One of my favorite non–genealogy magazines, Home Office Computing, contained the article “Fight Back Against Spam!” in its April 2001 issue. The article is posted online. I have been trying some of the methods suggested, and have a few others up my sleeve that I’d like to share with you.

The first suggestion in the article is to use “Junk E-mail Filters.” The article talks about a solution for those who use Outlook Express. I use Eudora 5.0, so I don’t have the options available that Outlook has. Instead, Eudora allows you to set up filters. Now this can get tricky with spam, but you need to watch for trends in e-mails. I set up some further filters today after reviewing the 30 unwanted messages I received. Several of the messages used a word with a sexual connotation in the subject line, so I set up the filter to look at the subject line, and if it contains that word, I told the filter to send the e-mail to the Trash.

I also noticed several e-mails that use a percent sign, i.e. “Save 40% on Educational Loans!” So in the filter, I set it up to send messages that have a % sign to the trash. If you repeatedly get spam from the same e-mail address, you can set up the filter to look for that address and then send messages received from that address to the trash. The problem with spam, though, is that the marketers change e-mail addresses frequently, which is why trying to find a pattern in the subject line will work more effectively. To create a filter in Eudora, select Tools from the menu bar, and then select Filters. The drop–down boxes on the filter screen allow you to choose from different options for your filtering. Once you’ve set up the filter on the top portion, you need to do something with the items when found. The bottom portion of the window allows you to choose the action. In the case of spam, I select “Transfer to” and then Eudora puts up a box that when clicked on allows me to pick the destination of the transfer.

If you have a Web site there’s another way that you can filter off some of your messages. I used to receive a lot of messages that were addressed to default@ancestordetective.com. In the root directory of my Web site, there’s a little file called “.redirect”. This file allows you to put in an address to redirect your e-mails to. So, for instance, I have all e-mails addressed to Liz at my Web site redirected to my MediaOne e-mail account.

For those messages that are addressed to default, I redirect them to a free e-mail account. At first, I went in and checked the e-mails to make sure there was nothing important being sent there. But those that need to contact me know my proper e-mail address, so I no longer check the account. It has probably been closed by now, but the important point is that I cut down on the volume of my spam by redirecting these e-mails elsewhere. You could probably just make up an address and you would achieve the same effect—the e-mails won’t come to you.

The Home Office Computing article also emphasizes that you shouldn’t reply to e-mail messages to remove your address. By replying, you’re letting that marketer know your address is a good address. The work-around suggested in the article is to use the address provided at the bottom of the message, allowing you to remove your address from their list. I went and checked each of the 30 spam messages I received today and only two of them had Web addresses included. I clicked on them and asked for my e-mail address to be removed. Allegedly, the process was successful. Several other messages had clickable links in the message to remove your address, but the links opened up an e-mail message. I’m leery of sending any e-mail to spammers, so I didn’t follow through on those.

Getting back to free e-mail providers, the HOC article mentions that you might consider getting one of these accounts for your personal mail. Two weeks ago I was away from home for a week. I was able to check my e-mail, but for some reason I can’t reply to messages with MediaOne’s Road Runner service. So, I signed up for free e-mail with first Yahoo and then AltaVista. The Yahoo account was unstable and I was unable to send e-mails when I needed to, so I got the AltaVista account and had no trouble. The interesting aspect of both accounts, though, is that they automatically provide a spam filter. Since I’ve been home I’ve gone back and checked both accounts and I have yet to receive any spam on either of them.

There are other useful tips in the HOC article, so I recommend taking the time to read it. You might also visit the Spam Recycling Center to see what else you can do to curb the spam in your inbox.

Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS, CGL, is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing, editor of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’ newsletter OnBoard, the creator of Clooz—the electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, co-creator of the new family health history program GeneWeaver, and a frequent contributor to Ancestry. She can be reached via e-mail at liz@ancestordetective.com or gceditor@ancestry.com.