No filters.txt, empty senders list, so why is Junk E-mail rule junking e-mails?

[Vanguard]

I am getting e-mails that are getting incorrectly detected as junk by
the Junk E-mail filter. Although this filter (rule) is enabled, I have
disabled all its means of detection and yet it still marks some e-mails
as junk. I've pulled its teeth and it still can bite.

According to what I've read, the Junk E-mail rule (and the Adult Content
rule) uses the filters.txt file to get some rules and bad words to
determine if an e-mail is to be junked. This file was found in
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\1033\FILTERS.TXT". I
renamed it (to filters.new). I also checked the Junk Senders list and
it is completely empty. The Junk E-mail filter is enabled (so a rule
for it appears in the rules list and it is enabled) and configured to
move suspect e-mails to the Junk folder. I've restarted Outlook. And
still I encounter incoming e-mails that get moved to the Junk folder
when just the Junk E-mail rule is executed against messages sitting in
the Inbox.

With no filters.txt file and with no senders in the Junk Senders list,
the Junk E-mail filter should be ineffective. So what might it still be
using to determine that an e-mail is junk? Yes, there are other rules
but only the Junk E-mail filter rule is getting executed when I use the
Run Now button. By running the rules one at a time, I was able to see
which one was causing some of my e-mails to get junked. I noticed this
when e-mails from tech support for a product were getting junked when
nothing in my rules would've junked them. Without filters.txt and no
junk senders listed, how could the Junk E-mail filter rule do anything?

 

[Vanguard]

I am getting e-mails that are getting incorrectly detected as junk by
the Junk E-mail filter. Although this filter (rule) is enabled, I
have disabled all its means of detection and yet it still marks some
e-mails as junk. I've pulled its teeth and it still can bite.

<snip>

DOH! Found the answer at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;298734.
Apparently there are some built-in rules that I cannot modify. So my
only option is to disable the Junk E-mail filter. That's a pity because
it allowed defining some rules that are impossible to define using
rules, like:

From is blank
First 8 characters of From are digits
Subject is blank

The rules don't let you check for blank header values or for missing
headers. And they don't allow checking the first 8 chars are numeric.
Of course, Microsoft has never seen fit to document the syntax of the
rules that can be placed in filters.txt other than providing examples.

Oh, well, time to start figuring out how to use the RegEx (regular
expressions) plug-in for SpamPal.

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

Filters.txt is basically a readme file, so renaming it has no effect on
the filters Outlook uses when the Junk rule is enabled. More info at
http://www.slipstick.com/rules/junkmail.htm.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

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