Going Through The In Basket And Getting Rid Of The Junk

This problem has been around since the dawning ofyou do not know. If you see messages coming from
Adam and Eve. When the Lord punished them forsenders having a title to their names, it is a good bet
eating from the Tree of Knowledge, He wisely leftthese are Nigerian 419 messages that are scams.
out the punishment called Getting Rid Of The Junk.Messages coming from a bank where you do not
They had to figure out how to get rid of the trash.have an account are "pfishing" scams that have gone
Today, the Information Age piles up all kinds of trash.astray. Beware of messages coming from senders
All of it is electronic. Most of it is unsolicited. A lot ofthat use your financial institution. Flag them, then
it is scam. A typical inbox will get over 1000check on their validity later.
messages a day, most of which is unsolicited junk.NEVER open a message containing an attach file
To combat this plague, we have resorted tocoming from a sender you do not know. This is an
innovations such as spam filters, junk e-mail filters,open invitation to destroy your computer by allowing
and blocking software such as super duper firewalls.viruses or spyware / malware to enter your system.
Some of these devices do not work very well, andStep 6 Sort the In Box by Subject. This will group all
many of them get rid of valuable e-mail. Junk e-mailremaining messages by Subject. Most of these
will still get through. Valuable e-mail will still getmessages are spam or are from scam operators.
blocked.Here is what to watch for:
Because computers still cannot reason, a human beingMessages starting out with dots, dollar signs,
must still filter the junk mail and save the valuablecurrency amounts, or any other non alphabetic
e-mail. Here is how I do it. I will be the first to admitcharacters: These are spam. Delete.
it is not totally fool proof.Messages starting out with your name. The sender is
Step 1: Open Microsoft Outlook Express. All of thetrying to personalize the message. You do not know
incoming e-mails will be read into the in-basket. I gothe sender from Adam or Eve. Delete
get coffee or else catch up on writing.Messages starting out with "Congratulations" What
Step 2. Sort the in-basket by date and time receivedmajor accomplishment did you do that rates a pat on
Step 3. Flag each message I think is important. Itthe back? This is spam / scam. Delete
could be from an important person or company or itMessages starting out with splash introductions. You
could have a Subject that catches my interest. Bedidn't ask for a splash. These are UCE otherwise
very careful to flag everything and don't missknown as SPAM. Delete.
anything.Messages coming from an unknown sender with all
Step 4 Click on the Flag icon at the top of thecapitol letters. These are Spam. delete
Outlook Express toolbar. Then, select all the flaggedMessages starting out with "You" These could be
messages by pressing Shift + click for the bottomSPAM but this isn't certain.
message in the grouup. Then move the group usingIf the sender is a legitimate person as opposed to an
drag and drop to a special category box I've namedautoresponder, you may recognize the Subject may
called Flagged Items. This takes all the good stuff outconvey enough interest to make you read the
of the In Basket and saves them.message. Again, nothing is certain.
Step 5 Sort the In Basket by Sender. Then, reviewIf you get 1000 messages a day, this screening
the In Basket by scrolling down the sorted list. Thistechnique will reduce the load to a more manageable
will catch any good stuff that might have been200 messages. Again, remember that nothing is
missed. When you find any good stuff, flag it andcertain. You could be letting in SPAM / SCAM into
when done, group the flagged items and move theyour system. On the other hand, you could be
group to the flagged item boxblocking out valuable e-mail. Remember, computers
Note also that you will see messages from senderscannot reason, but you can.