Using Outlook to Block SPAM
Does SPAM have you down lately? If you are using Microsoft Outlook, you can actually control some of the anti-SPAM features, and when used correctly, you can greatly reduce the amount of SPAM that makes it to your email inbox, here’s how.
Junk e-mail messages, also known as SPAM, can be a nuisance in your Inbox. The Junk E-mail Filter in Outlook identifies messages that are likely junk and moves them to the Junk E-mail folder. You can easily change the level of junk email protection to include automatically deleting junk email.
Some of these steps vary from version to version of Outlook.
***Note*** By default, the Junk Email Filter protection level is set to No Automatic Filtering.
***Note*** Outlook does not have a SPAM folder, instead it is called Junk Email
Using Outlook Junk Mail Filter
- Right-click on the SPAM email
- Scroll down to Junk
- Select the option you want (see below for explanation)
Block Sender
If you’re receiving unwanted emails, you can block the email addresses and domains you don’t want to receive messages from. Add any email address or domain to your blocked senders list to move these messages directly to your Junk Email folder.
The email address in the from line will be added to the Blocked Senders list
Never Block Sender
There are times when you don’t want messages from a specific person or domain to end up in your Junk Email folder. Messages from addresses or domains on the safe senders list won’t get moved to your Junk Email folder.
The email address in the from line will be added to the Safe Senders list
Never Block Senders Domain (@example.com)
The email address in the from line will be added to the Safe Senders list
Never Block this Group or Mailing List
There are times when you don’t want emails coming from a specific person or website to end up in your Junk folder.
The email address in the from line will be added to the Safe Senders list
Not Junk
If you want to remove someone from the blocked senders list, follow the instructions below.
This will mark an email as not junk after it has been marked as junk.
Junk Mail Options
Options tab
Choose the level of junk email protection you want:
No Automatic Filtering: This turns off the automatic Junk Email Filter. However, messages are still evaluated by using the domain names and email addresses in your Blocked Senders List.
Low: If you don’t receive many junk messages, or want to filter only the messages that are the most obvious junk, select this option.
High: If you receive lots of junk messages, but don’t want to restrict messages from senders on your safe lists, select this option. We recommend you occasionally check the Junk E-mail folder to make sure that a message you wanted isn’t moved in error.
Safe Lists Only: This is the most restrictive option. Any message that isn’t from someone on your Safe Senders List or isn’t to a mailing list on your Safe Recipients List, is classified as junk.
Permanently delete suspect junk email instead of moving it to the Junk Email folder
Disable links and other functionality in phishing messages (recommended)
Warn me about suspicious domain names in email addresses (recommended)
Safe Senders tab
Email from addresses or domain names on your Safe Senders List will never be treated as junk email
Safe Recipients tab
Email sent to addresses or domain names on your Safe Recipients List will never be treated as junk email
Block Senders tab
Email from addresses or domain names on your Blocked Senders List will always be treated as junk email.
International
Some email messages you receive might be written in languages you are unfamiliar with and don’t want to read. These messages can be marked as junk and moved to the Junk Folder.
The sender’s email address in different countries/regions can end with top-level domain codes, such as .ca, .mx, or .us. The Blocked Top-Level Domain List allows you to block all messages sent from an email address ending with a specific top-level domain.
Blocked Top-Level Domain List
To block unwanted email messages from another country/region, you can add country/region codes to the Blocked Top-Level Domains List. For example, checking the CA [Canada], US [United States], and MX [Mexico] boxes in the list blocks messages from email addresses that end in .ca, .us, and .mx.
Blocked Encoding List…
To block unwanted email messages that appear in another character set or alphabet, you can add encodings to the Blocked Encodings List.
Note: Junk email is retained for 30 days before it is automatically deleted and is not recoverable.
It is important to note that there is no 100% solution or foolproof solution to stopping all unwanted email. But when done correctly, Outlook Junk Mail filters will stop a huge amount of unwanted email.