Dealing with “SPAM” Email………

            There are numerous technology firms that agree there are somewhere between 35 and 50 billion emails sent everyday worldwide. It is estimated that roughly 70-75% of these emails are Spam. There are laws in place to stop people from sending Spam, but due to the anonymous nature of the Internet, it is almost impossible to enforce these laws.

                There are a number of tools you can use to greatly reduce the amount of Spam that you see in your Email inbox. One such tool is the built-in “Junk Email Filter” that has come in the last two generations of Microsoft Outlook. All email that it finds to be Spam goes directly into a “Junk Email” folder inside of Outlook. Microsoft develops frequent updates to this filter so that it keeps up with the latest spamming techniques, and continues to catch as much Spam email as possible. To Configure with our recommended settings follow these steps:

1.     Select the following menu options.

        a.     Actions, Junk E-mail, Junk E-mail Options

2.     On the “Options” tab

        a.     Change the setting to HIGH.

        b.     Recommend setting the following:

                1)    For OUTLOOK 2003

                        a)    Turn OFF the “Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail…”

                        b)    Turn ON the “Don’t turn on links in messages that might connect …”

                2)    For OUTLOOK 2007

                        a)    Turn OFF the “Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail…”

                        b)    Turn ON the “Disable link and other functionality in phishing messages”

                        c)     Turn ON the “Warn me about suspicious domain name in e-mail addresses”

                        d)    Turn ON the “When sending e-mail, Postmark the message…”

3.     On the “Safe Sender” tab.

        a.     Select “Also trust e-mail from my Contacts.

        b.     Select “Automatically add people I e-mail to the Safe Senders List”

To train Outlook how to identify Spam vs. non-Spam Email:

1.     Spam mail found in your inbox.

        a.     Right click on the spam, and select, Junk E-Mail, Add Sender to Blocked Senders List.

        b.     The mail will automatically be moved to the Junk E-mail folder.

2.     Valid email found in your Junk E-mail folder (False Positive).

        a.     If the email is from someone specific and is not to be considered spam:

                1)    Right click on the message and select Junk E-Mail, Add Sender to Safe Senders List.

                2)    You will have to Drag and Drop that email back into your Inbox.

                3)    Future emails from that user will not be treated as junk.

                        b.     If the email is from an employee of a company and you want ALL mail from that company to be treated as NON-Spam:

                                1)    Right click on the message and select Junk E-Mail, Add Sender’s Domain to Safe Senders List.  Any future email from that company will be treated as NON-Spam.

                2)    You will have to Drag and Drop that email back into your Inbox.

3)   Future emails from any employee of that company will not be treated as junk.

                If your company uses Microsoft Exchange server, there are also a number of third party Spam filtering applications that work in conjunction with the Exchange server. These applications are more robust and highly configurable. This creates a more efficient tool for managing Spam. These applications usually come with extra added features like email usage reports and email archiving.

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