Networking
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Sorting out spam messages
QAfter I return from visiting America, I get lots of spam messages sent to my Hotmail address. Why is this, and what can I do about it?
AThere are many possible reasons for this, and one useful preventive measure you could take next time is to set up a temporary email account, perhaps using Gmail, before travelling. Whenever you need to give an email address, perhaps to access hotel Wi-Fi services, use that instead of your main address. Once you’ve returned home you can then close that account.
Setting up and adjusting spam filters in Hotmail is straightforward in More Options on the Inbox screen. Select the Filters and Reporting option in its Junk Email heading.
There should be both a standard and ‘executive’ filter option, and you can also block content from unknown senders, for example.
The snag with using those for your main email account is that they can block messages you want to receive, so you have to check through those messages carefully. It’s usually better to block spam in your email client, where it can be reviewed more easily before deletion. Use a third-party spam filter like SpamSieve from c-command.com and it learns what’s unwanted and what’s not.
Training SpamSieve is quick, you can add your own rules to help, and it continues to learn as long as you use it, adapting as spammers change their tricks to try to defeat filters and reach your Inbox. It also works with a wide range of different mail clients, including Apple’s Mail, Airmail, Outlook and others.