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E-mail Filtering Rules


Below are some sample steps for setting up an e-mail filtering rule. There are a wide number of vendors and versions of e-mail clients so your "mileage may vary". Filters may be done based on the subject line, or by the x-spam-score header. Filtering on the X-Spam-Score: header allows you to adjust the filtering level by changing the number of +'s. However some may find it easier to just filter based on a subject that begins with *SPAM*. Also some e-mail clients, such as MS Outlook Express, don't support filtering on the x-spam-score header, so the subject filter must be used.

MS Outlook Express

    1. Under the tools menu select "Message Rules" and then ==> Mail.
    2. In the Mail Rules tab, select "new..."
    3. Select "Where the Subject line contains specific words".
    4. in the second box select "move it to the specified folder"
    5. in the third box under "Rule Description" click on the underlined"contains specific words". Type "*SPAM*", click add, and OK
    6. Next click on the underlined word "specified", to choose a folder.
    7. You click on "new folder" to create a spam folder or use one you already have.
    8. Change the name of the rule to something meaningful like "Spam filter"

MS Outlook 2000 or newer

  1. Under the Tools menu select the Rules wizard.
  2. Then select "Check Messages when they arrive", Select Next
  3. Select "with specific words in the message header"
  4. In the rule description Select "specific words" link and enter
    X-Spam-Score: +++++
  5. It's important that you get the spelling exactly, you can add more or fewer +'s to adjust at what level you process it as spam later on, but starting with 5 is recommended. Select Next.
  6. Then select "move it to the specified folder"
  7. In the Rules description select "specified" to choose which folder the potential spam should be moved to. You could also have it auto-deleted, but having a spam folder is recommended at least until you are confident that your regular e-mail is not getting labeled as spam.
  8. Select Next
  9. It is not necessary to fill in any exception, so you may select next here. However if you do subscribe to an e-mail distribution list which is getting rated as spam, you could add an exception here that matches the e-mail from the subscription list. It's also possible to create a rule for the subscription list and place it before (above) the spam filtering rule.

Mozzila Thunderbird

    1. Under the Tools menu select the Message Filters to open the message filters tool window.
    2. Click on the "New" button to create a new filter.
    3. In the Filter name: box, type something recogizable like  Spam Filter Level 
    4. In the left pull-down menu select "Customize..." which is at the bottom of the menu.
    5. Next in the box under "New Message Header" type exactly  X-Spam-Score  and click "Add" to include it in the list of custom SMTP headers. and the click "OK"
    6. Now select the "X-Spam-Score" header, in the left pull-down menu.
    7. In the middle pull down menu select "contains".
    8. In the right text box type 5 plus signes like   +++++   (You can later adjust the filter to have fewer or more then 5 plus signs depending on your expereince.)
    9. Now in the lower left pull down menus under "Perform These Action" select   Move Message To  
    10. Now select a folder such as the   Junk Folder  into which the suspected SPAM mail will be placed.
    11. Now click   OK   to complete the filter
    12. If you have other filters created such as for your mail list subscriptions, then click on the   Move Down   button so that the SPAM filter rule comes after your subscriptions, so that they won't be filtered.

Eudora 5.x or 6.x

    1. Under the Tools menu select the Filters to open the filters tool window.
    2. Select Match "Incoming", (Outgoing and Manual are unselected.)
    3. In the Header box, type exactly "X-Spam-Score" without the quotes.
    4. Select "contains" in the next box
    5. In the next box type "+++++" that's 5 plus signs without the quotes.
    6. The next box should read "ignore", now skip down to the action section.
    7. Select "Transfer to" in the next box.
    8. Next, click on the "in" box and select the "new..." mailbox.
    9. For the new mailbox name you may type "spam", leave the "make it a folder" unselected.
    10. Click OK
    11. The second action for this filter should read "Skip Rest", select "Skip Rest" otherwise.
    12. Close the filter tools window and click "Yes" to save.


Durkee Consulting, Inc.
7367 Evergreen St. PO Box 404
Lima, NY 14485
Phone 585-624-9551
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