Need a better method to block junk email senders
Suddenly flooded with spam on my seldom used private email account. How do I block junk email senders.
All Replies (3)
It is much easier to set up your Junk controls and then train Thunderbird to recognise Junk mail.
If you see the word 'SPAM' Thunderbird does not mark emails as 'SPAM', if the emails are marked as 'SPAM then read section 'Any mention of SPAM:
Please work through the 'Junk controls' information to make sure your are set up correctly. Additional Info at link above.
When settings up Junk, do the following and in this order:
- 1. Set up preferences in:
Tools>Account Settings >Junk Settings for the mail account
Check the following:
- Select: Enable adaptive Junk Mail controls for this account
- Select: specific address books (double check that you have not got unwanted email addresses in your various address books)
- Do Not select: Trust Junk Mail Headers - leave this for now
- Select: Move New Junk messages to
If Pop
- Select: Junk folder on and the appropriate account
If pop set as Global account
- select Junk folder on Local Folders account.
If IMAP
- Select : 'Other' and the Junk folder on the imap mail account
Note: You can choose to send to Trash folder, but if some emails marked as Junk, but are not Junk go direct to trash you may miss them or even delete without realising they are good.
Do not set the auto delete after 'x' days just yet until you are sure it is working correctly - you do not want to lose emails that need to be trained as not junk.
These instructions are account specific so please check the Junk Settings for each mail account and check every setting.
- Click on 'OK'.
2. Set up default settings for Junk.
Tools> Options >security > Junk tab
note: if you have more than one account and have setup all emails to go to Local folders so that you view everything in one place then do not set up - leave unticked the 'when I mark messages as junk'
- Select: when I mark messages as junk
- Select: move them to the accounts 'Junk' folder
Do not bother with marking Junk messages as read because you may need to read and select some as Not Junk - they are then returned to the Inbox in an unread state.
- Select: enable Junk filter logging - useful if you need to know what the filter is doing at a later point.
- Click on 'OK'
3. Train the Junk filter
In the begining, for each email, you would need to select whether it is Junk or Not Junk. Remember to check the Junk folder for legit emails and reset them as Not Junk. Soon, the Junk learns your preferences.
If you wish to reset everything and retrain the Junk.
- Tools> Options >security > Junk tab
- click on the 'Reset Training Data'
- then work through the instructions above.
No offence, but Just a simple question : Why is Thunderbird still behind ?
Other online mail can block a sender at once with only one click in the context menu !
WAY EASIER THAN USING THUNDERBIRD WITH COMPLICATED SETTINGS.
This is not a solution to our problem but a hint towards Mozilla developers
Modified by Merel
To clarify how easy it is to mark emails as Junk.
In Thunderbird, Either right on email in list and select: Mark > As Junk or view email in Message Pane and click on the 'Junk' button.
Either method will send email to junk folder; this is remembered and future emails from that email address should be sent to junk folder.
So it is only a one or two click at most.
All the rest of the info I previously advised was ensuring that the Junk Controls were set up as required. Obviously, you do not need to do that everytime you want to click on the 'Junk' button.
This is not blocking a sender in the true meaning of the word. Your server will still accept those emails and Thunderbird simply downloads off the server. Thunderbird has no control over what the server receives. The emails are then filtered into Junk to bypass Inbox.
Thunderbird can also 'block a sender' by using Message Filters. See info here:
There is a program - nothing to do with Thunderbird - called MailWasher. This may suit some people, but I cannot advocate using it as I've never used it nor needed anything because having trained Thunderbird Junk Controls, all junk is sent to Junk. But it another option. http://www.mailwasher.net/
Just for the record, eg: MS Outlook email client does exactly the same. They use the words 'block sender' but it does not block anyone, it filters emails to Junk.