Setting Junk E-Mail Options

You set Outlook’s filtering and handling of junk e-mail in the Junk E-Mail Options dialog box, as follows:

1.	Choose Tools Options from the main Outlook window to display the Options dialog box.
2.	On the Preferences tab, click the Junk E-Mail button. Outlook displays the Junk E-Mail dialog box.
3.	If necessary, click the Options tab (shown in Figure 28-1). Figure 28-1. Setting options for junk e-mail filtering.
4.	Choose option settings as described in the following list.
5.	Click OK.

The first option in this dialog box determines the level of filtering based on message content. You have four levels to choose from:

• No Automatic Filtering: Messages are not filtered based on their content.

• Low: Only obvious spam is treated as such. Some spam will get through to your Inbox.

• High: More stringent spam rules are applied when message content is scanned. Some legitimate messages may be treated as spam.

• Safe Lists Only: Only messages from senders on your safe lists (explained later in this chapter) are allowed through; all other messages are treated as spam regardless of their content.

The other options in this dialog box are as follows:

• Permanently Delete: Messages that Outlook considers to be spam are deleted rather than moved to the Junk E-Mail folder. You may not want to use this option unless you are sure that legitimate messages are not mistakenly being tagged as spam.

• Disable Links: Phishing messages (see the “Phishing” sidebar) usually contain links to Web pages where you are asked for confidential information such as passwords. If this option is selected, Outlook disables these links.

• Warn Me About: A spoofed domain name is one that is not what it appears to be. For example, a link might display www.microsoft.com but actually be a link to another domain. If this option is selected, Outlook warns you about possible spoofed domain names in a message.

• When Sending E-mail, Postmark: If this option is selected, all messages you send are postmarked as an anti-spam measure. See the following section for more information on postmarking.

Understanding postmarking

Postmarking is a new technique that is designed to help in the fight against spam. Postmarking a message adds to the time required to process and send it. For normal users who send dozens or even hundreds of e-mails a day, the extra time required is insignificant. For spammers who rely on being able to send millions of e-mails, however, the extra time results in an increase in costs. Therefore, a postmarked message is less likely to be spam than one that is not postmarked. Postmarks are just one of many factors that an e-mail client can take into account when filtering spam.

Phishing Phishing is a particularly dangerous kind of junk e-mail. A phishing message pretends to be from a company you do business with, for example, PayPal or eBay. The message asks you to take some seemingly legitimate action, such as resetting your password. When you follow the link to a Web site, the site looks just like the real thing, but it is not—it’s a fake Web site set up by the phisher. The result is that some unscrupulous person now has your password, and you can imagine the possible consequences.

Spam and Viruses Is spam related to viruses? Not directly, although viruses often arrive as part of a spam message (but can come with a legitimate message, too). Virus protection in Outlook is covered in Chapter 27.