How to Use Wild Cards to Block Domain Addresses in My Email

You can block email from a specific domain to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

You can block any email sent from a particular domain by using wild cards in the email blocking settings in an email program. Blocking emails will prevent the program from downloading the email, which will cut down on the amount of spam that reaches the inbox. All email programs have different procedures to block email, but they work in similar fashion.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Internet access

Instructions

1. Open the email program.

2. Locate the blocked senders list. Email programs often place this list in the "Options" section of the "Tools" menu or in the junk mail settings.

3. Click "Add" and enter an asterisk (*) followed by the "at" symbol (@) and the domain name to block all email from a specific domain. The address will resemble this: *@blockeddomain.com where "blockeddomain" is the domain you wish to block.

4. Save the new addition to the list.

Tips & Warnings

• You can block a username for any domain by using an asterisk instead of a specific username. For example, anyname@*.com will block the username "anyname" from your email regardless of the domain used by the sender.

• Blocking all email from a specific domain will block legitimate emails as well as spam.

References

• University of Central Missouri: Junk Mail Handling
• Northwestern University: Can I Use Wildcards in E-mail Addresses on my Blocked or Approved Senders Lists?

Resources

• Federal Trade Commission: Spam