Spam filter not working

[Jennifer Murphy]

Somehow, the parasites at astrology.com got ahold of one of my email addresses. I started getting crap from info@mail.astrology.com, info@mail.horoscope.com, and info@sunsigns.com. I ignored it for awhile, then I clicked on one of the Unsubscribe links. Apparently, that just told them that I exist. The junk increased. After while, I sent them a nasty email telling them where they could stick their spam. Second mistake. I now get 15-20 emails every day.

A few months ago, I added all of their domains to Outlook's Blocked Sender's list. That caused all of their emails to go into the Junk folder. That was better, but still not perfect, as Outlook has a tendency to put good email in the junk folder, so I have to check it fairly often and then I have to delete their garbage.

Then about a week ago, Outlook stopped putting them in the Junk folder. I don't know what changed. I have blocked both the domains and the full email addresses. For several months, this would put them in the junk folder. But a few days ago, they started appearing back in my inbox.

Is there a way I can get Outlook to block them entirely so I never see them at all?

Here are my junk mail settings:

Thanks

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Did they change the From or Reply to address? That should be the only reason why the blocked address failed.

What type of email account do you have configured in Outlook? POP, IMAP, Outlook.com, or Microsoft Exchange? IfIMAP or pop, so your mail server have a junk filter? Is ao, block them at the server.

Or add rules to delete mail with those words in the message header - that way if the filter fails, the rule will get them.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Did they change the From or Reply to address? That should be the only reason why the blocked address failed.

What type of email account do you have configured in Outlook? POP, IMAP, Outlook.com, or Microsoft Exchange? IfIMAP or pop, so your mail server have a junk filter? Is ao, block them at the server.

Or add rules to delete mail with those words in the message header - that way if the filter fails, the rule will get them.

I don't think they changed anything, but I can't check it as I permanently delete everything when I see it.

I have a couple of POP accounts hosted by GoDaddy and one Outlook.com account with my Office 365 subscription. Do you know what options there are at either of those servers?

Thanks

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Outlook.com doesn't have user-controlled options - other than the block and safe lists. I have godaddy accounts but never use the web interface - will need to log into it to check.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

The GoDaddy options are basically the same as at outlook.com (which also has a restricted mode - allow only contacts and safe senders) - but you can turn it off or change what they do (move it to bulk mail or tag the subject).

You could add the blocked addresses there too. If you use pop3 nothing in the bulk mail folder will download, with IMAP, it will sync down but not be in the inbox. Or... since GoDaddy lets you block or purge, put them on the purge list and they will be deleted from the server as they arrive.

Purging email addresses (example@example.com) or domain names (example.com) immediately purges all emails from those email addresses or domains, so you never see them.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

The GoDaddy options are basically the same as at outlook.com (which also has a restricted mode - allow only contacts and safe senders) - but you can turn it off or change what they do (move it to bulk mail or tag the subject).

You could add the blocked addresses there too. If you use pop3 nothing in the bulk mail folder will download, with IMAP, it will sync down but not be in the inbox. Or... since GoDaddy lets you block or purge, put them on the purge list and they will be deleted from the server as they arrive.

OK, thanks. I'll call GoDaddy and see what I can set up there.

I did a little checking. I found a number of spam control apps, such as MailWasher, with all sorts of options including sending the spammer an "address unknown" message. In my opinion, M$FT has dropped the ball yet again both in Outlook and Outlook.com.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

PS: I would like to know why the Outlook Blocked Sender option isn't working. My settings are shown above. This is one of the 25+ messages I have received in the last 2 days.

Is that address not the same as those I have coded to be blocked?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Mailwasher is pretty good - its been around a long time. I had a pro license for it years ago, when I used pop.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Mailwasher is pretty good - its been around a long time. I had a pro license for it years ago, when I used pop.

Yes, I thought it was pretty good at what it did. But having to turn Outlook off and manually run MW and then open Outlook multiple times each day just wouldn't work for me.

I'm looking into other options, including a different hosting company.

But do you have any idea why the Blocked Senders is not working for me? It had been working for a long time (2-3 years) and then suddenly stopped. I didn't change anything -- at least not intentionally. I did upgrade Windows to 20H2 about the time it stopped working. Could that be it?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Set outlook to not check email automatically - then use mailwasher to check. If anything important is in mailwasher, do a manual receive.

You can change the settings in Send/Receive settings (Ctrl+Alt+S) - set auto checks really high or disable. Or on the Send/receive tab, under Send / Receive Groups, turn off auto checks... or set outlook to Work offline.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Are you using a custom domain with your office sub? It can host one domain for up to 6 mailboxes (if you have a Family sub).

If you are considering a godaddy offer for office 365 - you will have more control buying from Microsoft - and its cheaper (at least after any special pricing expires) - as low as $4 a month per mailbox.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Set outlook to not check email automatically - then use mailwasher to check. If anything important is in mailwasher, do a manual receive.

You can change the settings in Send/Receive settings (Ctrl+Alt+S) - set auto checks really high or disable. Or on the Send/receive tab, under Send / Receive Groups, turn off auto checks... or set outlook to Work offline.

As I said, MailWasher is not a good solution for me. I'm looking into other options. If I find something really good, I'll post it here.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Are you using a custom domain with your office sub? It can host one domain for up to 6 mailboxes (if you have a Family sub).

We have a family Office 365 subscription. I think we are using 4 mailboxes.

If you are considering a godaddy offer for office 365 - you will have more control buying from Microsoft - and its cheaper (at least after any special pricing expires) - as low as $4 a month per mailbox.

The GoDaddy account manages 2-3 POP3 accounts. The Outlook.com account is managed by M$FT.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Can we stop talking about MailWasher? I would really like to know why the Blocked Senders feature stopped working. Can you seed anything wrong with my settings?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Blocked sender should always work - it can't be turned off. The 'no filtering' option uses the blocked list - you can't disable it unless you set a registry key to remove junk email completely.

How long is your blocked list? It looks like you only have a few names on it (based on the scroll bar). A long list can lead to failures - but that doesn't look like your problem. I would export the lists, delete the addresses, and restart outlook then add them back.

And I would do a rule for those domains - look for words in the header, where the word is horoscope.com etc.