Outlook 2003 spam filter not working

[TonyK]

Here's my problem:

I have set up Office 2003 (outlook specifically) to
consider all email from "@yahoo.com" to be spam. Now I've
also added a very select few yahoo people to be
considered "safe". The problem is Outlook 2003 will let
some other yahoo emails get through even though they are
not on my safe list.

What I expect from this is that ALL incoming yahoo mail
should get flagged as junk UNLESS they are in my address
book or safe senders list.

It's sad when one of the wealthiest s/w companies can't
get this right.

If I blacklist a domain, the domain should be
BLACKLISTED!!!

The priority should be as follows:

Filters - process first. (I have several filters that
work before needing any spam control)
Address book - Let through
Save domain - Let through
Safe senders - Let through
Blocked senders and domains - SPAM!!
Block subject words - SPAM!!
Block message body words. - SPAM!!

I know you have some of this implemented properly, but
some of it doesn't exist and some of it doesn't work
correctly.

Microsoft, go look at Pocomail for some good user
controllable spam tools. They suck in other ways, but
they handle spam much better than you ever have.

Does s/w really have to be this difficult? Your older
office filters didn't work well for removing spam, and
your Outlook 2003 tools try to handle it at a high level
with little intervention, but the problem is just that.
You allow little intervention by the user that may in
fact have better insight than you do.

When I used Pocomail, I had a list of words that I
scanned for in the subject line and it was amazingly
useful. Why don't you implement that??

Your spam filters still let through all sorts of crap
that a word filter would remove. And yes, I have it set
to HIGH.

 

[SA]

Tony:

Although I haven't played with it as extensively as you have, one point that
I would make is that there are two different items that you might associate
with a email "from" domain.

1.) The actual domain of the sender
2.) The reply to address, (which is normally what you see in the email
listing in Outlook)

Spammers unfortunately have gotten very good at spoofing addresses and
domains. A mail might look like it comes from yahoo but when in fact it
actually is routed from a different domain. To see this in action, next
time one "slips" through your filters, right click on it while it is closed
in Outlook and bring up its "Options". You'll see there the internet header
for the item and more than likely I would bet you'll see that actual sending
domain was not Yahoo.com

Steve Arbaugh
MS Access MVP