Yahoo! Mail Tutorials

Protecting Yourself From Spam

Avoiding Spam Blocking Images Blocking Specific Addresses

Blocking Images

Most images sent by email are web-based graphics, which are files that are downloaded from a remote computer. Yahoo! Mail lets you stop these images from loading when you open a message.

This is a good idea for several reasons, including:

  • The images in a message may be offensive.
  • Spam that contains images can contain web beacons, invisible tags that notify the spammer when you open the message and indicate that your email address is active.

If you’re sure that the images in a particular message are safe, you can explicitly choose to view them.

Example of a message with image attachmentsEnlarge

Note that even with image blocking enabled, some images can still appear in your email. These include:

  • Images outside of the email messages, such as navigational, informational, and advertising images.
  • Images that are sent as attachments and appear below the text of the message.

 

Here’s How

  1. In a browser, go to your Yahoo! Mail page.

  2. Select Mail Options from the Options menu.

    Select Mail Options from the Options menu.

    The General options page appears.

  3. On the left side of the mail options page, select the Spam option.

    Select the Spam option.

    Tip: You can also go directly to the Spam options page by clicking the Options link in a message with blocked images.

    Click the Options link in a message with blocked images

  4. On the Spam page, select one of the blocking options for incoming images:

    Select an option for blocking images

    • Always show images, except in Spam folder—When you open a message in the Spam folder, none of the images that the message contains are downloaded. Images in all other messages are automatically downloaded when you open the messages.

    • Show images only from my contacts and certified senders—When you open a message from someone on your contacts list or from a certified sender, the images are downloaded.

    • Initially block all images—When you open a message, none of the images that it contains are downloaded. This is the default setting.

  5. Click the Save Changes button to save your settings.

    Click the Save Changes button.

 

What’s Next

When image blocking is enabled and you receive a message that contains image attachments, a message appears above the headers in the Reading Pane for that email message, informing you that the message contains blocked attachments. If you want to see the blocked images, click the Show Images button.

Click the Show Images button to see the HTML images in a mail message.

You can disable most image blocking at any time by repeating the steps above and then selecting the Always, except in Spam folder option.

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Words to Know

  • Spam: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called "junk mail".
  • Spam folder: a permanent folder that SpamGuard or SpamGuard Plus uses to hold messages it considers spam.
  • Spammer: someone who sends spam.