Office 365 Spam/Junk Email Filter Guide

Office 365 Spam/Junk Email Filter Guide

Daniel Lanius 17 April 2013

Spam/Junk Email Filter Settings for Outlook Web Access and Outlook 2010 applications.

**For individuals using Outlook Web Access

Block or Allow (junk email settings)

Use the Block or Allow settings to help control unwanted and unsolicited email messages by creating and managing lists of email addresses and domains that you trust and those that you don’t. To manage junk email settings, click Settings  > Options > Block or allow.

Junk email settings

SETTINGS	DESCRIPTION
Don’t move email to my Junk Email folder	Select this option if you want to turn off junk email filtering. If you select this, you won’t be able to use any of the other options on this page. Selecting this option doesn’t turn off the junk email filtering that’s been set by your administrator.
Automatically filter junk email	Select this option if you want to use junk email filtering. This filter is in addition to the junk email filter that’s been set by your administrator.
Safe Senders and Recipients	Safe senders and recipients are domains and people you don’t want diverted to your Junk Email folder. Add senders you trust and recipients that you don't want to block to this list.
Trust email from my contacts	If you select this check box, email from any address in your contacts folders will be treated as safe.
Blocked Senders	Blocked senders are domains and people you don't want to receive email messages from. Messages received from any email address or domain in your blocked senders list are sent directly to your Junk Email folder.
Don’t trust email unless it comes from someone in my Safe Senders and Recipients list or local senders	In addition to Safe Senders and Recipients and Blocked Senders, you can use this setting to treat all email as junk unless it comes from someone included in your Safe Senders and Recipients list or from senders in your shared address list.

Safe senders and recipients

Safe senders are domains and people you always want to receive email messages from. Safe recipients are recipients that you don't want to block, usually groups that you’re a member of. Messages received from any email address or domain in your safe senders and recipients list are never sent to your Junk Email folder. However, they may be blocked before they reach your mailbox by junk email filtering settings on the server that hosts your mailbox.

How do I add a sender or a domain?

1. 
   To add an entry to Safe senders and recipients, enter the email address or domain that you want to mark as safe in the Enter a sender or domain here text box, and then press Enter or click the plus icon  next to the text box.
   

• 
  For example, to mark all email from addresses that end in contoso.com as safe, enter contoso.com in the text box.
  
• 
  To mark a particular person as safe, enter that person's full email address. For example, to mark all messages from [e-mail] as safe, enter [e-mail] in the text box.
  

2. 
   Click Save to save your changes.
   

How do I remove a sender or domain?

1. 
   To remove an entry from Safe senders and recipients, click the entry to highlight it, and then click the minus icon .
   
2. 
   Click Save to save your changes.
   

How do I edit a sender or domain?

1. 
   To change an entry in Safe senders and recipients, click the entry to highlight it, and then click the edit icon .
   
2. 
   Make any changes you want.
   
3. 
   Click Save to save your changes.
   

Blocked senders

Blocked senders are domains and people you don't want to receive email messages from. Messages received from any email address or domain listed in your blocked senders list, are sent directly to your Junk Email folder.

How do I add a sender or domain?

1. 
   To add an entry to Blocked senders, enter the email address or domain that you want to block in the Enter a sender or domain here text box, and then press Enter or click the plus icon  next to the text box.
   

• 
  For example, to block all email from addresses that end in contoso.com, enter contoso.com in the text box.
  
• 
  To block a particular person, enter that person's full email address. For example, to block all messages from [e-mail], enter [e-mail] in the text box.
  

2. 
   Click Save to save your changes.
   

How do I remove a sender or domain?

1. 
   To remove an entry from your Blocked senders list, click the entry to highlight it, and then click the minus icon  .
   
2. 
   Click Save to save your changes.
   

How do I edit a sender or domain?

1. 
   To change an entry in Blocked senders, click the entry to highlight it, and then click the edit icon .
   
2. 
   Make any changes you want.
   
3. 
   Click Save to save your changes.
   

What else do I need to know?

1. 
   If you're a member of an email group and receive messages sent to the group address in your mailbox, you may want to add the group address to your safe senders and recipients list.
   
2. 
   There may be junk email filters on the server that hosts your mailbox that will screen messages before they reach your mailbox. Even if the sender or recipient of a message is in your safe senders and recipients list, it may be filtered out by the server before it reaches your mailbox.
   

**For Outlook 2010 users

Change the level of junk email protection

1. 
   In Mail, on the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Junk, and then click Junk E-mail Options.
   

2. 
   On the Options tab, select the level of protection that you want.
   

• 
  No Automatic Filtering     Although this turns off the automatic Junk Email Filter, messages are still evaluated by using the domain names and email addresses in your Blocked Senders List.
  

NOTE If you want to turn off the Junk Email Filter, you must also remove names from the Junk Email Filter lists.

• 
  Low     If you don't receive many junk messages, or want to filter only the messages that are the most obvious junk, select this option.
  
• 
  High     If you receive lots of junk messages, but don’t want to restrict messages from senders on your safe lists, select this option. You should periodically review messages moved to the Junk Email folder, because some legitimate messages might also be moved.
  
• 
  Safe Lists Only     This is the most restrictive option. Any message that is sent neither from someone on your Safe Senders List nor to a mailing list on your Safe Recipients List, is classified as junk.
  

NOTE   Changing the level of protection affects only those mail accounts that deliver and save messages to your computer. This includes all email accounts that use an Outlook Data File (.pst), including POP3 and IMAP accounts. Also, protected are Microsoft Exchange Server accounts that are configured to use Cached Exchange Mode, which use an offline Outlook Data File (.ost).

Delete messages instead of moving them to the junk email folder

1. 
   In Mail, on the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Junk, and then click Junk E-mail Options.
   
2. 
   On the Options tab, select the Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder check box.
   

NOTE When suspected junk messages are deleted, unlike other messages, they are not moved into the Deleted Items folder.