# Best MS Outlook anti-spam rules **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179 "2003-06-02T18:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179/1 "2003-06-02T18:28:23Z")
What rules do you find work very well (\> 75%) in keeping spam out of your inbox? For a while I was doing all right with banning a handfull of characters that show up in Korean e-mails, anything that included my e-mail address in the subject line, or the word “penis.” But now I’m 1.o.o.z.1.n.g. th3 warr on S.p.A.m. There doesn’t seem to be a way to look for letters mixed in with numbers (nobody ever sends me e-mail about U2), an excessive number of periods (yeah, I know - I’d want to be careful with that), or a lot of mis-spelled words. Have they got me this time? Anybody got rules to send this newer, smarter crap directly to the toilet? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179/2 "2003-06-02T19:08:41Z")
I’ve often found that the characters $, %, and especially ! are almost foolproof indicators of spam. Checking legit e-mail, I don’t see anyone using periods, so that might work. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179/3 "2003-06-02T19:18:05Z")
Look at From addresses. I catch a lot by filtering out “deal,” “special,” “offer” and so on in the “from” line. (I don’t know if you can filter from lines with Outlook. I use pine.) Occassionally this does filter a legit offer from [Target.com](http://Target.com) or something, but it’s nto a big loss. While those specific keywords might not work for you, you might find some that do. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179/4 "2003-06-03T17:59:41Z")
Is this an Outlook-specific request, or can Eudora users play too? ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179/5 "2003-06-03T18:00:58Z")
Eudora users can play and learn from this too, but for my purposes I really need to know about Outlook only. Which seems to restrict rules to subject lines, as far as I can figure out. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ms-outlook-anti-spam-rules/179179/6 "2003-06-03T18:50:19Z")
[Here](http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter/Upload_Download/EudoraFilters.xls) are my rules, converted to Excel format. I’ve color-coded the sections for easier browsing. (~500K Excel file. That’s a sufficiently large file that I may take it down soon due to space limitations on my free web space) These filters stop all but about 0.05% of the spam I get, which still means I get a piece or two daily, and the filters work that well only because I save the ones that get past in a “FilterFodder” mailbox and when I get around to it (1-2 times per week) I add additional filters to handle them.