Even today's most successful enterprises — companies with huge IT staffs and budgets — have been seriously crippled by the deluge of junk e-mail filling up their inboxes. Spam remains an insidious problem striking companies large and small around the globe.

If the very idea of wasting company time deleting junk e-mail makes your blood boil, then it's time to take action to reduce the amount of spam you and your employees are dealing with. These five tips won't make spam go away — but they can reduce the amount of downtime you spend attending to it.

	TIP: If you're worried that the junk e-mail filter in Outlook 2003 might screen out e-mail for people listed in your Contacts, there's a way to prevent that from happening. On the Tools menu, click Options. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click Junk E-mail. Click the Safe Senders tab. Then select the Also trust e-mail from my Contacts check box.

1. Activate junk mail filters. If the e-mail system you use doesn't have built-in filters, then you should download a stand-alone junk mail filter or change e-mail clients. (Read about some of the innovative anti-spam features in Outlook 2003 below.)



2. Reduce your exposure. If your company Web site includes an e-mail link, you're going to get junk mail. An alternative approach is to encourage site visitors to manually enter your e-mail address – and explain why you're doing it. If you submit your site to search engines, be selective and determine that they're reputable. Don't allow employees to post their business e-mail addresses to newsgroups or other public Web sites.



3. Never reply to spam. That's a sure-fire way to alert spammers that they have an active e-mail address.



4. Be wary of HTML e-mails. These can contain Web beacons or tracking codes that allow senders to log your e-mail address and possibly other information once you've opened their mail.



5. Use a dedicated e-mail account for Web transactions. If you purchase goods and services online, or sign up for free e-mail newsletters, consider using one of the free Web-based e-mail services such as Hotmail for Web transactions. That way you can keep your real e-mail address private.

How Junk Mail Filters Work
If you use Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003, you probably use Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager to send and receive e-mail messages and to manage your contacts and sales opportunities. You should also know that this latest version of Outlook comes loaded with powerful spam-fighting features including — among others — a junk mail filter utilizing state-of-the-art technology. The filter evaluates whether a message should be treated as junk mail based on several factors, including when it was sent and the content and structure of the message.

By default, the filter is set to a low setting to identify the most obvious spam. Any messages trapped by the filter are sent to a special Junk Mail folder that can be accessed at a later time. You have the option of setting the filter to be more aggressive, but you also run the risk of sending legitimate messages to the Junk Mail folder. However, these messages aren't lost; they're just not displayed in your inbox. You can also configure Outlook 2003 to permanently delete junk mail messages as they come in.

To change junk e-mail settings in Outlook 2003:

1. On the Tools menu, select Options.



2. In the Options dialog box, in the E-mail section, click Junk E-mail.



3. Choose the level of junk e-mail message protection you want.



4. Click OK.

Set Up a Safe E-Mail List
To prevent e-mail messages you want to receive from landing in the Junk Mail folder, you can add e-mail addresses and domain names to a Safe Senders List, assuring all messages from those addresses will go to your inbox. With this system:

• Contacts are trusted by default.



• If your company uses Microsoft Exchange Server, messages from within your organization will never be treated as junk mail.



• You can configure Outlook 2003 to accept messages only from those on your Safe Sender list.

Additional anti-spam features in Outlook 2003 allow you to:

• Add e-mail addresses and domain names to a Blocked Senders list, ensuring messages from Blocked Senders will always be routed to the Junk Mail folder.



• Add e-mail lists or groups you're a member of to a Safe Recipients list, ensuring messages sent to the e-mail addresses and domain names on the list will not be treated as junk mail, regardless of the sender or message content.



• Update your Junk Mail filter with the latest methods for blocking unwanted e-mail. Microsoft is committed to providing periodic updates to the filter.

There may never be a time when junk mail is totally eradicated. But with the right software and some basic precautions, you should be able to significantly reduce business disruptions caused by spam.