Simplify your inbox, part two

As good as some SPAM filters are, you’re still going to get the occasional offering for a quick and easy college education, find the perfect match for you or get a cheap Rolex.

There are ways to help your mail program be a little better at keeping those pesky messages out of your new, squeaky-clean inbox. Since a lot of spam apparently sneaks through using misspellings, I created a custom filter in my Gmail account (the same thing can be accomplished using “Rules” in most mail programs).

Copy and paste something like this into a new rule/filter:

erectile OR rx viagra OR cheeap OR rolex OR meds OR erecti0n OR softwares OR medicati0n

(I edited down the list to a PG-13 version. The filter I actually use contains words I never use and wouldn’t feel comfortable typing in a family-friendly blog, and their common misspellings.) Then set your filter/rule to automatically skip your inbox and delete.

Since I’ve done this with my main e-mail account I thin I’ve had maybe a total dozen spam messages in the last year, and only two of those have actually made it to my inbox.

Try applying the filter and get creative with some of the common “words” you see in your junk mail. (If you’re not sure how to go about it, ask a tech-savvy friend.)

LivSimpl