secret, sender is hidden, "from" addresses are outbound-only, and attempting to tell them to stop only gets you more, and they use deceptive means to get you to read. AND, believe it or not, some emails I get both the "from" and "to" fields are BLANK!!Example, I got one that said in the subject line, "we charged it to your account" and I nearly FREAKED out...but when i read it, all that was an advertisment. Boy, was i pissed. Sorry I had to rant here but email advertising gets me hot. And I'm open to new ways of stopping it.

 

[Brooks]

Try this.

When you first open the rules wizard in Outlook, there are two choices at the very top. One states Start creating a rule from a template. The other is Start from a blank rule. Click on the blank rule. This will allow you to create the rule to only check the subject instead of both the subject and the message body like creating one from the template does.