Tech Question On Junk Emails
General Topic
Contributors to this thread:
JL 04-Sep-21
drycreek 04-Sep-21
ben h 04-Sep-21
JL 04-Sep-21
WapitiBob 06-Sep-21
JL 06-Sep-21
skookumjt 06-Sep-21
elkmtngear 06-Sep-21
sticksender 06-Sep-21
JL 06-Sep-21
Dale06 06-Sep-21
Panhandle Bob 07-Sep-21
JL 07-Sep-21
From: JL
04-Sep-21
I use Hotmail for most all of my emails. Up till a couple of weeks ago I would get a few spam emails auto-forwarded to my junk folder (by design). Recently, I have been getting a lot (90-something yesterday) spam emails in my junk folder. You can "select all" and block them or "select all" and report them as phishing emails. I looked on the Microsoft forum and MS doesn't seem to have any way to block these spam emails before they go to your account.

I have an app that cleans out the unwanted cookies on a regular basis. I suspect, like millions of others, my email address was somehow lifted/sold to these underground and foreign spammers.

Is any other Hotmail user (or anyone else) getting a lot of spam emails recently and if so, where you able to fix it? Thanks in advance....

From: drycreek
04-Sep-21
My email provider is Reagan.com and I get flurries of emails purporting to be from them, sometimes three or four per day, wanting me to click on a link. I just ignore the bastards because early on Reagan advised all subscribers to never click on a link. Over time they have gotten really good but by now I know them better than they know me. Oh, occasionally I’ll get an email trying to extort money, but for some reason the Nigerian prince doesn’t send me any more. ;-)

From: ben h
04-Sep-21
5-6 years ago the same thing happened to my Hotmail account for some reason. I switched to Gmail and have not had as much of a problem. Don't get me wrong I still get some, just not hundreds a day. Not sure how to get a better filter and maintain your current account; switching accounts is a bit of a pain.

From: JL
04-Sep-21
I have a gmail acct but save that for rainy days or real large files. I read on the MS forums that folks have been getting hit with the onslaught of spam emails. I read some of the pointers on how to prevent spammers but once you entrust someone with your email address and they get hacked or sell off your email address, you're susceptible to the spammers. I was hoping there was a workaround for hotmail. Some poor soul posted they were getting over 1000 per day.

From: WapitiBob
06-Sep-21
create some rules so common words in the header will send it to the junk folder

From: JL
06-Sep-21
They already go to the junk folder. The challenge is to find a way to prevent them from even being delivered. I "think" that might require some work on Microsoft's part.

From: skookumjt
06-Sep-21
Who cares if something goes into their junk mail?

From: elkmtngear
06-Sep-21
I have Hotmail, never open my junk folder...except to "delete all" every year or two.

From: sticksender
06-Sep-21
If I didn't check my "junk mail" folder every day, I'd miss about 10% of my good messages. If you use Outlook to read mail, you can set rules to delete specific senders/titles/words completely from the server so they never come to your inbox or junk folder. But keep in mind that the spammers are experts at evading these tactics.

From: JL
06-Sep-21
^.....correct. There are some important emails that will divert to the junk folder on the first send. Once you click them as "I trust this sender", they should then go to the inbox instead. Also correct the spammers can circumvent the rules you put in place. I read this was on the MS website forums.

From: Dale06
06-Sep-21
I just go to my junk folder every couple days and delete all. I get 20-40 a day.

07-Sep-21
It would have to be done at the server level (hotmail). The problem with public services like that is that you still need a way to verify or pull out good emails, that's why the push everything to your junk/spam folder. In a corporate environment you can get software to evaluate the emails beforehand and never be sent to the users inbox or junk folder. Nothing is perfect though, so even in the corporate world users still should evaluate the blocked emails. In our environment, I get a notification that contains each of the headers for all blocked emails (about 40-50 a day) the previous day and I can just scroll through the list to see if any are valid emails and release them to my inbox. Some spam still gets through but the majority do not.

From: JL
07-Sep-21
I don't feel so bad seeing others getting a lot of spam emails too.

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