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E-Mail Filtering Overview
Spam — it's not just for breakfast anymore, but you can still take a bite out of it. Call it
spam, junk mail, or unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) — most e-mail programs now provide
filtering for it. This document will help you understand the limitations of filtering and provide
resources for applying filters in the most popular programs.
This document is also available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.
Table of Contents
Limitations
Will applying filters stop all your spam? No. At best, you can expect between a 30 to 50% reduction,
but that's only if you constantly update your filters.
Like postal junk mail and telemarketing, the vast majority of spam is created to help you part with
your money. Spam is extremely cheap to send and can reach millions in a matter of seconds, so
there's a huge economic potential. Those who create spam spend much of their time figuring out how
to beat both your filters and those in commercial anti-spam products. Be prepared to continuously
invest time and effort to achieve any level of success.
NOTE: The most effective way of dealing with spam
is to simply delete it, especially without opening
it. More information on spam and how to reduce it is available on the
IT User Advocate website.
Strategies
- Before purchasing a commercial anti-spam product, try your e-mail program's built-in filtering
capabilities.
- Filters may catch messages you do want. Rather than automatically deleting filtered messages,
set your filters to transfer suspected messages to a special mail folder you have created.
Periodically review that folder and transfer any messages you do want back to your Inbox.
Delete the remaining messages.
- We highly recommend that you do not use free e-mail services (such as Hotmail and Yahoo) for
your primary mailbox. They can significantly increase your chances of receiving even more junk
mail. Nothing is really free.
Filtering for ITCS-Supported E-mail Programs
ITCS supports four e-mail programs that provide the security you expect and need. Information on
creating filters in some of these programs is provided in other documents:
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mail.umich.edu |
Using mail.umich.edu for
E-Mail on the Web (S4297) has a section on filtering. |
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Eudora
Windows |
From the Special menu, select Filters. More information is
available under the Help menu; select Topics and search on "filter." |
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Eudora
Macintosh |
From the Special menu, select Make Filter. More information is
available under the Help menu; select Filtering Messages. |
Filtering for Other E-Mail Programs
We realize that some people prefer to use different e-mail programs — particularly those that come
packaged with commercial software — even though they don't provide the security many believe is
very important.
Information for activating filters in the more popular unsupported programs follows.
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Netscape 4 |
From the Edit menu, select Message Filters. Information is available
under the Help menu; select Help, click the Index tab and scroll to
email filters. |
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Netcape 6 |
From the Edit menu, select Message Filters. Information is available
under the Help menu; select Help & Support Center, click the Index tab,
scroll to Mail & Newsgroups and select creating filters. |
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Netcape 7 |
From the Tools menu, select Message Filters. Information is
available under the Help menu; select Help & Support Center, click the
Search tab and search on "filter." |
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Outlook |
From the Tools menu, select Rules Wizard. More information is
available under Outlook's Help menu; select Microsoft Outlook Help and search
on "filter." |
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Outlook Express
Windows |
Refer to the Outlook entry above. |
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Outlook Express
Macintosh |
From the Tools menu, select Junk Mail Filter. More information is
available under Outlook Express's Help menu; select Outlook Express Help. In
the left-side listing, select Organizing Messages, then select Identifying Junk Mail. |
Additional Resources
Visit ITCS's
Information System to obtain ITCS computer documentation
and other resources. A list of relevant documents follows:
We welcome your comments; please send e-mail.
ITCS's Online Help Desk provides a variety of
computing help resources.
For further help with e-mail issues, send e-mail
or phone (734) 764-HELP.
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