How to Stop Junk Email in Outlook: Block Unwanted Emails Effectively

Why Junk Emails Appear in Outlook

Junk emails, often referred to as spam, are unsolicited electronic messages sent in bulk to a large number of recipients. They can range from harmless advertisements to malicious phishing attempts. Several factors contribute to the influx of junk emails into your Outlook inbox:

Common Causes of Junk Email:

• Public Email Addresses: If your email address is publicly available, it becomes a target for spammers who harvest email addresses from websites, forums, and other online sources.
• Email List Subscriptions: Subscribing to email lists can inadvertently expose your email address to spammers, as these lists are often sold or shared.
• Online Activities: Engaging in online activities, such as filling out forms, making purchases, or downloading software, can sometimes lead to your email address being collected and shared with third-party marketers.
• Phishing Attacks: Cybercriminals often use spam emails to deceive recipients into clicking on malicious links or downloading harmful attachments. These emails may appear legitimate, but they are designed to steal personal information or infect your computer with malware.

How to Stop Junk Mail from Coming to Outlook

Outlook offers robust tools to filter and block junk emails. By customizing your junk email settings, you can significantly reduce the amount of spam that reaches your inbox.

Method 1. Block Senders and Domains

First of all, you can add the target email address into the black list to block its emails.

1. At the top of the Outlook webpage, select Settings.

2. Select Mail > Junk email.

3. Select Blocked senders and domains and select Add blocked sender. Enter the email address you'd like to block, or if you want to block all email from a domain, enter the domain name instead.

4. Select OK, and then Save.

Method 2. Create Rules to Automatically Delete Junk Emails

Secondly, you can create a new rule that can automatically delete emails from specific sender, containing specific keywords, and so on.

1. Click Settings in the upper right corner of Outlook webpage.

2. In the Settings pane, choose Mail.

3. Scroll down to the Rules section. Assign a name to manifest its purpose.

4. Now, you can add conditions to filter junk emails under the Add a Condition section. You can use People, My name is, Subject, Keywords, and Marked with information to filter the desired results more precisely.

5. Then, you can add an action from the given list. For example, choose Delete to automatically delete some spam emails.

6. Click Save to apply the settings.

Method 3. Block Specific Email Sender Manually 

If you want to block specific email addresses or domains, you can do so manually:

1. Open a Spam Email: Open an email from the sender you want to block.

2. Block the Sender: Click on the three dots on the upper right corner and select "Block"- > "Block xx."  This will prevent future emails from that sender from reaching your inbox.

Conclusion

While it's impossible to completely eliminate junk emails, by implementing these strategies, you can significantly reduce their impact on your inbox. By understanding the sources of spam, customizing Outlook's settings, and actively blocking unwanted emails, you can reclaim control over your email and focus on important messages. Remember to stay vigilant and be cautious of suspicious emails to protect yourself from phishing attacks and other online threats.

Bonus Tip: How to Manage and Back up Outlook or Gmail Emails

This article addresses the question "how to stop junk emails in Outlook?" If you’re considering backing up your Outlook or Gmail, MultCloud can be extremely useful. Trusted by over 3 million users, MultCloud is a multi-cloud management tool that facilitates the transfer or synchronization of files between various cloud services. Now, it has released the new feature "Email Migration," helping users to convert emails and its attachments from Outlook or Gmail into PDF and save to cloud or local drives.

For instance, you can save your Outlook emails as PDFs to your computer or cloud drives, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox, in bulk. MultCloud also enables you to access and manage all your cloud or Email accounts via a single application. Currently, it supports more than 30 different cloud services, including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Google Photos, iCloud Photos, FTP, WebDav, and more.