How to Set Spam Email Filters in Yahoo! Mail

Many people today are plagued by spam in their email inboxes. Yahoo! Mail's free email service has many spam protection features to help you filter them out. You can easily configure these email filters to keep spam from getting into your email inbox. Then you can either send the spam email messages to your trash folder or to another folder of your choosing. This makes it much easier to track spam email in Yahoo! Mail so that you can report the messages to Yahoo! with less time and effort.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Log into your Yahoo! Mail email account. Scroll down to "My Folders." Click "Add." Type "Suspicious Email" in the field provided and click "OK."

2. Click your "Inbox." Make a note of the names of the senders of spam email messages in the "From" field of your email inbox. Only write down the names of people who have spammed your email address at least twice using the same name.

3. Click on "Options" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. If you are using the new Yahoo! Mail, select "Mail Options" from the drop-down list. In the left hand side of the screen, click "Filters." Click "Create or Edit Filters."

4. Click "Add." Give your email spam filter a title under "Filter Name." Under "If all of the following rules are true," in the "From header" field, type the name of the spammer who has been sending unwanted messages to your email address. Under "Then..." choose the "Suspicious Email" folder from the drop-down list. Click the "Add filter" button.

5. Check your "Suspicious Email" folder regularly for email messages. Select the check boxes to the left of the spam email messages, then click the "Spam" button. Select any legitimate email messages and move them into your email inbox.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid creating filters for names that could apply to legitimate email addresses, such as the name of your bank or credit card company. If you receive spam or a phishing email from an email address with these names, report them directly from your email inbox.
• In Yahoo! Mail, a lower number gives an email filter a higher priority. For example, if you've created a filter for email to or from a certain address to be automatically moved to a folder marked "Important Email," and your spam filter is below this filter, the spam email will be moved to the "Important Email" folder. To change the priority of your email filters, select the filter and press the up or down arrows to the side of the email filter list.
• Never click on a spam email in any folder other than the "Spam" folder. When you view a spam email message in the spam folder, the remote images are automatically blocked so that the spammer can't tell that you've opened the message. When you do click on the email, do not click on any links within it.

[jaredbangerter]

on 10/28/2009 Spam gets terribly annoying. :p Thanks for showing me how to get rid of it. 5*

[edwardvance]

on 10/28/2009 This is great advice on setting Yahoo! email filters. I have an account with Yahoo! and truly need this!