Mail rule based on partial contact name

Question

Level 1

10 points

Mail rule based on partial contact name

Hi folks,

I've been toying with Mail rules for the past 2 years to set up a "white-list" system instead of a "black-list" approach. I just can't see that Rules based on Contacts will do the same thing, but I haven't figured out how to test this, easily. Maybe you can help...

Right now, I have two gmail accounts. One is my original email account that gets 50 unwanted emails/day. The second, let's call it "myreadonly@gmail.com" will hold only the emails that I white-list. So, I use rules to filter the emails coming to my original account. I say that if the incoming email is from X then move it to my readonly account (actually, I have to copy and then delete). If I don't recognize the sender then the email goes to Trash. And, I NEVER use the readonly account for outgoing mail, so no one ever sees this email address.

Now, imagine that I've contacted Y@companyZ.com. I start looking in Trash for a reply. Once I see that, I can highlight the email; go to my white-list Rules pref; and simply click on "+" to add the sender to my white-list. OK, here's the part that is good about this approach... and I don't think would work with the Contacts approach: Maybe I don't want to keep checking for a reply from companyZ.com. Fine, all I have to do is make the entry in Rules be "@companyZ.com", or "companyZ", etc. This catches anything close.

I'm not sure what would happen if I made a Contact named "@companyZ" and made the Rule be based on if the sender is in my Contacts... has anyone tried this?

Thanks...

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Mar 22, 2023 2:38 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Mar 22, 2023 4:58 PM in response to EngRMP

I think that may not work if it uses it as "is" rather than "contains", like you can set a rule to... From>contains>@companyZ.com

Or spend $15 bucks at spamcop.net, report them & have the spammers eventually shutdown by their ISPs.

Reply

Answer 2

EngRMP Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 23, 2023 7:25 AM in response to EngRMP

Ooops, I remember now why a filter of "delete if" "All" with "does not contain" does not work... if you have multiple email accounts (maybe one for work and one for home), the problem is that the filter applies to all email accounts... there's no AND or OR with the IF test.

Reply

Answer 3

EngRMP Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 23, 2023 6:27 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks BDAqua,

That's my thought also... with the "Contacts" filtering approach, it's too narrow of a filter.

I've given up on the black-list approach... our email addresses get passed around so quickly I find it's impossible to keep up. And, if you ever donate to one political candidate then the rest are like sharks. Those are not really spam, but I don't want to navigate through 30 of those a day to find important emails.

I really think that Apple needs to change the paradigm of mail to implement a simple white-list approach. Although, I'm realizing that instead of two email addresses and a filter of Move if "Any" and "contains", I could probably get away with one email address and a filter of "delete if" "All" with "does not contain"... I think I was afraid of starting with this approach two years ago... fear of losing important emails (wasn't quite sure what "delete" was really going to do).

Reply

Mail rule based on partial contact name

Similar questions