Spam and phishing emails

Aristotle67

Probably not the first to ask this, so apologies right away!

I while ago I started getting loads of spam and phishing emails, many offering me free spins and bonuses. I had been so careful for years and years and yet the rascals have got my email address from somewhere. 

I have blocked these without falling into the "unsubscribe" trap so that they are all going into my junk email, but I am fed up looking at that several times a day and finding large numbers of emails in there. Just seeing these gets my goat. I want to stop them coming in completely. 

Using the rules feature, I cannot see how to ensure all emails from anyone not on my safe sender or domain list are automatically deleted. I would settle for that if I could arrange it. I read about an "exclusive" option but cannot see it there. I am using classic hotmail/outlook. 

I don't want to have to ditch this email address, just stop these unwanted emails arriving in the first place or have them deleted as soon as they hit so I never have to see them. Is there anything I can try? 

TadleyBaggie

"Rules Feature" using what app/platform?

Aristotle67

TadleyBaggie said:

"Rules Feature" using what app/platform?

The outlook.live.com/mail page

Woodstok2000

Aristotle67 said:

TadleyBaggie said:

"Rules Feature" using what app/platform?

The outlook.live.com/mail page

Could you not use the same rule to move them to your deleted folder instead of the junk? Or do you mean you want them to disappear?

twopenny

Have you tried blocking them?
Right click if you are using a laptop, press and hold if using a tablet. 
A list of moves you can make comes up, it will stay while you find block.
Click on that and the address is visible and click block again.

Usually it's the same small group sending these under different names and give it a week or two and they'll mostly stop.

If it starts to happen again block straight away and it won't escalate.

Aristotle67

Woodstok2000 said:

Aristotle67 said:

TadleyBaggie said:

"Rules Feature" using what app/platform?

The outlook.live.com/mail page

Could you not use the same rule to move them to your deleted folder instead of the junk? Or do you mean you want them to disappear?

If that is possible, that would do nicely.

To get them into the junk folder, I go into email/junk email/strict (incoming mail handling) and this sends anything from anyone not on my safe senders and domains lists to junk email. 

When I go to "rules" I have set up a few rules using certain key words (such as spin, bet, win bonus etc), but I believe that these rules are applicable to the inbox and that it isn't applicable to those going straight to junk. Maybe I need to remove the above setting and give that a try? I can name a rule, set an action (i.e. delete) but I can't see how to set a condition and/or add an exception from the options I am provided with to achieve what I would like. 

Aristotle67

twopenny said:

Have you tried blocking them?
Right click if you are using a laptop, press and hold if using a tablet. 
A list of moves you can make comes up, it will stay while you find block.
Click on that and the address is visible and click block again.

Usually it's the same small group sending these under different names and give it a week or two and they'll mostly stop.

If it starts to happen again block straight away and it won't escalate.

Yes, I have but I get bombarded from so many different addresses (many of them quite similar, but of course different) that I gave up. 

Chloe_G

I had this exact problem suddenly last year.  (The only suspect website that I can remember visiting and entering  my email address was 'Shein'.)  I could find no way of blocking them but after about six months they seem to have stopped.  It is so annoying as I have to look through my junk as sometimes legitimate emails end up there.

Vitor

There is no supported way in Outlook.com to delete everything not on a safe-sender list before delivery, and any service claiming otherwise is misleading.

• Set the spam filter to High, not default.

• Create rules that permanently delete messages containing obvious spam terms like “free spins”, “bonus”, “casino”, etc. Rules run before you ever see the mail.

Blocking individual senders has limited value. Most spam uses throwaway or spoofed addresses, so blocking feels satisfying but doesn’t reduce volume much.

MouldyOldDough

Here's how to block anything with the word PHARMACY in the subject.

Aristotle67

I decide to discontinue using that hotmail address and instead set up an alias for my Microsoft account and made that the primary account. I have kept my legacy emails and One Drive files, etc. 

Every time I created rules or blocked spam some of these still found a way to get around this.