Block Spam in Outlook Express 

Built in Spam Control features.

When Spammers sends spam they like to know whether it has reached a valid email address. They can use a variety of tools to verify emails but they are not 100% accurate. Therefore they have resulted to a few tricks to overcome this.

They all rely on embedding HTML code or graphics in the email to give an automatic read receipt without you knowing. There are three features available for preventing this they are

• Disable automatic Read receipts.-- All versions?
• Read all messages in plain text.  -- Internet explorer SP1 and above
• Block images and other external content in email-- XP SP2 and above

Attachments and Spam

Attachments are used to send viruses and these are often sent by spam email.  Unsafe attachments are blocked in Outlook express in SP1  by default. You can also Configure Outlook Express Message rules to Block attachments.

Spam Filtering  in Outlook Express

Outlook express uses message rules for automatically sorting of messages. These rules can also be used to block spam. In general there are three filtering mechanisms that can be used. They are:

• Word filtering
• Blacklist filtering
• White list filtering

Word Filters

  This is the most common mechanism used to block spam in Outlook Express and email in general. In its simplest form, a spam or junk mail filter is a mechanism for classifying a message as either spam or not spam.

Most Spam filters use a set of rules or keywords to determine if a message is spam or not. Example: If an email message contains one of the words that your spam filter is looking for, that message is marked as spam.
 
 Other spam filters examine each message looking for "spam-markers" such as common spam subjects, known spammer addresses, known mail forwarding machines, or simply common spam phrases. If any of these conditions are met, the message is classified as spam (junk mail).

See Using a Word Filter in Outlook Express to Block Messages based on Content

White Lists and Black Lists

Black Lists

A black list is a list of addresses that you don't want to hear from. Adding an email address to your black list means any messages received from that email address will either be deleted or quarantined depending on the system.

black lists can be used to block messages, such as:

• Spam/junk mail or unsolicited email.
• People you wish not to communicate with

Black lists for Outlook Express

 Black lists are implemented in outlook express by using the block senders list. It is possible to block entire domains and even individual users. However, if you want to block individual users it is recommended that you use the message filtering in Outlook express as it gives you more control.

See How to Configure the block senders list in Outlook Express

White lists

A white list is a list of addresses that you want to receive email from (your contacts). Adding an email address to your white list means that any messages received from that email address will not be blocked by the Spam filters and will be delivered directly to your inbox!

White lists can be used to stop the Spam filtering of messages only from specific email addresses. Using white lists helps reduce the number of false positives as it takes you most important contacts out of the spam blocking loop. To create a white list for outlook express see the following article:

Configuring White lists To block spam in outlook express

False Positives-The flip side of fighting Spam

 A False Positive is a legitimate e-mail that is incorrectly blocked by a spam filter because it identifies it as spam. While accidentally deleting email from a friend may be inconvenient, the loss of an email from a customer, client or prospect could be costly.

How does it happen?

When setting up and configuring anti spam measures and software be aware of the necessity of not blocking legitimate email. There is no point in choosing an anti spam solution that is 100% effective against spam but also blocks 70% of the legitimate email. In "real world" testing, a false-positive rate of 2% or 3% is usually considered to be exceptionally good.

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