Outlook Junk and Adult Mail Filters to Control Spam

Taken from the Microsoft Office Assistance Center

Outlook can search for commonly used phrases in e-mail messages and automatically move messages containing these phrases from your Inbox to either a junk e-mail folder created by Outlook, to your Deleted Items folder, or to any other folder you specify. You can find the list of terms that Outlook uses to filter suspected junk e-mail messages in a file called Filters.txt, located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\LocaleID folder, where LocaleID is the locale identifier (LCID) for your installation of Microsoft Office. For example, the LCID for English - United States is 1033. For a list of LCIDs, see Microsoft Office Help.

You can also filter messages with a list of senders of junk and adult content e-mail. As you receive unwanted e-mail messages, you can create a list of the e-mail addresses of these senders.

When you first begin using these features or when you make modifications to them, you should review messages that are automatically removed from the Inbox to make sure that any wanted messages are not accidentally removed.

To automatically move junk mail from your Inbox

1. On the standard toolbar, click Organize.
2. Click Junk E-Mail.
3. In the bulleted items for Junk and for Adult Content messages, in each of the first lists, click move. When you click move, the second list on each line will change from a list of colors to a list of folder destinations.
4. You can leave the default destination (Junk E-Mail), click Deleted Items, or click Other folder and choose or create one.
5. Click Turn On to enable the feature.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for both the Junk and Adult Content lines.

In addition to using the built-in Outlook filters, you can create custom rules to filter out specific types of unwanted messages. Custom rules include additional words or phases that are not included in the Filters.txt file. Just as with the built-in feature, you can specify that the rules you create move messages from your Inbox to the junk e-mail folder, to your Deleted Items folder, or to any other folder you specify.

To create custom rules:

• On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

To add e-mail senders to the junk e-mail list

1. Click Inbox.
2. Select a message, and then right-click it.
3. Point to Junk E-Mail, and then click Add to Junk Senders list or Add to Adult Content Senders list.

To review or delete e-mail senders on your junk e-mail list

1. On the standard toolbar, click Organize.
2. Click Junk E-Mail.
3. Click the underlined phrase click here.
4. In the second bulleted item, click Edit Junk Senders or Edit Adult Content Senders.

You can review, add, edit, or delete entries from the list.

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