Blocking Spam

[G7SWZ]

I have a problem with one of my email addresses which has recently started to receive a large number of spam messages.

The subject heading is alway a variation of PHxxARxxMA where xx are random letters of the aplhabet.

The messages always come from different email addresses which I suspect are randomly generated by the sender.

Whilst I can block any subject heading using the internal rules in Outlook 2003 I cannot block them where the subject name changes on every occasion as there is no wild card facility.

Similarly MailWasher will not block them.

Does anyone know of a spam blocking programme that will allow blocking using the subject name and which has a wild card facility?

Many thanks

G7swz

[Dop]

Well, unless you have a particular reason why you must use Outlook, I'd suggest switching to Mozilla Thunderbird instead. You can train it to recognise spam at which point it will move anything it thinks is spam to a junk folder. It's much more sophisticated than just checking the subject header.

[Phoenix09]

I get lots and lots of exactly the same e-mails. I use Mozilla Thunderbird and it very effectively, and as far as I can remember, with 100% efficiency recognises them as spam. I have got the junk filter set up so that it delivers them straight into my deleted folder from which they are deleted after 24 hours.

I really would recommend Mozilla Thunderbird.

[Keef]

Echo the Thunderbird recommendation. Outlook has its points, but unless you need the other features (like diary, address book and the like) to be linked to your e-mail, then it's past its sell-by date.

If you want a more robust filter, spend $30 a year and get a Spamcop account (www.spamcop.net). I've had mine for many years; it traps about 200 spams a day sent to my "live" addresses. There are a very few false positives (if you have a friend/correspondent who uses one of the more spam-friendly ISPs) and the occasional spam that sneaks through - but 99.x% are accurate.

[Duckbutt]

I'm often bombarded with Spam from this as well.

I have set up an Outlook (2000) rule where anything with PH in the subject line gets sent to the deleted folder, which seems to work.

Of course its difficult to have the will power not to check just whats been sent directly there when you know you've downloaded a message and it has not appeared in any of the usual folders!

[G7SWZ]

Thanks for the responses - unfortunately the option of not using Outlook is not available to me - I will now try the route suggested by Jacks Grandad.

Many thanks

G7swz