To fight spam more effectively, Outlook is equipped with new tools designed to better filter spam and alert users of possible suspicious emails.
Spam is a real disaster. And, despite all the efforts of electronic messaging, there are always some who manage to slip through the cracks. Most often, these are companies trying to sell their services or products. However, the consequences can sometimes be much more dire, especially when it comes to a phishing attempt, with messages containing corrupted links leading to fake sites or malware. To deal with this problem, Microsoft announced in a log ticket deploy new solutions to prevent spam emails from appearing in Outlook inboxes and to better protect users against these threats.
Outlook anti-spam: improvements for more security
From now on, Outlook will display the sender’s email address next to their name for all emails placed in the “Spam” folder. It will thus be possible to determine at a glance whether the message is legitimate or not, without even having to open it or hover the mouse over the name. This saves time and avoids taking unnecessary risks! This feature is available now for the new Outlook apps on Windows, Mac, web, Android, and iOS. Email will also display, on these same platforms, a warning on emails placed in the spam folder if they contain suspicious links. You never know, sometimes you click by mistake or without thinking…
The Spam folder will also allow users who receive potentially malicious newsletters to report the email and unsubscribe with one click. This is practical, because previously, we continued to receive emails from the same sender, even after reporting one of their messages. This feature is available now in Outlook for Windows and on the web, and will be added to the iOS and Android apps soon.
Also new: users will now have the choice, in Outlook for Windows and on the web, between two unsubscribe options: unsubscribe from a newsletter or unsubscribe and delete all previous emails from the same sender in order to declutter your inbox.
Finally, in June, Outlook for Windows and on the web will add a new warning message for unverified senders to warn the user “a sender may not be who they appear to be or may have been spoofed”. The warning will then give the option to delete the message. This feature will also be added in the future for Outlook users on Mac, iOS and Android.
It is difficult to predict the effectiveness of these new filtering systems: Internet operators like email service publishers have been constantly fighting against spam for years, without succeeding in completely eradicating it. But in this ongoing war against spam, everything is in order to limit spam as much as possible.