One of the big problems with email is the amount of junk messages that are sent. The longer you're online, the worse it seems to get.

You’re probably asking yourself, “how did I get on those mailing lists?”. There are actually a lot of ways that can happen. A message is sent as plain text which means that anyone with a scanner in the right spot can intercept your message. Email addresses can be grabbed off messages that way and added to a database. Another way people get addresses are by using bot (short for robot) programs that scan websites looking for data. They can add any email addresses they find to a database.

Another way companies collect addresses is from people registering software or signing up for things on websites. Most people skip over the Terms of Service sections when doing these things, but reading through them will usually reveal that you're opening yourself up to receiving ads or getting your email address sold. That is how they make their money to provide you with a free service.

So how do you go about getting yourself off those lists? You can unsubscribe yourself from the services, but many times it's too late by then because your name has already been passed around. It should at least cut down on the amount of junk received though. Another option is to block unwanted messages.

There are many options in how you can block messages. You can block things from a certain person, or messages with certain words in the subject, or certain words in the body, etc. These examples show how to set up some common message blocking options.

Outlook Express 6 (should also work with 5)

Blocking People

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Open the email from the person you want to block, or just click on it
3. Click Message on the top menu
4. Click Block Sender...
5. A box will open asking if you want to delete all of the messages from that person. Click Yes to remove every message with that email address. click No to leave the messages but block any further messages from person.

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Go to Message Rules and click Blocked Senders List...
4. Click Add
5. Enter in the email address of the person you want to block. You can also block all messages from a certain domain. For example, if you wanted to block all email coming from yahoo.com, you would enter in yahoo.com instead of a specific email address.
6. Click OK
7. Click OK

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Go to Message Rules and click Blocked Senders List...
4. To remove an address, click on the one you want to remove.
5. Click Remove
6. Click OK

Advanced Message Blocking

The choices in the mail rules let you get very creative on what you want blocked and what you want to do with the message. The examples listed should give you a good background to create your own custom rules.

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Go to Message Rules and click Mail...
4. If you haven't created any rules yet, it will automically take you to the next step. If you have already created a rule, click New... to add in another one.
5. In box 1. Select the Conditions for your rule:, choose Where the Subject line contains specific words
6. In box 2. Select the Actions for your rule:, choose Delete it (Another option is to also select Mark it as read so it doesn't look like you have an unread message in your deleted items folder).
7. In box 3. Rule Description:, click on contains specific words
8. Type in the word or phrase you want blocked and click Add. Keep adding as many words or phrases as you want.
9. Click OK
10. In box 4. Name of the rule:, type in a name to identify the rule, such as Delete message by subject (you can choose anything you want)
11. Click OK
12. Click OK

If you need to make a folder to hold the junk messages, follow these steps. Skip to the next section if you already have a folder to move the messages to.


1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click File on the top menu
3. Go to New and click Folder...
4. Enter in a name for your folder. This example will use Junk for the name. Click on Local Folders to have the folder created there.
5. Click OK


1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Go to Message Rules and click Mail...
4. If you haven't created any rules yet, it will automically take you to the next step. If you have already created a rule, click New... to add in another one.
5. In box 1. Select the Conditions for your rule:, choose Where the message body contains specific words
6. In box 2. Select the Actions for your rule:, choose Move it to the specified folder
7. In box 3. Rule Description:, click on contains specific words
8. Type in the word or phrase you want blocked and click Add. Keep adding as many words or phrases as you want.
9. Click OK
10. In box 3. Rule Description:, click on specified
11. Select the folder Junk and click OK
12. In box 4. Name of the rule:, type in a name to identify the rule, such as Move message by body (you can choose anything you want)
13. Click OK
14. Click OK

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Go to Message Rules and click Mail...
4. Select the rule you'd like to change and click Modify
5. Make any necessary changes, such as adding more words to your blocked list or completely changing what the rule does
6. Click OK
7. Click OK

Outlook 2000

Delete Junk or Adult Messages

1. Open Outlook 2000
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Click Rules Wizard...
4. Click New...
5. Select Check messages when they arrive and click Next
6. If you’re setting a rule to block junk emails, check the box that says suspected to be from junk e-mail or from Junk Senders. If you’re setting up a rule to block adult emails, check the box that says containing adult content or from Adult Content Senders. Click Next.
7. Check the box by what you want to do with the message, probably either delete it or permanently delete it. Click Next.
8. Click Next on the window where it asks if you want to add any exceptions
9. Type in a name for the rule. If you’re adding a junk email filter, call it Junk Email. If you’re adding an adult email filter, call it Adult Email (you can choose any names you wish). Click Finish.
10. Click OK

Delete a Message with Specific Words in the Subject or Body:

1. Open Outlook 2000
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Click Rules Wizard...
4. Click New...
5. Select Check messages when they arrive and click Next
6. Check the box that says with specific words in the subject or body
7. Click on specific words in the rule description box
8. Type a word or phrase you want to block in the Add new: box and click Add. Keeping adding words you want to block, and click OK when done.
9. Click Next
10. Check the box by what you want to do with the message, probably either delete it or permanently delete it. Click Next.
11. Click Next on the window where it asks if you want to add any exceptions
12. Type in a name for the rule, such as Block messages by keyword (you can choose any names you wish). Click Finish.
13. Click OK

Outlook 97

Delete Messages by Keywords

1. Open Outlook 97
2. Click Tools on the top menu
3. Click Inbox Assistant...
4. Click Add Rule...
5. In the Message box, enter in the list of words you want blocked. Separate each word by a ; and don't use any spaces. For example, if you want to block the words table, desk, or chair you'd enter it as table;desk;chair
6. The bottom part of the window has the actions to do when a message arrives containing one of those words. You will probably either want to move or delete the message. Click the box by Delete to have it sent directly to your Deleted Items folder, otherwise click Move and select a different folder you'd like the message moved to.
7. Click OK