Malcolm (Florida) recently wrote asking us a question regarding spam files in his Google Gmail account.

He opened his spam folder and floated his mouse over the sender’s name.

He confirmed it was spam after seeing the ‘deranged email address.’ (See my example to the left.)

Next, he actually clicked on the spam message and then clicked on the menu (three vertical dots) at the upper right.

He selected: “Filter messages like these” but did not recognize the entry in “Has the Words.” (See my example to the right below showing similar wording to what he read: list:(<.7289367.xt.local>).)

Malcolm asked if he enters another phrase here (i.e. Porky in your bed.) “Are the two entries mutually exclusive, or either/or?”

I believe the qualifier here is that Malcolm looked at something already in the spam folder that was automatically sent to spam by Google filters.

He has no need to further filter similar messages since it’s already on Google’s dirty list. (Note: If you report a spam email to Google it may be added to their list as well.)

I did a search in my Gmail spam folder that added the term above. That search was written as a Boolean search operative. The plus ‘+’ sign means AND. The search query asked to show results in the spam folder along with the wording:

in:spam + list:(<.7289367.xt.local>)

The query literally returned 366 results since February 26th.

Now Google spam filters are not perfect to say the least. And email spammers find new ways to circumvent them daily.

But this was an example of how the filters actually worked for Malcolm.

Note: You should check your spam filters for the occasional mistakes Google filters do make. Filters can send legitimate emails to your spam folder. Also check there first if someone asks: “Did you get my email?”

And always please remember…

There is no such thing as a stupid question!

Judy and I are here to answer what’s on your mind! Or we’ll research the answer for you.

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Michael