Infopackets Reader Bonnie V. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I keep getting unsolicited emails that claim they are from a web address which in fact does not exist. Is there a mail rule that I can create in Outlook Express to check for valid web addresses, and block the ones that aren't valid (I.E.: a 'faked' web address)? "

My Response:

Rather than attempting to block all the offending emails, why not just create an anti-spam filter to delete all emails that are not from a list of your friends? Example:

Apply this rule after the message arrives; Where the From line does not contain 'friend1@here.com' or 'friend2@there.com'; and Where the To line contains 'youremail@address.com'; Delete it

This would effectively delete all emails NOT included in your friend1, friend2 list.

The only problem scenario is:

• You will have to manually enter all of your friend's email addresses when creating this mail rule; this can also be a problem if you accidentally mis-type a friend's email address. It's best to keep an eye on your Deleted Items folder until you're satisfied that the mail rule is working the way you want it to.
   
• This is not ideal for those of us who are in contact with a large number of people.

On the other hand, this mail rule should be very powerful for a great number of users who only talk to a small of people via email.