# blocking mass email

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blocking-mass-email/108279>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 10, 2002, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blocking-mass-email/108279 "2002-05-10T14:18:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![domesticatedjunglefowl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@domesticatedjunglefowl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/domesticatedjunglefowl)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blocking-mass-email/108279/1 "2002-05-10T14:18:33Z")

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i have a friend that feels that she must forward every ‘funny’ picture or joke to everyone in her address book, including me.  
i still wish to keep in touch, so i can’t block her address…  
is there a way to block anything forwarded to more than 5 people  
from an address and let through just personal correspondence?

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**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blocking-mass-email/108279/2 "2002-05-10T15:15:55Z")

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What software do you use for email? Does your friend always have the same people listed when she sends these unwanted emails? In Outlook 2000 you can set up a filter which would detect emails with specific names in the “To:” or “cc:” fields. If there is a consistent pattern you can detect in all of these emails you may be able to screen them out this way. You can specify more than one condition in these filters if necessary.

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**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blocking-mass-email/108279/3 "2002-05-10T17:00:15Z")

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My sister is like that. I simply told her not to email me that shit anymore. You may want to try a similar approach, but maybe be a tad more diplomatic about it. 😉

I believe that if someone is doing something that pisses you off you should let them know about it.