Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Managing Spam
With Outlook Express
4Introduction
4Verizon Online Spam Detector
4Using Outlook Express Tools to Reduce Spam
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Verizon Online
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Managing Spam with Outlook Express
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
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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:
1. Click E-Mail & More in the left navigation column.
2. Click Check My E-mail in the left navigation column.
3. Click Options in the left navigation column.
4. Select the Rules tab.
5. In the Spam Filtering section, select Delete incoming spam to
automatically delete all incoming email identified as spam.
Or
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.
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Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Managing Spam with Outlook Express
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.
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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.
Verizon Online Spam Detector
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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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Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Verizon Online Spam Detector
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Verizon Online
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 email 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.
2. Select Message Rules from the Tools menu.
3. Select Mail from the Message Rules menu. The New Mail Rule window
displays.
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Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Filtering Scenario
If you want to identify emails 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.
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Note: You can select multiple conditions in this section, but an email 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.
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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
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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 email 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.
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Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Managing Spam with Outlook Express
8. Enter a name for the e-mail rule and click OK.
Using Outlook Express Tools to Reduce Spam
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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.
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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.
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Managing Spam with Outlook Express
Managing Spam with Outlook Express
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.
Using Outlook Express Tools to Reduce Spam
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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.
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Managing Spam with Outlook Express