Excessive Junk Mail

[MattV151]

Ive been getting a LOT of junkmail lately. Now the mail filter does pretty good about getting it in the junkmail folder then I delete it. I don't want to have the program delete the mail automatically because somehow it does put good mail in their too.

Anyway, now the question. I want to create a rule that will delete mail that contains certain words or phrases unless they are from someone I know ( in my address book) So is their a way to do this? Kind of a do this is this condition is met but dont do it if it has this.

 

[WildCowboy]

Are you using Apple's Mail program? It comes with a "Rules" preference pane that allows you to set up all sorts of custom filters for just this sort of thing. You can definitely set up rules that will move mail containing certain words or phrases and not from a sender in your Address Book to the Junk folder.

Note that you can simply move junk mail to the Junk folder instead of deleting it immediately, so you can check the folder periodically to see if legitimate messages are getting incorrectly flagged.

And I'm not sure how well filters based on words in the messages will work...spammers are constantly modifying the way they spell words in order to defeat just these sorts of filters. It's a never-ending battle to keep up with them.

 

[MattV151]

I get alot of junk mail to the point it has been a pain to delete it later. Ive been working with the rules. I have it set up to delete emails that contain certain words but I want to make sure if someone sends me an email with these words that it doesnt get deleted. So far all the tests Ive done have been deleted whether the person is in my address book or not. Is there a way to write one rule but then other that will override that rule?

 

[WildCowboy]

It goes through the rules in the order specified in preferences, so have the "If sender is in my Address Book" rule listed first, and include "Stop evaluating rules" as one of the actions for it.

 

[MattV151]

Thanks I just now figured that out. So now I can put an end to all this stupid junk mail. I literally delete about 50 or more a day. It was getting old. Thanks again

One last question. If I put the stop evaluating rules on the last rule before the delete rule it will stop if any of the criteria is met and only goto the delete rule if it doesnt fit into any of those others. Is that right?