SWMBO replied to what she thought was free offer by some company ,only to find that it was one those that required a purchase of something else .By this time she'd passed on her e mail address .Next thing - tons of spam .Looked at filters to allow through mail from me andthe kids ans instant trash to all others, unless added

Format for allowed -

If (from header ) does not contain "my name" (where "my name "=the name in the header of my account)move message to trash.

Sent an email to her account -to find it goes straight to the trash

Also tried the other idea

If (from header) contains name then move to inbox

If (from header ) contains *.* then move to trash

Anybody got any ideas or would it be easier to just modify her user name slightly ?

Edit -mods just thought that this might be better off in Tech Shed ??

Edited 19 January, 200917 yr by VWD

Yahoo has throw away email addresses for this very purpose

Little you can do. if it's a UK firm, then you have recourse to stop them, or at least make them feel your pain.

Oh the filters work ,in theory ,and almost in practice (they send everything to the trash bin).Only thing is they don;t segregate the mail

the filtering instructions - so probably i'm reading and applying the info wrong .

If in outlook, then add the full email address of those to white list. Everything else should be junked to trash if set right.

This is in Yahoo -there's a filter option ,would try yahoo,but times they're reading off a script,not from knowledge .

You'd be better sticking with email addresses rather than names.

I dont think you need *.*. It'd just be *, or a filter to deliver all mail to bulk.

Thanks gadgetman - finally found some FAQ on Yahoo - the filters work the opposite to call barring on telecomms ( instead of as I thought like )-I was attempting it the wrong way round - trying to do a global with a "does not contain" rather than a "header contains surname " , then send to inbox .Fortunately only got two surnames to work with .Then to get rid of the junk -universal to trashbox anything else -seems to work .

SWIMBO now sees reasonn for being careful with her addy .

Use the throw away accounts under account settings. ie you'll choose abc123. so every throw away is like [email protected]. So if that email becomes a spam magnet you simply bin it.

Set one up for everyone you deal with or give your email to.