Section 10.4. Junk Email


10.4. Junk Email

Windows Mail now offers Junk E-Mail Options, which automatically channel what it believes to be spam into the Junk E-Mail folder in the folder list. Its factory setting is Low, meaning that only the most obvious spam gets sent to the Junk E-Mail folder. You'll probably still get a ton of spam, but at least almost no legitimate mail will get mistakenly classified as spam.

You can configure the level of security you want in the Junk E-Mail Options window, shown in Figure 10-8.

Figure 10-8. To visit this dialog box, choose Tools Junk E-Mail Options. Choose No Automatic Filtering, Low, High, or Safe List Only. You can also opt to permanently delete suspected spam instead of moving it to the Junk E-Mail folder. No matter what setting you choose, though, always go through the Junk E-Mail folder every few days to make sure you havent missed any important messages that were flagged as spam incorrectly.


10.4.1. Junk E-Mail Options

Junk E-Mail options offers five tabs. The Options tab is shown in Figure 10-8. The other tabs are:

Windows Mail doesn't always get it right, however. It labels some good messages as junk, and some spam messages as OK.

UP TO SPEED
Selecting Messages

In order to process a group of messages simultaneouslyto delete, move, or forward them, for exampleyou must first master the art of multiple message selection.

To select two or more messages that appear consecutively in your message list, click the first message, then Shift-click the last. Known as a contiguous selection , this trick selects every message between the two that you clicked.

To select two or more messages that aren't adjacent in the list (that is, skipping a few messages between selected ones), Ctrl-click the messages you want. Only the messages you click get selectedno filling in of messages in between, this time.

After using either technique, you can also deselect messages you've managed to highlightjust Ctrl-click them again.


Over time, though, it's supposed to get better if you patiently help it along. Every time you see a good piece of email in the Junk E-Mail folder, click it, and then click Not Junk on the Toolbar.

Better yet, use the Message Junk E-Mail submenu to choose one of these two options:

  • Add Sender to Safe Senders List . No future mail from this person will be misfiled.

  • Add Sender's Domain to Safe Senders List . No future mail from this person's entire company or ISP will be marked as spam.

The news isn't so good if you find a piece of spam in your Inbox; there's no This is Junk button on the toolbar, or even a similar command in the Message menu.

You can use the Message Junk E-Mail Add Sender (or Senders Domain) to Blocked Senders List, of course. But since spammers rarely use the same address or domain twice, it's probably faster just to hit the Delete key.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Canning Spam

Help! I'm awash in junk email! How do I get out of this mess?

Spam is a much-hated form of advertising that involves sending unsolicited emails to thousands of people. While there's no instant cure for spam, you can take certain steps to protect yourself from it.

  1. Use one email account for online shopping, Web site and software registration, and newsgroup posting; use a second one for person-to-person email.

    Spammers have automated software robots that scour every public Internet message and Web page, automatically locating and recording email addresses they find. These are the primary sources of spam, so at least you're now restricting the junk mail to one secondary mail account.

  2. Whenever you receive a piece of junk mail, choose Message Junk E-Mail Add Sender to Blocked Senders List. Windows Mail no longer accepts email from that sender.

  3. When posting messages in any public area of the Web, insert the letters NOSPAM, SPAMISBAD, or something similar somewhere into your email address. Anyone replying to you via email must manually remove it from your email address, which, while a hassle, keeps your email address away from the spammer's robots. (They're getting smarter every day, though; a trickier insert may be required, along the lines of REMOVETOEMAIL or SPAMMERSARESCUM.)

  4. Create message rules to filter out messages containing typical advertising words such as casino, Rolex, herbal , and so forth. (You'll find instructions in this chapter.)

  5. Buy an antispam program like SpamAssassin.





Windows Vista for Starters
Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596528264
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 175
Authors: David Pogue

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