Microsoft Outlook isn’t filtering spam emails, users claim

Microsoft Outlook users on Monday claimed their email inboxes were being flooded with spam as the service suffered yet more disruption after a recent outage.

“I’m so close to quitting Outlook,” said one outraged user on Twitter. “The amount of junk mail I’m getting these days is absurd.”

Another person tweeted that they had switched off their notifications for the Outlook app due to an influx of unwanted emails. There have also been spikes in outage reports for the service on Down Detector since Monday morning.

Some suggest the issue could be due to the Outlook spam filter no longer working.

Sports broadcaster Georgie Bingham wrote on Twitter: “Anyone else’s hotmail throwing junk mail into their inbox even though the filter is set to the highest privacy setting? Very odd.” Replies to her tweet included some from people who had encountered the same problem.

Microsoft earlier said there was no issue with the Outlook junk filter. However, the company is still directing some users to direct message it to discuss the matter further. We’ve reached out to the company for comment.

Anyone else’s hotmail throwing junk mail into their inbox even though the filter is set to the highest privacy setting? Very odd.

(Yes I know, Hotmail is prehistoric - but when you’re freelance you keep the same number and email always. So 1996-forever it’s mine)

— Georgie Bingham (@georgiebingham) February 20, 2023

I'm so close to quitting Outlook lol

The amount of junk mail I'm getting these days is absurd. pic.twitter.com/ZMrKkDKH8F

— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) February 20, 2023

Did Outlook wake up today and decide "today's the day we turn off the spam filters?" pic.twitter.com/8rkQj97shI

— Brad Sams (@bdsams) February 20, 2023

Hey @Outlook, you had cause me to go into notification hell this morning. All the email in my Junk Mail folder is now going to my Inbox. It is bypassing my Safe Sender list, which has been set up for years. Please fix so I can turn back on my notifications for Outlook.

— Sarah Collins (@SarahCathCollin) February 20, 2023

Hello there, Will. Your tweet about your concern with the Outlook junk filter caught our attention. There is no known issue so far. However, let us help you look into it. To maximize the character limit, let us continue our conversation via DM. We'll wait for you there. -Rach

— Microsoft Support (@MicrosoftHelps) February 20, 2023

This is the second disruption Outlook has suffered this year following a widespread outage last month that impacted many of Microsoft’s services, including Teams and Xbox Live.

How to set up Microsoft’s spam filter

Microsoft Outlook’s junk email filter is turned on by default and set to “no automatic filtering”. You can make the barrier more aggressive by changing the level of protection by clicking on home, junk, and then junk email options.

You can also stop individual names and web domains from sending you emails by adding them to a blocked senders list. To do this, select settings, then view all outlook settings, then mail, junk email and enter the email address you want to block under block senders and select add.

The same can be done for domains by entering domain names under blocked domains and selecting add. Just make sure to hit save any time you make changes to your settings.