How to automatically delete spam with Apple's Mail program in Mac OSX Leopard

If you're like most of us, you are sick and tired of spam and having to delete it. Thankfully, Apple Mail provides a quick solution.

Let's look at a scenario. You keep getting spam from "imaspammer@spam.com

Sure, you can delete each and every message manually if you really want to, but there is a much easier solution.

Step 1:

Launch Apple Mail

Step 2:

From the menu, select Mail > Preferences (or hit command + comma).

Step 3:

In the Preferences window, select Rules.

Step 4:

Click on Add Rule.

Step 5:

An easy way to deal with our "ImASpammer" guy is to automatically delete anything that comes from that address.

So, use the settings shown in this image.

Use "From" and "Contains" in the two drop down menus. Don't worry about the "Perform the following actions:" section yet.

Step 6:

In the text box enter the email address that you want to block. In this case, we'll use imaspammer@spam.com

Step 7:

Moving on, you can choose what you want to happen to anything that comes from that address. In the "Perform the following actions:" section, select "Delete Message."

Essentially, you have told Mail this: "If ImASpammer sends me an email, I want you to delete it."

You can also have Mail reply to the message, forward it, move it, play a sound, and more - in addition to deleting the message.

In order to do this, you can click the "+" button to the right of the rule you have set up. You can do the same in the top section - adding more email addresses to which you want to apply the rule.

Step 8:

EXAMPLE:

In this example, I have 13 email addresses. The actions I have applied will 1) delete the message and 2) reply to the sender with this text:

------------

WARNING:
You are not authorized to contact this address. Message auto-deleted.

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The actions don't need to be in any particular order. All will be applied.

I hope this helps you cut down on your spam levels!

Regards,

MSwengel