Email Rule Question

14 Oct 2006 5:49 PM

Ralph Page

I use Outlook 2002 SP with XP.
I recently began to get lots of spam to (random letters)@ralph page
dot com.
All of my legit email correspondence is sent to either ralph@... or
RP@... so I would like to initiate a rule that only allows email to
those two addresses to be kept.

Is there a technique for this type of rule?

Thanks

--
-Ralph Page
remove pants to reply by email

14 Oct 2006 5:56 PM

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

In news:%q9Yg.10295$TV3.961@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com,

Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:

> I use Outlook 2002 SP with XP.
> I recently began to get lots of spam to (random letters)@ralph page
> dot com.
> All of my legit email correspondence is sent to either ralph@... or
> RP@... so I would like to initiate a rule that only allows email to
> those two addresses to be kept.
>
> Is there a technique for this type of rule?
>
> Thanks

Do you have a "wildcard" mail account set up with your mail host? If so,
change it to have only the addresses / aliases you wish.

If the above isn't the case, the most likely cause of this is that the
spammer bcc'd you. You can't stop BCC (nor should you wish to), but you
might look into antispam software beyond Outlook's somewhat rudimentary
capabilities. It's nicer if this stuff is stopped by software running on
your mail server, but you may not have control over that.

15 Oct 2006 8:01 AM

Ralph Page

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwe***@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in
Show quote

message news:eabgsr77GHA.4632@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> In news:%q9Yg.10295$TV3.961@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com,
> Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
>> I use Outlook 2002 SP with XP.
>> I recently began to get lots of spam to (random letters)@ralph page
>> dot com.
>> All of my legit email correspondence is sent to either ralph@... or
>> RP@... so I would like to initiate a rule that only allows email to
>> those two addresses to be kept.
>>
>> Is there a technique for this type of rule?
>>
>> Thanks
>
> Do you have a "wildcard" mail account set up with your mail host? If
> so, change it to have only the addresses / aliases you wish.

Unfortunately, no. Anything to my domain gets through.
They have Spam Assasin which does a pretty good job on everything but
this recent rash of legit looking bounce messages (from Postmaster or
MAILER-DAEMON.)

I use Outlook for some of them based on looking for Postmaster but
many of them append their domain, typically MAILER-DAEMON@... for
example, and I found that Outlook appears to only find the whole
words.

I am looking into switching web hosts.

> If the above isn't the case, the most likely cause of this is that
> the spammer bcc'd you. You can't stop BCC (nor should you wish to),
> but you might look into antispam software beyond Outlook's somewhat
> rudimentary capabilities. It's nicer if this stuff is stopped by
> software running on your mail server, but you may not have control
> over that.

Thanks for the help, I will look for some more sophisticated anti-sapm
software or just switch to a web host that offers more complete mail
support.

--
-Ralph Page
remove pants to reply by email

15 Oct 2006 2:59 PM

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

In news:DVlYg.17697$7I1.15897@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net,

Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
Show quote

> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
> <lanwe***@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in
> message news:eabgsr77GHA.4632@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> In news:%q9Yg.10295$TV3.961@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com,
>> Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
>>> I use Outlook 2002 SP with XP.
>>> I recently began to get lots of spam to (random letters)@ralph page
>>> dot com.
>>> All of my legit email correspondence is sent to either ralph@... or
>>> RP@... so I would like to initiate a rule that only allows email to
>>> those two addresses to be kept.
>>>
>>> Is there a technique for this type of rule?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>
>> Do you have a "wildcard" mail account set up with your mail host? If
>> so, change it to have only the addresses / aliases you wish.
>
> Unfortunately, no. Anything to my domain gets through.

You're going to have a hard time with this, then. I really don't recommend
it. Why can't you have the host set up email addresses/aliases/forwards for
all the accounts you need to use?

> They have Spam Assasin which does a pretty good job on everything but
> this recent rash of legit looking bounce messages (from Postmaster or
> MAILER-DAEMON.)

They are legit bounces. To spam, which you didn't send. But that's not the
recipient's mail server's fault - although I do think in this day and age
it's probably a good idea for everyone to disable NDRs in the first place as
they've been used so much for evil.

Show quote

>
> I use Outlook for some of them based on looking for Postmaster but
> many of them append their domain, typically MAILER-DAEMON@... f
> example, and I found that Outlook appears to only find the whole
> words.
>
> I am looking into switching web hosts.
>
>> If the above isn't the case, the most likely cause of this is that
>> the spammer bcc'd you. You can't stop BCC (nor should you wish to),
>> but you might look into antispam software beyond Outlook's somewhat
>> rudimentary capabilities. It's nicer if this stuff is stopped by
>> software running on your mail server, but you may not have control
>> over that.
>
> Thanks for the help, I will look for some more sophisticated anti-sapm
> software or just switch to a web host that offers more complete mail
> support.

Postini, or something, might help. But your wildcard is always going to be a
problem. Anyone can spoof the sender - and in your case, the sender could be
*anythi***@yourdomain.com and *you* will get the NDR.

16 Oct 2006 4:20 AM

Ralph Page

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwe***@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in

message news:uIn7srG8GHA.3264@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> In news:DVlYg.17697$7I1.15897@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net,
> Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
>> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
>> <lanwe***@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote
>> in
>> message news:eabgsr77GHA.4632@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> In news:%q9Yg.10295$TV3.961@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com,
>>> Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
>>>> I use Outlook 2002 SP with XP.

<snip>

>> Unfortunately, no. Anything to my domain gets through.
>
> You're going to have a hard time with this, then. I really don't
> recommend it. Why can't you have the host set up email
> addresses/aliases/forwards for all the accounts you need to use?

Well, it turns out the only reason was my own ignorance of the
process. I figured out how to do it today and I am all set with an
easy way to separate the email once I download it into Outlook.

Thanks again for the help, I am sorry I wasted your time.

--
-Ralph Page
remove pants to reply by email

16 Oct 2006 12:27 PM

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

In news:qMDYg.254$T_1.229@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com,

Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
Show quote

> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
> <lanwe***@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in
> message news:uIn7srG8GHA.3264@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> In news:DVlYg.17697$7I1.15897@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net,
>> Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
>>> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
>>> <lanwe***@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote
>>> in
>>> message news:eabgsr77GHA.4632@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>> In news:%q9Yg.10295$TV3.961@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com,
>>>> Ralph Page <ra***@PANTSralphpage.net> typed:
>>>>> I use Outlook 2002 SP with XP.
> <snip>
>
>>> Unfortunately, no. Anything to my domain gets through.
>>
>> You're going to have a hard time with this, then. I really don't
>> recommend it. Why can't you have the host set up email
>> addresses/aliases/forwards for all the accounts you need to use?
>
> Well, it turns out the only reason was my own ignorance of the
> process. I figured out how to do it today and I am all set with an
> easy way to separate the email once I download it into Outlook.
>
> Thanks again for the help, I am sorry I wasted your time.

No, no waste of time here at all. Glad you've got it working.