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During a recent repair job, our customer mentioned that there would be "gobs" of e-mail to sort through after being off line. Sure enough, when the computer was up and running again there were nearly 200 messages waiting. At a glance it was apparent that a majority of the messages were spam. The customer had two main questions. Where does it all come from and what can be done about it.

This is a good place to quote a couple of statistics. According to experts there are an estimated 600,000,000 million personal computers in use worldwide. Of this number approximately a third are infected with zombie bots. These infected computers are used in Denial of Service attacks but more important to this article these machines are used to send spam. To put a different spin on the subject, if your computer happens to have a zombie bot infection, then someone is using your computer to wreak havoc on the Internet and make money with spam email without your knowledge or permission. That answers the first question. The rest of this article will address the second question.

There are programs available to use in the fight against spam. Advanced computer users might want to consider one of these products especially in the face of a major spam problem. These, however, affect computer performance and have other disadvantages, such as blocking email you actually want. For moderate to light spam problems and for beginners the spam tools that come with Outlook Express are sufficient. Another solution is a change of e-mail address.

Since the subject of this article is dealing with spam using Outlook Express tools, lets start with the Block Sender tool, which is a quick way to get the job done. Click an email in OE's inbox to highlight/select it, then click Message on the menu bar. On the resulting drop down menu click Block Sender. The email address in the from line of the highlighted message will be added to the Block Sender list. The main disadvantage to this tool becomes apparent when you switch to a new or different computer. Using this tool simply stops OE from downloading mail from this sender to your computer and leaves it in your mail box on your email service providers server. Depending on the service provider you could be left with a backlog of these messages, which will then be downloaded when using a computer that doesn't have your Block Sender list.

After clicking the Block Sender selection on the drop down menu, OE will respond with the dialog shown here. It confirms that the sender has been added to the Block Sender list and asks if you would like messages from this sender to be deleted. Clicking yes will remove the selected email message along with any other messages from this sender. The Block Sender tool only acts on messages located in the Outlook Express folder in which you are working.

If you clicked yes in the previous dialog, then Outlook will respond with this dialog. As this is a full size screen shot, you can tell it is just a confirmation of deleting the selected message. If you use this tool while receiving email, you may inadvertently select the wrong message and block a sender from which you do want email. Fortunately, this process is easily reversed.

To retrieve deleted mail, you need a view of the Outlook Express folders. If you don't have a view of these folders on the left side of your screen, you will need to click View on the menu bar. When the drop down menu appears click "Layout...".

This opens the Layout Properties dialog box. As you can see here, there is a wide range of user configurable items in Outlook Express. To enable the folder view, the "Folder List" selection needs to checked. Left clicking the checkbox next to these items will toggle them on and off. After checking the "Folder List" item, click the "Apply" button at the bottom. Any changes made on this screen will enable the "Apply" button and will take affect after this button is clicked. Clicking "OK" closes the dialog retaining your changes. "Cancel" closes the dialog and reverses any changes made.

When that step is completed, in the "Folder List" pane click on the "Deleted Items" folder to select it. This gives you a view of the deleted messages in the pane to the right of the "Folder List" view. Find and right click the message you want to keep. On the context menu left click the "Move to Folder" item.

When the "Move" dialog box opens, left click the "Inbox" folder to select it. Next click the "OK" button in the upper right corner of the Move dialog. Now your accidentally deleted message is back in your inbox and ready for reading. This procedure is handy to use anytime you have accidentally deleted a message or to recover messages deleted when using the other tools in Outlook Express. One must remember to recover messages before closing OE in case the option for clearing the deleted messages bin on closing the program has been selected.

To remove an address that was accidentally added to the Block Sender list, left click "Tools" on the menu bar. On the drop down menu, select "Message Rules", which opens a submenu. Selecting any of the options on this submenu opens the Message Rules dialog box. This is a tabbed window with each tab corresponding to an item on the submenu. Clicking the proper entry will open the window with the tab view with which you want to work. In this case, click "Blocked Senders List..." instead of the indicated "Mail".

If you happen to select the wrong item on the submenu, just click on the tab you need. In this case, you need to click the Block Sender tab. This list contains blocked senders from News Groups as well as regular email, which is the reason for the two coulombs, Mail and News. Select the address in the list you want to remove from this list then click the "Remove" button. At this point you have restored Outlook Express to the condition it was in before clicking Block Sender on the wrong message.

The "Mail Rules" tab of the Message Rules window provides access to existing rules as well as creating new rules. The rule pictured here functions much like the Block Sender List except that this rule is applied after the message arrives. This prevents a backlog of messages on the email server that get downloaded in the event that your Blocked Sender List is unavailable such as when getting a new computer or have had to reinstall Windows. Addresses can be added simply by clicking the blue underlined portion in the box labeled "Rules Description". With more than one rule you will first need to select the rule you want to modify before its description is displayed.

To set up this rule, click the "New" button on the Message Rules screen. When the "New Mail Rule" dialog opens, check "Where the from line contains people" in the "1. Select the Conditions" combo box. In the "2. Select the Actions" combo box, check "Delete It". The "Move it to the specified folder" action could be used provided that the folder you specify in box "3. Rule Definitions" is the "Deleted Items" folder. In the "4. Name of the Rule" text box you can give your new rule a name or simply accept the default name Outlook gives the rule. In the "3. Rule Description" text box click the blue underlined "contains people".

