(1) Create an autoresponder template that tells people that their message has been
deleted because their email address is not recognised as an authorised sender,
but that they can request for their address to be included in your address book
by completing an online request form.
(2) Create a rule in your email software (such as MS Outlook) which:
(a) Checks the addresses of all incoming emails against your address book entries;
(b) Does not delete emails from people in your address book;
(c) Sends the autoresponder message to all unauthorised senders; (If you don't want to clog up your Sent Items with autoresponder messages, click "Options" when designing the autoresponder template and remove the "Save Sent Messages" option.)
(d)
Permanently deletes the messages from unauthorised senders (you never have to
see another piece of spam again).
(3) Create a form on your webspace (most ISP’s will have given you some free
webspace with your email account) that allows people who have received your
autoresponder rejection to input their request to send you emails. Set the
form to deliver direct to your email account so that you can view and respond as
you see fit.
(4) If you accept a new person into your address book, simply update the rule in your email software to accept this new address. You do not need to recreate the whole rule. It should only take a few seconds to update the address list part of the rule.
Some people have asked how we came up with the idea for Fatboy’s SLITS (Spam - Line In The Sand) Law. This is how:
In 2003, my daughter brought home three baby axolotls from school to take care of during the holiday: Leo - named because he had a fine set of gills rather like a lion’s mane, Bubbles - named because he liked to come to the surface of the tank to blow bubbles, and Fatboy – an endearing and spirited litter runt who nature had given a short body which made him look fat when swimming next to his long torso siblings.
Axolotls are said to be voracious eaters, but Fatboy was very pedantic about what he would and wouldn’t eat. The adage of leading a horse to water but being unable to make it drink, sprang to mind every time that we tried to feed Fatboy with succulent slices of raw lambs’ liver or diced prawns.
One evening, having read a BBC article online about the amount of time people waste each day dealing with spam and having had over 2000 spams during the day in my own mailbox, I was trying to feed Fatboy when it occurred to me that I should be more like Fatboy in my attitude to spam: I should be discerning and refuse to read or see anything that I didn’t want. Simple enough, I’d create Fatboy’s Rule in Outlook: a rule which would only accept emails from people in the office address book and which would automatically delete all other emails from all other senders.
One problem, of course: what about new people trying to contact us for genuine reasons – their emails would be deleted with the porn, mortgages, drugs, and other detritus and we’d start to lose clients and business. It was Fatboy who came up with answer. I was dangling a sliver of liver a millimetre or two from Fatboy’s mouth and he was resolutely ignoring it. In my frustration, I actually pleaded aloud with Fatboy for him to eat. A coincidence, for sure, but at that moment Fatboy sucked on the liver and pulled it out of my fingers. To get Fatboy to eat, I had to ask. If emailers wanted to get past Fatboy’s Rule, they too would have to ask: the idea was born that the autoresponder should point to an online form where genuine emailers could ask for access to the office mailbox. That was it; Fatboy’s SLITS (Spam - Line In The Sand) Law.
Fatboy has given me back an hour of my working day. Fatboy – the axolotl that could save companies and countries billions.