Protecting Yourself From Spam

Avoiding Spam Blocking Images Blocking Specific Addresses

Blocking Specific Addresses

You can block addresses that you don’t want to receive any email from. All incoming messages from blocked addresses are automatically deleted, without bouncing back to the sender or going into one of your mail folders. If you want to block messages from a particular source, just set up a block on the sender’s address or entire domain. As long as the sender always uses the same mailing address or domain, this type of blocking is very effective.

 

Here’s How

  1. Go to the Mail Options page. (Remind me how.)

  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.

    The Blocked Addresses area on the Spam page shows all the addresses and domains that you have currently blocked.

    All your blocked addresses appear on the Spam options page.Enlarge

  4. In the Add a blocked address box, type the email address you wish to block, then click the Add button.

    Type the address or domain to block, then click the Add button.

    Tip: To block email messages from an entire domain (for example, baddomain.com), type the domain in this box.

    The address is added to on the list.

    The address you added appears in the blocked addresses list.

  5. To remove or unblock an address or domain from your list, select the entry to remove, then click the Remove button.

    Select any address to block, then click the Remove button.

    The address or domain disappears from your list of blocked addresses.

 

What’s Next

Blocking specific addresses is not a particularly good strategy for preventing random spam because proficient spammers constantly change the addresses and domains that they use. But it can be a useful strategy if you get repeated junk messages from the same sender and want to block them.

Click one of the Learn More links below to learn more about AT&T Mail’s other anti-spam tools.


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Words to Know

  • Blocked address: an email address or domain from which you never want to receive messages.
  • Domain: a set of Internet addresses, such as for a web site or email. On the Web, a domain is the part after "www." such as "my-domain.com".
  • Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in AT&T Mail or bookmarks in the Bookmarks Sidebar module.
  • Spam: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called "junk mail".
  • Spammer: someone who sends spam.