On clicking the link in the third box, another dialog box opens in which you add addresses. Either type the address in the top line or copy and paste it. This will enable the "Add" and "OK" buttons. Click the "Add" button and the address is placed in the "People" box. Also, the "Options" and "OK" buttons are enabled. The next step is to click the "OK" button.

If you chose the "Move it to the specified folder" action in the second box, you will now need to click the specify folder link in box 3. This opens a "Move" dialog similar to the one we used to restore deleted messages. Click to select the "Deleted Items" folder or any other folder you choose then click the "OK" button on this dialog , the New Mail Rule dialog, and the Messages Rules dialog to complete the procedure.

If you explore the Message Rules window, you will find a wide range of tools at your disposal. There are twelve selections in both the Conditions box and the Actions box. When creating a rule you can apply more than one Condition and more than one Action. The "Options" button in the "Select" dialog can be used to provide even more variety.

One example for the use of the "options" button involves one of our customers whose ISP's mail handling system would deliver mail to the customers mail box even when the message didn't contain the customer's address in the "To:" line. We set up a rule to eliminate this problem by selecting "Where the To line contains people" in the Conditions box and "Delete It" in the Actions box. In the "Select people" dialog that opens after clicking the "contains people" link in the Description box, we inserted the customers email address and clicked the "Add" button.

Next we clicked the "Options" button to get the dialog shown here. Clicking the radio button next to "Message does not contain the people below" provided a rule that filtered out any messages that were not specifically addressed to our customer.

For spam containing for sale ads, use the "Where the subject line contains specific words" or the "Where the message body contains specific words" or a combination of both. Click the link in the Description box and select words you see frequently in these messages. We have created rules like these for customers using words such as "Viagra" or "Rolex" but avoided using general terms like "Sale" or "Deal" as there are business customers that might receive messages with these words in the subject line or message body. For a time you may find yourself opening the Message Rules to add more words. With a good set of rules, it doesn't take long for the spam to become manageable and perhaps dwindle to nothing.

This update is a direct result of feedback from this site's visitors. In this case, it was pointed out that this article showed how to mitigate the spam problem but did not explain how to deal with large numbers of email that might have already been received. This omission was primarily due to having fallen into the trap of forgetting that not everyone knows all the basic computer skills. Hopefully, this update will extricate me from this trap.

In the opening paragraph, a customer received 200 pieces of e-mail after having been unable to go online for a few days. Sorting through that much mail one piece at a time is certainly a daunting task. You will be glad to learn that Windows has built in features for dealing with large numbers of files that can be applied to most if not all situations. There are two basic techniques, both of which use a combination of mouse clicks and keyboard keys.

This first technique will select any number of items in a list in one fell swoop. With Outlook Express open, go to you "Inbox". Place your mouse pointer on the topmost item in the list that you want to work with, in this case delete. A single left click on the message will highlight it as indicated by arrow one in the illustration. Next on your keyboard, press and hold down the "Shift" key. Now move your mouse pointer down to the bottom most item on the list that you wish to select and left click on it, after which you can release the Shift key.

You should now have something similar to this illustration except the popup menu. This technique selects all items between any two points. You can now right click on any of the selected items and left click delete on the popup menu. Alternatively, you can press and hold your left mouse button when the mouse pointer is on one of the selections then move the mouse pointer to the "Deleted Items" folder. This is referred to as "drag and drop".

In a real life scenario, there will be messages you want to keep scattered among the spam. This is where the second technique comes into play. Instead of holding down the Shift key, press and hold down the "Cntrl" key on your keyboard. Then single left click each item you want to select. This technique was used to produce this illustration. When finished selecting items you can use the "right click" or "drag and drop" methods for deletion. The indicator arrow in the illustration points to a group of items that could have been selected first with the "Shift key" method then using the "Cntrl key" method the other items can be selected.

While these techniques remove large numbers of e-mail from one's Inbox, they do not remove them from one's computer. Like the "Recycle Bin" on the Windows desktop deleted items are held until you empty the bin. This safeguard allows the recovery of accidently deleted items. The "Deleted Items" folder of Outlook Express unlike the desktop "Recycle Bin" does not have a right click menu that allows the user to empty everything in the folder at once. Do not be dismayed, automatic, permanent removal of discarded mail items is the next subject covered.

Outlook Express will take care of the task of emptying the "Deleted Items" folder for you. Make certain that you have not deleted any items accidently because this settings change does not allow item recovery after Outlook Express has been closed.

The first step is to left click on "Tools" under Outlook's title bar. On the resulting drop down menu, left click on "Options".

When the "Options" window opens, look for the "Maintenance" tab toward the top. This tab has been pointed out for you in the illustration. Once you have it located, left click this tab.

Clicking the "Maintenance" tab reveals the controls that need to be set. Under the heading "Cleaning Up Messages" is located a check box labeled "Empty messages from the "Deleted Items" folder on exit". Place a check in this box by left clicking it. Also on this screen is a "Clean Up Now" button. Click this button and all the messages in your Inbox will be deleted without going through the selection process described earlier. Use this button only if you do not intend to save any messages. After checking the "Empty on exit", be sure to left click the "Apply" button in the lower right corner then click the "OK" button to close the Options window.

A reduction in the amount of spam you receive will not occur overnight. This will happen over a period of time, as you build up your set of mail rules and add to your "blocked senders list. Taking care in giving out your e-mail address will also help because there are those who sell mailing lists to anyone. You should also know that the "opt out" line in some spam is actually a trap. Using this confirms to the spammer that he/she has a good e-mail address. Other tips can be found at http://spam.abuse.net/

Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.

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