SPAM FILTERING WITH EUDORA EMAIL

Eudora Email has a powerful filtering capability, and with some customizing, this filtering can be used to effectively sort out most of your spam email and identify possible virus file attachments. The filters are found under Eudora’s <Tools> menu.

STRATEGY FOR EUDORA SPAM FILTERS:

Step One: Identify Dangerous Attached Files
Email with attached files can contain dangerous viruses. Often these emails and attached files claim to come from people we know. One filter, placed first in the Eudora filters list, will clearly identify these potentially dangerous attached files. These emails are sent to the In-box clearly marked with a RED label and need special handling.

Step Two: Filter IN Email From People You Know
Make a "whitelist" filter to catch ALL incoming email from your friends and family, business correspondents, and any other addresses that you wish to always accept email from. Whitelist filters transfer email to the inbox with no further filtering. In Eudora v5.2 and later this filter can simply be set to "intersects address book" without having to create a special all-inclusive passlist nickname.
Also, make a filter to catch and keep email from any "friendly" domains that you want to receive all email from - your employer, places you shop online, your internet service provider (unless spammers are forging headers from them), etc.
Make any other special filters you might require to catch and keep specific emails such as newsletters, or lists you may subscribe to. etc

Step Three: Filter OUT Email From People You Don’t Know That Is Suspect
Any email that passes the "catch and keep" filters in step two above is immediately suspect - it's apparently not from anyone you know, or else they'd be listed in your address book. Set up a highly targeted gauntlet of very specific spam filters for all emails that make it this far, and transfer the snagged emails either to a spam mailbox, or directly to the trash. By adding colored labels, priority tags or using the "make subject" filter Action on the incoming spam, it's easy to quickly identify which filter caught which spam and to review certain types of spam for possible "false positives" before deleting them for good.
Note* I send all my incoming spam to the Trash mailbox instead of a separate Spam mailbox, and preview it there. My Eudora is configured to automatically empty the trash on exit. This system works well for me, but is not recommended if you are just starting out with Eudora filters. Wait until you are comfortable that your filters are working well and you’re not getting false positive hits before using this configuration

My recommended Layout for Eudora, illustrated below:
I keep Eudora in Full Screen mode, mailboxes open on the left, the Eudora Ad placed at the lower left corner, In Box open at the top of the window and Spam or Trash mailbox open at the bottom to quickly review new spam before deleting.

When an email that you want to keep gets filtered to the SPAM or Trash mailbox, drag it back to the inbox, open that email, and press “ <Control> K ” to make an entry in your Eudora address book for it. That will protect future email from that exact address from being filtered to the trash.

When you find a spam email in your In mailbox, either delete it, or else transfer it to a mailbox for storage and when you have a bunch of these accumulated, contact me and we can devise additional Eudora filters specific for those type of spams.

I have a basic, generic set of filters for Eudora and will provide them with necessary customizations for your email name upon request. The Eudora filter file is named “filters.pce” and simply placing it in the Eudora folder on your PC activates the filters.

For more detailed information about writing your own spam filters for Eudora, visit my website at: http://www.cecilw.com/eudora/

-- Cecil