Receiving emails intended for someone else (not an address typo)

Hi LargeBlackCoffee,

We sincerely apologize for not being able to answer your concern in a timely manner. We are experiencing high contact volume at this time which has caused our delayed response.

We recommend you to create a rule that can block unwanted/spam emails that were not supposed to be sent to your email address. Here are steps:

1. Sign in to your Outlook.com account with your Microsoft account.
2. In the upper right corner of the page, click on Gear icon -- More mail settings...
3. Under the Customizing Outlook section, choose Rules for sorting new messages.
4. Click on the New button.
5. Under Step 1: Which messages do you want this rule to apply to,
    a. First drop-down menu - choose To/cc address
    b. Second drop-down menu - choose does not contain
    c. Third field - input your email address.

6. Under Step 2: What action do you want to apply, click on Delete these messages-don't even put them in my Deleted folder
7. Click Save button.

If you wish to report abuse against a non-Hotmail account, please refer to the Solution Article below:

How to report Abuse or Spam in Microsoft Hotmail

Thanks!

Hi carolinejupp,

We take our customers account security seriously. One possible reason why there are cases like this is that the senders mistakenly sent the email to you by entering your email address rather than sending the email to the appropriate recipient.

Example:

The correct recipients address is *** Email address is removed for privacy *** and your address is *** Email address is removed for privacy ***. The senders might input incorrect domain name.

Other possible reason is your email address was already used before by another user. The old account user deleted the email address and when the email address was available you were able to sign-up with the account. It is possible that the senders was not aware that the email address is already deleted by the old user.

Rest assured that once an email address is already registered no other user can register the same email address.

To stop receiving emails not intented to you, I suggest that you use Blocked senders list to block incoming emails. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. In your Outlook.com Inbox, click the gear icon beside your Profile name.

2. Select Mail more settings.

3. Under Preventing junk email, click Safe and blocked senders.

4. Click Blocked senders.

5. Type in an address or domain in the Blocked e-mail address or domain: field.

6. Click the Add to list >> button.

7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to add more entries in the "Blocked senders:" window.

Thanks.

Hi Luis Daniel Mesa Velásquez,

Thank you for posting on the Microsoft Community. 

I understand you are getting emails that are not intended for you.  I have found out that you have posted about the same issue on this thread.

Please refrain from creating posts about the same issue.

Thank you,

Leah V.

Hi everyone,

For this issue, I would like to cite an example as to what a recycled email is:

Let's say I have the email account *** Email address is removed for privacy ***, and I have decided to create an alias for it, named *** Email address is removed for privacy ***. Then I've decided to delete my alias address. After several months/years, someone took the *** Email address is removed for privacy *** account as a main account. Now, the new owner of the *** Email address is removed for privacy *** account receives emails from my contacts/friends since they still know that it is still my working email. Additionally, if I subscribed to Facebook or any social networking sites, the new owner of that address will likely to receive notification from those sites.

In order to resolve this issue, the best thing to do is to inform those who are sending you messages that you are the new owner of the email. Also, if you have received newsletters, just unsubscribed. While for the social networking sites, you need to contact their support and request your email account to be removed from their system/database.

You may also just block those unwanted messages, which you can do so by doing the previous steps mentioned in this thread.

Hi Francis,

Thanks for the reply. If I understand you correctly, you believe that I have taken the email address of a previous user. I have had the same email account for 13 years. It does not make sense to me that this problem should suddenly arise now. I realise I can go to the companies that are sending me the emails but this takes time and is something I don't think I should have to do.

regards,

Joe

Hi JoeHennessyirl,

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. I understand that you're receiving emails directed for someone. You mentioned that you've had this email address for thirteen years which would eliminate the possible cause of recycled usernames. In this case, kindly follow Francis_S' suggestion to contact the senders of the emails in order to stop these emails from contacting you since it could be that someone has used your email address for notifications.

Please let us know if you have additional questions.

Thanks!