Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Apple Mail not remembering Rules

I have a persistent spam/phishing pest who sends a variety of scams. They always the same "From" and always the same "To". On numerous occasions I have set up rules, using either the "From" or the "To", to delete the emails but they keep coming. Is Apple Mail forgetful?

Try writing the rule using only part of the "From" or "To", rather than the complete, exact address. Pick what seems to be the most relevant part.
For example, "From: BigJunkAd@veryannoying.com", use a rule with just the "@" part (not feasible if it is from gmail.com or something very common) or just "BigJunkAd". You may have tried this already and found it does not work.

My other suggestion is to use a dedicate spam filter, like Spam Sieve. Even with an excellent product like Spam Sieve I have found the filtering to not always work and it may take time to "learn".

Since I've had and solved a similar problem, I'll suggest that you post a screenshot of your rule so I can see precisely what you've set up. (Don't forget to block sensitive info.)

I gave it a try but must have an old set of instructions as I couldn't get the screenshot link to appear correctly at FTM. However, the way I do my Rules is straightforward:

1. I create a Rule
2. Inside the Rule, I set "If any of the following conditions are met:"
3. Under "Perform the following actions:", I choose Delete Message

4. When I receive suspected Spam or Phishing mail, I click on the mail. then I open my Rule and:

• I select either "From" or "To"
• My default after "From" or "To" is always "contains"
• Lastly I click on "+"

The details from the email appear in the third column, which I either leave 'as is' or edit to leave, for example, only @paininthebutt.co.uk

EDIT: I see two Spam/Phishing emails in my JUnk this morning, so I'll leave them for now. They are both from the same sender "wayan2@telus.net" who is already in the Rule many times. He or she has a bunch of different lures.

Graphics are not supported on FineTunedMac so to post a screenshot the typical procedure is to post the screenshot on imgur, PostImage, iCloud or similar site and then post a link to that image in FineTunedMac.

Spammers have thousands of ways of getting around rules-based blocks, after all, there is money to be made. After years of attempting to outsmart the spammers with rules I finally gave up and let the professionals have a shot at it and started using Spamseive. It still is not 100% but I keep training it and it catches more and more spam. Far more than I was ever able to catch on my own.

I'd still like to see what your rules actually look like.

To post a screenshot or other type of image...

1. Go to https://imgur.com/upload.
2. Either drag your image into the window, choose (browse for) it, or paste your image or its URL.
3. Click on Grab Link > Copy Link in the next screen to copy your image's URL to your clipboard.
4. Create a link using FTM's "Insert Link" tags...5th icon from the right.

Alternatively, you can simply post the link itself without going through the tags rigamarole.

I did try the demo version of SpamSieve a couple of years ago but found that the app’s learning curve required far more attention than I was prepared to invest. The amount of spam I get is minimal and the time required to attend to SpamSieve exceeded the time required to use a broken Apple Rules.

I’d just like something simple: like having the Apple Rules actually work.

Imgur still not working for me. I get a dialogue box that asks me to Whitelist their site and I do. Then, when I try again, it once more asks me to Whitelist. Thanks for your thoughts but I’m going to move on.

All the current spam is from the dick (wayan2@telus.net) and if I create and apply a rule with any connection to him or her, all the spam in the junk folder disappears. I’ll wait until I get another and forward it to the ISP Telus along with all the Header information.

Just remember when using Mail Rules to filter spam you are pitting yourself against some of the best and most sophisticated programmers in the world, and what you see is not necessarily what the computer sees. Even the senders email address can be spoofed or hidden. Next time you get one of the emails you are trying to filter out, take a look at All Headers (⇧⌘H) or raw source (⌥⌘U). You might well find that what you are seeing as the sender is not the actual sender, and the actual sender may be different every time. What you see as text in a message might not be text, but a graphic image. There may be no actual text or content in the received message, rather an HTML "xref" (exterior reference) that pulls the text as a web page when the message is opened.

Mail Rules are not sophisticated enough to deal with all the possibilities. Mail's Junk Mail handler is more sophisticated than is possible with Rules , but like SpamSeive it takes training and because junk mail senders are continually revising their tactics that training must continue forever. SpamSeive is arguably more sophisticated and knowledgeable than Mail's Junk Mail, but I have both turned on. What I realized is despite the all too numerous spam messages ending up in my Inbox there were ten times that number or more that I never see because SpamSeive, and Mail's Junk Mail, with the help of my email provider flagging suspected junk mail sends it directly to the Junk mailbox. By the way, rather than using a rule per se you might get better results using Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail checking "Perform custom actions" and specifying your rule conditions and actions under the Advanced tab.

I can't imagine what's up with that. I've never been asked to whitelist.

Do you whitelist by clicking on your Websites icon and unchecking "Enable content blockers" or by some other means? (For future reference, not to dun you.)