Most e-mail programs come with a message filtering function that lets you build a customized and pretty effective spam filter. Here's how to do it in Outlook Express:
Read through your spam e-mails and make a list of common keywords that you can use to filter out the spam, for example, meds, prescriptions, Viagra, mortgage, credit, and assorted human body parts.
Select your keywords carefully. Don't pick words that may turn up in e-mails you want to read. Regularly check your spam folder for messages you want to keep.
Open Outlook Express and go to Tools | Message Rules | Mail to bring up the Message Rules screen. Click New (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Click New to create a new rule.
Under Select The Conditions For Your Rule, check the part of the e-mail you want to filter (see Figure 2). For example, to scan the body of all incoming e-mails, check Where The Message Body Contains Specific Words.
Figure 2: Select the part of your e-mail message you want to scan.
- In the Rule Description box you should see Apply This Rule After The Message Arrives and Where The Message Body Contains Specific Words. Click the Contains Specific Words link, type a word from your list, and click Add. The word is added to the filter. Click OK when you've added all the words on your list.
Under Select The Actions For Your Rule, check Move It To The Specified Folder; in the Rule Description box, click the word Specified (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Click Specified to create your spam folder.
In the Move box, create a new folder. Click the New Folder button and enter Spam or any name you'd like, and click OK twice (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Create a folder to store your spam messages.
- Click OK twice more. Now all incoming e-mail that meets the conditions you stipulated will be moved to the Spam folder for quick review and deletion.
