How do I stop thousands of spam emails from going to my Hotmail Inbox?

Hello CKurker,

Are the messages in the inbox or in the Junk email folder? If in junk email, you don't need to do anything. If they are in the Inbox and have something unique in the subject or body (or message header) that you can filter on, create rules to delete them. Otherwise, I would just delete, not report as junk.

Reporting them as spam shouldn't add you address to more mailing lists as long as you don't try using the spammers unsubscribe links - unless a spammer set up a harvesting program to collect addresses. How it works: send some messages with properly configured junk email reporting so you are notified when someone reports your messages as junk (this confirms the address is valid and used) - then either resell the address to other spammers or bomb them with more of your own spam (that is not using the junk mail reporting system).

It's also possible the junk filter failed because of a heavy volume of email. If this is the cause, it should start working again within a day or two.

-- Diane




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Hi

All of the emails are going to my inbox. At this point I have received over 6000 spam emails. Prior to this, I would get 20-30 emails daily in my junk folder. I will try to set up a way to block/filter them, but they are from all different "senders" so not sure how successful it will be. Any other thoughts?

Do the spam message contain unique keywords or words and phrases real people would never email you about? If they are in a foreign language, copy a couple of the common letters and use each letter as the keyword. Create a rule for that word or phrase.

If the sender display name or sender's domain is the same, you can use a rule that looks for words in the message header.

Fingers crossed that you will only need the rules for a couple of weeks, or less.

Hello - I am also seeing the same issue in my inbox. I have also noticed that the "contact info" from these emails are not automatically visible. The only way I was able to find the sender's email was to View Message Source Details. The problem with this is that you have to look thru all the details to find the actual email address.

Here is an example of what the source details look like...

Received: from SA1PR19MB6944.namprd19.prod.outlook.com (::1) by PH7PR19MB6111.namprd19.prod.outlook.com with HTTPS; Tue, 3 Jan 2023 01:32:26 +0000 Received: from MW4PR04CA0344.namprd04.prod.outlook.com (2603:10b6:303:8a::19) by SA1PR19MB6944.namprd19.prod.outlook.com (2603:10b6:806:29c::8) with Microsoft SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id 15.20.5944.19; Tue, 3 Jan 2023 01:32:25 +0000

Received: from MW2NAM10FT016.eop-nam10.prod.protection.outlook.com (2603:10b6:303:8a:cafe::20) by MW4PR04CA0344.outlook.office365.com (2603:10b6:303:8a::19) with Microsoft SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id 15.20.5966.19 via Frontend Transport; Tue, 3 Jan 2023 01:32:24 +0000 Authentication-Results: spf=none (sender IP is 81.181.87.105) smtp.mailfrom=Mnarfaderqtionert85.com; dkim=none (message not signed) header.d=none;dmarc=none action=none header.from=Mnarfaderqtionert85.com;compauth=fail reason=001 Received-SPF: None (protection.outlook.com: Mnarfaderqtionert85.com does not designate permitted sender hosts)

Received: from polambfeerst.co.uk (81.181.87.105) by MW2NAM10FT016.mail.protection.outlook.com (10.13.155.169) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 15.20.5966.17 via Frontend Transport; Tue, 3 Jan 2023 01:32:24 +0000

X-IncomingTopHeaderMarker: OriginalChecksum:E7A20720272FD2FD161911F20EF73198E9F3F33394145B7E925B0A7E06E34B9A;UpperCasedChecksum:1A4A360590260DE6F9200F2FDC6541D98D37D6B596B184100BF480AC707FFE6F;SizeAsReceived:407;Count:9

Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2023 01:32:24 +0000

To: (my email address)

From*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Subject: Re: 2nd attempt for you

Reply-To*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

In-Reply-To*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

X-IncomingHeaderCount: 9

Message-ID:

<*** Email address is removed for privacy ***>

Return-Path*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Since the sender's email address is not visible, I am not able to use the "BLOCK" feature. I had to manually add the email address to block the senders. It is also important to note that the emails don't even have any content included.

Here are some of the email addresses I already blocked...

*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Is there a way to prevent emails that hide the sender's contact info or do not include any content from going into my inbox? I ask because it is a long process to create a rule for each of these types of emails, especially since they all come from different email accounts.

I've been trying to block the ones coming in, but the emails are all random letters and not words, so I'm not sure I'll be blocking future emails. (For what its worth, I received another 400 or so emails overnight.)

So, before I abandon this email account, is there a way to BLOCK EVERYTHING except those emails I have in my contacts list? I think I should be able to do it, but haven't been able to figure out how to do it. Can someone help me with that?

I figured out how to BLOCK everything except email addresses in my Safe Sender List. All other emails are going into my JUNK folder. So now I am sifting through and adding legitimate emails to my safe sender list. Hopefully this will be the permanent solution. (Note: I have a LOT of contacts in my CONTACT list, and not in my Safe Sender list. Hoping anything in my contact list is considered safe...)

>>
Note: I have a LOT of contacts in my CONTACT list, and not in my Safe Sender list. Hoping anything in my contact list is considered safe...)
<<

In the past, contacts were considered safe by default - but the option doesn't read like that "Only trust email from addresses in my Safe senders and domains list and Safe mailing lists".

My outlook.com account is not my main account and doesn't get much spam (it helps that I don't use the address with too many website accounts, so it's not "out there"), so I can't give it a good test run to verify.

If they go into the Junk Folder, we don't have to do anything?!?!?!

How about spending hours per week looking through them for false-positives (i.e. real emails that end up amongst the 200+/day SPAM in the Junk Folders of all three of my Outlook accounts).

Either offer us a solution that involves COMPLETELY BLOCKING these emails from going anywhere near our email accounts (including Junk Folders), or don't bother answering at all.

For example, if I could block all emails that contain "141 Cuzco IV Building", I would reduce my SPAM workload by 90%, but after years of complaining, Microsoft do nothing.

You "Independent Advisors" offer nothing of value besides giving Microsoft an excuse to not employ real support staff, and actually solve these problems.

Diane has a great knowledge of the product and technical skills compared to some other Independent Advisors. I don't know her personally but I have read many (Outlook) articles she contributed on a website (I can't remember the site name right now). She's been doing this for over 20 years if I recall correctly.

You all just want to scream at anyone who responds to problems. It's uncalled for. I highly doubt she has the authority to do anything about spam filter or lack thereof. That responsibility belongs to Microsoft employees who are in charge of the servers/spam filters. There is no question that the filter is broken and no one here can help you.

This just started happening to me yesterday. I always get tons of spam mail in my junk folder daily but as of yesterday and even worse today, all those emails are going directly to my inbox and almost nothing to junk. Its the same ones I get everyday so something on Microsofts end has changed recently. These emails are nothing new because I recognize almost all of them because I delete them out of my junk everyday before. Now they flood my inbox instead.