I'm looking into software that I can run on my machine which will basically only allow messages from my contacts to me. To all others, it sends back a message saying they have to resend the message to be added to my address book. Therefore if it's spam, they won't reply.
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I'd like to setup a rule in MS Outlook or maybe I need a software ?
- Thread starter Alboss
- Start date
Rules won't do it; how would the rule know that they're RE-sending an add request, instead of an initial e-mail or spam?
I've read of some commercial services that do this sort of challenge spam filtering; hopefully someone will post with options. Personally I think it's a terrible idea, and quite honestly I wouldn't go through the effort to "register" to send e-mail to ANYONE.
I've read of some commercial services that do this sort of challenge spam filtering; hopefully someone will post with options. Personally I think it's a terrible idea, and quite honestly I wouldn't go through the effort to "register" to send e-mail to ANYONE.
compgirlfhredi
Technical User
You could try this to atleast identify your contacts easier:
Outlook offers several features to help users locate specific items more easily. For example, you can group a view according to a specific field to organize all items by that selected field.
Automatic formatting is another useful tool for helping users organize items in their Outlook folders. While many users turn to automatic formatting to help flag and identify messages, automatic formatting can also be useful for quickly identifying contacts.
For example, you might shade all contacts for a particular company using a certain color to be able to tell at a glance that a contact works for that company.
To use automatic formatting with contacts, follow these steps:
1. Open the Contacts folder, and go to View | Current View | Customize Current View.
2. In the View Summary dialog box, click Automatic Formatting.
3. In the Automatic Formatting dialog box, click Add, enter a name for the formatting rule in the Name field, and click Condition.
4. Use the Filter dialog box to specify a condition, such as a specific company name in the Company field.
5. After specifying the condition, click OK, and click Font.
6. Choose the color and font characteristics you want Outlook to apply to contacts that match the specified condition.
7. Click OK to exit all dialog boxes.
Outlook offers several features to help users locate specific items more easily. For example, you can group a view according to a specific field to organize all items by that selected field.
Automatic formatting is another useful tool for helping users organize items in their Outlook folders. While many users turn to automatic formatting to help flag and identify messages, automatic formatting can also be useful for quickly identifying contacts.
For example, you might shade all contacts for a particular company using a certain color to be able to tell at a glance that a contact works for that company.
To use automatic formatting with contacts, follow these steps:
1. Open the Contacts folder, and go to View | Current View | Customize Current View.
2. In the View Summary dialog box, click Automatic Formatting.
3. In the Automatic Formatting dialog box, click Add, enter a name for the formatting rule in the Name field, and click Condition.
4. Use the Filter dialog box to specify a condition, such as a specific company name in the Company field.
5. After specifying the condition, click OK, and click Font.
6. Choose the color and font characteristics you want Outlook to apply to contacts that match the specified condition.
7. Click OK to exit all dialog boxes.
I'm not sure that jpm121 is wholly correct. You could try this approach (which is for OE6 - Outlook 2000 etc would make the rules much more tidy - for instance you could specify "is not in my address book"
Rule 1:-
Where the "From" line contains people
(insert your entire address book!)
Stop processing more rules.
Rule 2:-
Where the Subject line contains specific words
(eg: "Please add to your address book"
Move it to the specified folder
(eg: Addresses to add)
Stop processing more rules.
Rule 3:-
For all messages
Reply with message
(A text file which informs people that, if they wish their message to be received, they will first need to register their address with you as a legitimate contact, and that the phrase in the Subject line must be: "Please add to your address book"
Stop processing more rules.
Rule 4:-
For all messages
Delete it from server
This would work, but it has some big downsides...
(a) you have to keep adding legitimate addresses to your first rule (this is the rule that filters IN all legitimate addresses).
(b) you will end up always replying to spam (sending them the "please register" message, ie. rule 3)... and this only encourages spammers because they will then know that your email address is a valid one.
Please note that the second rule simply checks to filter in those emails which are a request to be legitimised. I thin the fourth rule is actually redundant.
Personally, I wouldn't like to have it set up like this except on a broadband connection or if the number of emails involved was small. However, if the number was small, you could simply manually add people to the "accept" list without having to go through the rest of this rigamarole! (So I suspect you get a fair few emails).
Hope you get somewhere!
Rule 1:-
Where the "From" line contains people
(insert your entire address book!)
Stop processing more rules.
Rule 2:-
Where the Subject line contains specific words
(eg: "Please add to your address book"
Move it to the specified folder
(eg: Addresses to add)
Stop processing more rules.
Rule 3:-
For all messages
Reply with message
(A text file which informs people that, if they wish their message to be received, they will first need to register their address with you as a legitimate contact, and that the phrase in the Subject line must be: "Please add to your address book"
Stop processing more rules.
Rule 4:-
For all messages
Delete it from server
This would work, but it has some big downsides...
(a) you have to keep adding legitimate addresses to your first rule (this is the rule that filters IN all legitimate addresses).
(b) you will end up always replying to spam (sending them the "please register" message, ie. rule 3)... and this only encourages spammers because they will then know that your email address is a valid one.
Please note that the second rule simply checks to filter in those emails which are a request to be legitimised. I thin the fourth rule is actually redundant.
Personally, I wouldn't like to have it set up like this except on a broadband connection or if the number of emails involved was small. However, if the number was small, you could simply manually add people to the "accept" list without having to go through the rest of this rigamarole! (So I suspect you get a fair few emails).
Hope you get somewhere!
What you are looking for is a challenge\response service such as Mailblocks. Some ISPs offer this as an optional service as part of their membership such as Earthlink.
It isn't a software that you can install on your machine and run it on your client stand alone. It is typically a service that someone offers for a fee one way or the other.
joegz
"Sometimes you just need to find out what it's not first to figure out what it is."
It isn't a software that you can install on your machine and run it on your client stand alone. It is typically a service that someone offers for a fee one way or the other.
joegz
"Sometimes you just need to find out what it's not first to figure out what it is."
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