I have finally solved the problem of trying to sort out valuable emails in my inbox full of spam!

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Ok, maybe I am late to this party, and most of you already know about this. But I am sure that there is someone out there who is getting killed by spam who can benefit from following the simple changes that I have made.

Lately I have been particularly inundated with junk emails. For each one, I have been going through the trouble of 'blocking' the sender....to no avail. Somehow, the same senders, and others, keep getting through.

Outlook has settings for how strict you want your email filtered. My setting was on "High: Most junk email is caught, but some regular mail may be caught as well. Check your Junk Email folder often." This did not filter out spam emails very well at all. (How to find this setting, and others, is below.)

There is one setting even more strict. "Safe Lists Only: Only mail from people or domains on your Safe Senders List or Safe Recipients List will be delivered to your inbox."

This setting concerned me as I assumed that I would end up missing important emails. I was wrong. Last week I finally chose this setting and my life has changed!

When first using this setting, every email went to my Junk Email folder. I went to this folder every time I checked email. One by one, I added senders to my Safe Senders List or Safe Domain List. (See below on how to do this.) It was not long before there were very few good emails getting filtered. After all, most of our communications are with the same group of people. Of course, this means that you have to check your Junk Email folder often, especially at first!

So now, I only have to address any given sender once. After they have been added to my Safe Senders List (or Safe Domain List for everyone from a given company or organization) their emails are never filtered out.

This has been a huge time saver for me. If it helps you too, let me know!

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HOW TO SET "SAFE SENDERS ONLY" FILTER

1. In Outlook, open an email that you have received.
2. In the task bar at the top of the email click on "Junk."
3. Choose "Junk Email Options" at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
4. In the pop-up menu, click "Safe Lists Only", then "Apply."

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HOW TO ADD SENDERS TO YOUR "SAFE SENDERS LIST"

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above.
2. Choose "Never Block Sender" or "Never Block Sender's Domain". Be careful with white-listing domains. You don't want to white-list @gmail.com, or @hotmail.com!