Outlook 2003 Rule to Filter Unwanted Email

[Gregory Winters]

This probably has a ridiculously easy answer, but I can't seem to find it. I
need to be able to create a rule which will tell Outlook to block mail from
senders as they are displyed in the Inbox, NOT how they are displayed in the
actual message or anything to do with domains or email addresses.

For example, I get zillions of spam messages from 'John Cummata' (and
variations), but the actual 'sender' is a unique email address each time.
I've tried all the rules options I know how, but I can't get Outlook to act
upon the text string.

I don't understand why this is so difficult: if Outlook can 'see' something
in the message that tells it to display in the bold black font in the
mailbox, why can't I 'tell' Outlook to act upon that exact information? This
isn't rocket science - I estimate that if I could somehow 'talk' to Outlook
and tell it about the unwanted text strings, I could create ~30 rules which
would eliminate over 50% of the unwanted messages.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks!

Greg

 

[sun]

I would try unsing the Rule that searches for word or phrase in the message
header. Note, this is case sensitive. Hope this helps.

I have a similar problem with SPAM, however my problem is I want to see the
actual senders email address and not what they have set to display as in the
From: Field. The reason I am asking is because I have been getting what
looks like email from Microsoft Canada, however when I veiw the header it is
actaully SPAM from From: "Microsoft Canada" <[email protected]>

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Gregory Winters]

Hi:

You've described the reason I posted my request in the first place. I've
tried the Message Header rules, including case sensitive, and even though the
rules clearly tells all messages with the text in the header to go to the
Deleted Items folder (or outright delete, which would be preferable, Outlook
seems to simply ignore the rule.

I can't figure out why this is happening.

 

[sun200806]

That is strange, it works for me. The only thing I can think of is that you
may have some other rules before it or maybe even after it, that does
something else to the message. Also, in order for the "outright delete" to
work, you must be using your Outlook when the email comes in, otherwise the
rule will not be applied since it is a client side rule.

Beyond this I will leave it for the Outlook experts to help you out. Sorry.

 

[Brian Tillman]

This probably has a ridiculously easy answer, but I can't seem to
find it. I need to be able to create a rule which will tell Outlook
to block mail from senders as they are displyed in the Inbox, NOT how
they are displayed in the actual message or anything to do with
domains or email addresses.

For example, I get zillions of spam messages from 'John Cummata' (and
variations), but the actual 'sender' is a unique email address each
time. I've tried all the rules options I know how, but I can't get
Outlook to act upon the text string.

Try the "with specific words in the message header" condition and use
"cummata" as the specific words.

 

[Brian Tillman]

You've described the reason I posted my request in the first place.
I've tried the Message Header rules, including case sensitive, and
even though the rules clearly tells all messages with the text in the
header to go to the Deleted Items folder (or outright delete, which
would be preferable, Outlook seems to simply ignore the rule.

Make sure this rule has the "stop processing more rules" action.

 

[Gregory Winters]

Sorry, Brian, but this is what I was referring to in my original post. If I
set the rule that you mention, then it not only removes the message if it has
the offending text in the 'sender' line (the bold font), but if it is also in
the subject line.

My question is: what is the rule that tells Outlook to look *only* at what
it displays in the bold font? Thanks.

 

[Brian Tillman]

My question is: what is the rule that tells Outlook to look *only*
at what it displays in the bold font? Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Unread messages always get the bolding.
I don't think a rule can detect whether or not the message is unread.

 

[Gregory Winters]

Right! In the unread message, Outlook 'sees' that the so-called 'sender' is
*different* from the subject line. This is why in an unread message, the
'sender' is in bold font while the subject line is displayed underneath.

The message header includes *both* the 'sender' and the subject line, and
the Outlook rule seems to only allow the ability to control the entire
header, not these two pieces separately. I've asked the question: since
Outlook can 'see' enough of this part of the Message Header to know to
display in bold font as a Sender, why can't I 'talk' to this part of the
header *only* in order to create a Rule?

Let me give you an example...

I get a bunch of messages each day from 'someone' labeled as 'New Car.' New
Car appears in bold font while there's a subject line to the effect of: "The
2008 models are here" and other variants. If I were to create a Rule that
tells Outlook to remove the words "New Car" from the message header, then if
I were to get a legitimate message from someone where the term was in the
*subject line*, then Outlook would execute the rule and I would lose the mail.

However, when I try to actually place a rule on the Sender line, Outlook
seems to only want to look at the domain or the email address and not this
bold-font alias. In the above example, 'New Car' is sent by a different
email address each and every time making it impossible to catch at that level.

Does that make things clearer? Thanks.

Greg

 

[sun200806]

Use the header message rule and search for the key text:

From: "New Car"
or
From: New Car

And it will only catch senders with "New Car" not subjects.

 

[Gregory Winters]

Thanks! I'm running tests right now. Preliminary results show that the
choice you gave me with the quotes seems to indeed ignore the subject line.
I'll have to wait until another one of the candidate spam messages shows up,
however, to see if the Rule grabs the sender.

Meantime, quick question: what is the Boolean logic behind your syntax?
Does it mean 'any of the words' or 'only these words,' etc? Example: will
the Rule filter out a message from sender "2008 New Car"? I'd like to be
able to employ both types of logic, but will settle for working with only one
if that's all I have.

Thanks again!

 

[sun200806]

The logic applies to the exact text string 'From: "New Car"' appearing in
your header. Add 'From: "2008 New Car"' to the rule and it will filter that
one as well.

If for whatever reason a subject also includes the string 'From: "New Car"'
then there is nothing you can do.

 

[Gregory Winters]

You are correct. It's working just as you say. Thanks again for the help!
As an aside, I would like to get the following observation on the record:

The reason that spam is such a nuisance is not only because of the sheer
volume of it, but because in order to get to the messages we actually wish to
read, we have to go through each message and check who sent it. This means
that of all the pieces of information in the message header, we are forced to
prioritize this so-called 'sender alias' above all else. It would seem to me
that Microsoft should have easily understood this and provided much stronger
tools to work with. In other words, any way that the spammers know that they
can get our attention, Outlook should be able to comprehend and address.
Legit messages from people that we may not (yet) know, but still wish to read
would NEVER have the junk aliases that we see in our mailboxes, but without
more sophisticated filtering capability, we risk blocking these folks out
when creating and applying Rules.

Just my two cents...

Greg