Email Abuse / SPAM Issue

Dear BRUYERE_08

I am an independent advisor, and I am trying to help other users in Community with my experience in Microsoft products.

I understand that this is frustrating to receive lots of spam and unwanted emails. It is even more frustrating to receive scams, spoofing and phishing emails. Scammers nowadays are using multiple methods to intimidate users.

Please note that Postmaster ( https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.co... ) is actually blocking lots of spammers ( and I quote ):
For example, we've implemented a number of mechanisms to reduce the burden of junk email which currently prevents nearly 4.5 billion email messages from reaching Outlook.com users every day!

There are couple of ways to deal with scammers and unwanted emails and improve how your anty filter will work (I am sure that you are aware of some and you are using them, but maybe additional information in support articles will help you):

1. First of all check your spam filters and see suggestions on how to keep spam out of your inbox https://support.office.com/en-us/article/help-k...
2. Report the phishing, spam and unwanted emails https://support.office.com/en-us/article/deal-w...
3. Add emails or domains to block sender (those that were actually used to send emails - see #5) list https://support.office.com/en-us/article/block-...
4. Create specific rules for subjects or common phrases that are present in those emails https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-in... and add conditions, that are common for those emails, for example additional keywords, recipient address includes etc.
5. Nowadays some scammers have learned how to mask their emails addresses that you can see in the emails. However, in the message source you will find the real one (and the real domain) In order to view message source please check this article https://support.office.com/en-us/article/receiv...
6. You can also use the option at the bottom https://outlook.live.com/mail/options/mail/junk... to receive only trust email from addresses in my Safe senders and domains list and Safe mailing lists

You can also check tips on how to stay safe online from Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/digital-skills/...

Hope this will help your email free from Junk!

Thank you for the reply. I do have junk mail filters in place. Unfortunately, the one at a time domain blocking doesn't work well when you have thousands of emails, each with a different domain name - I just don't have the time to set that up. So, hopefully someone from the Microsoft team will get back to me! At the very least, the flood suddenly stopped.

Dear BRUYERE_08

Glad to hear that flood stopped.

As for blocking domain, it works better when all emails are from the same one, however because spammers malform their addresses, they look like from all different domains and than it is better to create rules with conditions, that will gather those emails.

As for:
"So, hopefully someone from the Microsoft team will get back to me!" - you submitted a ticket with another Microsoft support or you are waiting for them here ?

I reached out to the chat area and they gave me a link to send my email address to Microsoft for help, and they got back to me as well. So, not exactly a ticket with support, but a reach-out to support. They apparently caught the issue and did something to slow down the onslaught of messages I was getting, and said it's a Phishing scam, though I don't understand what made it start in the first place and am awaiting their answers to my questions.

Does that number work from South Africa as a toll free number? If not, do you have another number that's local to South Africa?

Dear BRUYERE_08

Please share their reply when they will reply. I have checked my accounts and have not found any flood at the time being. Maybe it is only coming or this was regional.

Here's the reply (I removed names)

Thank you for contacting Outlook.com support. I hope that you are doing well today. I see that someone sends you abusive emails.

I regret for the inconvenience cost to you. I will do my best to help you with your issue on Outlook.com.

I would like to inform that its a phishing scam. Phishing scam is an email that seems legitimate but is an attempt to get your personal information or steal your money.

Please mark it as Junk-Phishing scam to make sure its reported and deleted from your mailbox. Please do not respond to such email or calls. We made sure that you do not receive such email again as we did some changes to the settings and blocked the spammer and you will not receive it in your inbox it will go to the junk and will be deleted in 30 days automatically.

Here's how to deal with online abuse and phishing and spoofing scams sent to or coming from Outlook.com accounts.
Here are the steps to block the sender:
Instructions for the Outlook.com beta
If you believe you've received a phishing or spoofing scam, you'll first need to mark the email as junk and then mark it as a phishing scam.
1. Select the message you want to mark as a phishing scam and select Junk on the command bar.
or You can also right-click the message and select Mark as junk.
2. Select the Junk Email folder, and then select Not junk > Phishing to report the sender.

Your account is completely safe and it is a scam email so please avoid this email.

However, consider changing your password and security information from time to time, If you clicked any links in that email or provided that sender with any account information, please change your password.

We would suggest you please turn on the Two-step verification, that gives you more precautions from the scammers. Because it is all about your passwords and we do really care about your security.

Two-step verification helps protect you by making it more difficult for someone else to sign in to your Microsoft account. It uses two different forms of identity: your password, and a contact method (also known as security info). Even if someone else finds your password, they'll be stopped if they don't have access to your security info. This is also why it's important to use different passwords for all your accounts.

Here is the link that helps you to turn on the Two-step verification:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12408/microsoft-account-about-two-step-verification

Thank you so much for being a part of Microsoft family.

Looking forward to your response to assist you further accordingly.

Dear BRUYERE_08

Hmm that is not the message I would expect. In the meanwhile, have you tried my suggestions on resolving this.

Also I want to highlight that the message that you replied to ( with a number ) was a technical scam and was deleted by moderators.

If you want to call Microsoft support, please use this guide https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/405170...