Outlook has a built-in spam filter that automatically deletes received unwanted emails or moves them to the junk folder. You can adapt the filter rules to your needs in the filter settings.
Quick Guide: Setting the Outlook Spam Filter
- Go to the “ Welcome « .
- Click on “ To block « .
- Select “ Spam Options « .
- Set the filter protection level to « Low » or « High » to enable Outlook's spam filter.
Note
The instructions in this article are valid for the Outlook version of Microsoft 365 as well as Outlook 2021, 2019, and 2016 versions.
Outlook spam filter configuration options
Outlook offers some settings options for spam management. In addition to classic filtering, the level of which you can define, you have, among other things, the option of blocking sender addresses or defining secure sender and recipient addresses.
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Setting up the classic spam filter
The Outlook spam filter configuration menu is normally opened via the ribbon on the “ Welcome « . The exact procedure depends on your Outlook display settings: if you have configured the classic ribbon, first press the “ To block » (which you will find in the “Delete” category), then on “ Spam Options « .
In the simplified view of the ribbon, you will only find the “ To block » only after clicking on the three-dot icon:
In the next window, activate the Outlook spam filter by selecting “ Weak » Or » Pupil « . We advise you to test both for a few days, in order to identify which variant suits you best. If there is too much spam remaining in the inbox, switch to the « High » option. On the other hand, if too many normal emails, such as newsletters to which you subscribe, are categorized as spam, return to “Low”.
Note
Outlook's spam filter places all spam emails in the » Spam » from the email account. Check regularly if normal emails have been placed there by mistake.
Set approved senders and recipients
Outlook gives you the ability to create a whitelist of trusted addresses. All emails from senders not included in this list are then automatically categorized as spam. You should therefore think twice before activating this function: experience shows that among the filtered emails there are also many normal emails, such as new interested customers who want to get a quote.
To enable the whitelist, click on the option “ Approved List Only » in the spam email options. Next, switch to the “ Approved Shippers » and enter all the addresses from which you wish to receive emails. Check the box “Automatically add contacts I send mail to as approved senders” to automatically add your saved contacts to the list.
Register blocked senders
In the list “ Blocked senders « , you see all sender addresses that have already been blocked. If you want to specify an address manually, simply click “ Add « . The “ DELETE » also allows you to unblock individual addresses if necessary.
Block selected country domains
Many spam senders use sender addresses with domains from rather unknown countries, for example small island states in the South Seas, where domains can be registered cheaply. The “ International » allows you to automatically mark certain country domains as spam from which you will probably never receive useful emails.
Manually mark an email as spam
If an email is not automatically identified as spam, simply mark it in the inbox by right-clicking, then successively selecting » To block » And » Block sender « .
Advice
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Spam filters recognize spam based on typical content such as frequently used links or web beacons used by spammers. Known email servers that are used for sending spam are graylisted by email providers and intercepted directly. This way, they do not arrive on your computer and therefore do not need to be checked by Outlook's spam filter. This resource-saving method is based on DNS-Based Blackhole Lists (DNSBL), blacklists of dubious sender addresses viewable in real time.
It is important that the Outlook email filter is well trained to improve its detection rate. If you receive spam emails in your inbox, you should therefore mark them as spam and not simply delete them. These reports allow the spam filter to learn and increase its success rate. The same goes for emails that have been mistakenly identified as spam. You can also configure Outlook's spam filter so that certain email addresses are systematically blocked.
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