Block those unwanted senders
April 30th, 2008
(16 votes, average: 4.13 out of 5)
Loading ...We all get some unwelcome emails from time to time. You probably do what I do and just press delete, but sometimes you need a bit more muscle on your side to deal with them.
That’s where the Address Blocker comes in handy. It stops emails from addresses you don’t want to hear from. Just what you need? Then here’s how to do it.
All-new Yahoo! Mail users:
Click Options, then on the list on the left click Spam. Right in the middle of the page you’ll find a space in the “Blocked Addresses” section. All you’ve got to do is put any email addresses you don’t want to get mail from in here, then click Add. There you go. Told you it was easy. Here’s what it should look like:
Classic version of Yahoo! Mail users:
Click Options, then find the link for “Block Addresses“. Click the link for “Block Addresses” and enter any email addresses or domains you want to block. Then click Add Block. Just as easy for the classic mail users as the all-new mail users. Here’s what it looks like:
Happy emailing!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: anti-spam, classic mail tips, yahoo mail tips, yahoomail
14 Comments Add your own
1. Studley | April 30th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Nice feature, but what happens to the blocked email - will the sender receive any kind of blocked/returned notification, or does it just disappear into the ether?
—-
Hi Studley,
The sender does not receive any notification. In fact, that’s one way spammers harvest active accounts is by return receipts and/or unsubscribe requests. Then they just change the email address that they send from, and… you guessed it you get more spam in your inbox.
Thanks,
Andrew
2. Jim | May 1st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
It would be better if you could just right-click on the email and add sender to Blocked Addresses directly. That would avoid having to either open the unwanted email or view the Reading Pane to get the address of the sender. Would also like to read the reply to Studley from 30/04.
3. coxy | May 5th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Studley has a great point - does he get an answer?
Also, I’d like to add that whilst blocking email addresses is effective, what would be appreciated is that the Yahoo! Mail team took a little time to work on improving their spam filtering.
Over the past few months I’ve noticed that the number of spam emails that are by-passing the spam filter and making it into my inbox are increasing. Whilst I don’t mind marking each one as spam, I’m not entirely convinced that this is helping rid my inbox of spam as well as it should be. Is your algorithm still up-to-scratch?
What’s more, I’d like to question why Yahoo! Mail haven’t been the first webmail platform to jump aboard the email phishing scam campaign by checking URLs against a database of known phishing sources - such as phishtank.com?
I understand that *most* browsers already have phishing technology built in, or are set to, but it would surely be wise to neutralise the problem where it primarily begins / could be best implemented - via email.
I mention this because I’m seeing a lot of bank account / building society phishing attempts passing through my spam folder - but occasionally one slips through the net into my inbox. Whilst I’m smart enough to spot a phishing email, I think its safe to suggest that most of your users aren’t ready for that responsibility just yet.
4. David Clifford | May 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Can you put a link direct from the spam box so that by clicking it the unwanted email goes direct into the blocked addresses?
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Hi David,
In the new mail, you can highlight a message and then click the “Spam” button at the top of your mailbox. In fact this is the best way to move a message into your spam folder, as it sends a message to our Spam center so that we can learn what is and what isn’t spam.
Thanks,
Andrew
5. d | June 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
i am also getting more and more phishing emails last few months and some getting through to mail it is becoming a problem!!
6. Jev Foster | June 6th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Ofcourse it is a great feature. But I want to know a thing that what happened when I block 500 addresses as spam. What can I do.
Yahoo mail classic has a great feature that is when I select a message as spam it is automatically blocked. We want the feature in Yahoo mail beta. Yahoo mail beta should remove Graphical Ads and should replaced it by small ads like google and in the openning of yahoo mail beta there are three or four ads that cause a problem by making slow the engine. These should be remove. We also want Spam Guard Plus in Free Yahoo mail and want unlimited black list like Hotmail.
Thanks
7. Maggie Turner | June 9th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’ve also noticed a lot more spam in my in box. They’re mostly pleas from Asian or African sounding names but worryingly, an increasing number purporting to come from banks. I also failed to receive two regular emails from magazines although they were perfectly O.K. up till last Dec. The spam filter seems a bit askew!
8. Chrissy | June 9th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
In the previous version of Classic, you could mark an UNOPENED message as spam and the sender would go straight into the blocked addresses. You could then check your blocked list just to make sure you hadn’t made a terrible mistake.
Now you actually have to open a mail to see the sender to block it. OPENING SPAM IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. What are you playing at Yahoo? Congratulations on increasing security risks AND increasing the likelihood of spam in one masterly swoop!
9. Chrissy | June 10th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Msg 6
I think you will find that Yahoo mail classic no longer has the automatic blocking feature in messages you select as spam. Now you have to open the message to find the sender and then manually block it. Yahoo, what are you playing at?
10. Jev Foster | June 11th, 2008 at 3:08 am
I support 2. Jim and I want to add that it will be very great too if there(Y! mail) inbox or other accounts have a extra button nammed Block address or Block domain. I also have a question to Yahoo that what is difference between selecting a mail(in inbox) as spam or dragging and dropping it in spam folder in Free Yahoo Mail and another question is: Am I make my free yahoo spam guard more powerful by practising my spam guard by clicking mail spam which is spam
Thanks,
Jev Foster
11. Bunts | June 13th, 2008 at 8:57 am
A filter would be more use to me. My daughter used my computer, and after 3 months, I am still getting be-bo messages, which all come from different addresses. At present, I would need to block each separate address.
With a filter, I could block, for eg addresses CONTAINING the words ‘be-bo’ then I wouldn’t get all these messages
12. Paul | June 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I find the spam filter is usually effective aslthough sometimes it allows spam into my inbox.
However I receive genuine emails from certain addresses several times a week which are placed in Spam. I always click on these as “Not Spam” but they continue to be treated as such. I like to delete Spam regularly but must be very careful to check each Spambox before doing so otherwise I can lose important messages
13. ronnie | June 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
When I reached 500 blocked addresses I started to get loads more spam. I cleared the block thinking I could start again, but none of the spammed messages have gone on to the block list, as it used to do. I hope this isnt a cynical ploy to get us to upgrade and pay!!!
14. Ian Ager | July 4th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Reading these comments re SPAM in your inbox, I cant say I am surprised that Yahoo! have declined to comment. I have reported the issue a number of times since March without so much as an an acknowledgement. I have moved my primary email account to Google mail, after 10 years with Yahoo! It makes a pleasant change not have banking phishing emails in my inbox! Still use Yahoo! but just for leaving email details in places I’d rather not, to be frank it’s about all Yahoo! mail is useful for now.
I just hate it when you *know* you have a problem but refuse to acknowledge it.
—
Hi Ian,
Sorry to hear that you’re moving Google for your mail. I can assure you that our team takes Spam seriously and we are working hard to try and limit the amount that makes it into your Inbox. It’s a struggle to stay ahead of the people that are sending the spam, but we’re committed to making your Inbox a safe place with no spam.
There are a lot of issues affecting the amount of spam someone receives into their inbox: from registering with dodgy websites, new spamming technology, having an easy to guess email address, even a problem with one of our spam filters (things do break sometimes). But the best thing to do when spam does get into your inbox is to mark it as spam. This sends a message to our filtering servers and the more messages that are sent, the better they can learn.
Hope that helps,
Andrew - Yahoo Mail Team
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