How to manage spam emails in Yahoo email account?

Receiving spam emails in bulk can be really annoying at times and deleting them one by one is not really a solution. These emails usually have links to some products or services that they want you to buy. Some of them even contain links to malware, spyware and viruses that can fully infect your system and put your data at risk.

If you use Yahoo a lot to manage your emails, you should protect your email in any case. Yahoo Mail spam blocker, Spam Guard utility, email filter options are some of the ways you can ensure security.

The Spam Guard utility is automatically enabled to protect your account, but that’s not enough. You will need to add filters and block spam messages coming into your inbox.

Why do spam emails exist?

Whenever you register for something online, such as online shopping, job boards, clubs, online games, software downloads, etc., your email address is shared with other similar websites if the privacy policy of the company allows it. So make sure you read that beforehand to avoid getting spam emails.

Another reason you get spam from Yahoo is when you randomly fill out a form with your email address. So the best idea is to have a secondary email address to give out for online purchases, gaming, or when filling out a form.

How to stop spam emails on Yahoo?

To stop receiving spam emails on Yahoo, there are several ways, as explained below:

Block email addresses

To block email addresses in your Yahoo Mail account, follow these instructions:

Sign in to your Yahoo mail account and click on the mail icon in the top right corner.
You will see the inbox, click on the ‘Settings’ icon on the top right corner.
Then click ‘More Options’ and you will see a new window.
From the options given in the left column, click on ‘Security and Privacy’.
You will see a header like ‘Blocked addresses’ followed by (+ Add). Click ‘Add’ to add an email address to the block list.

Activate the Yahoo spam filter

You can then activate the spam filter for your Yahoo account to divert such emails from Yahoo, please follow the steps below:

Sign in to your Yahoo account and click the mail icon in the top right corner.
You will see the inbox, click on the ‘Settings’ icon on the top right corner.
From the options given in the left column, click on ‘Filters’.
Then click ‘Add new filters’ and in the right column, enter the empty fields like ‘Filter name’, ‘Set rules’ and ‘Choose a folder to move to’.
Click ‘Save’ and that’s it.

How to disable the spam filter on Yahoo?

In case you need to disable the spam filter on Yahoo, you can do it from the yahoo spam filter settings as explained below:

Sign in to your Yahoo Mail account and click the mail icon.
Then click on the settings icon which is on the top right corner and then click on ‘More options’.
Click ‘Filters’ in the left menu and a new page will open. Click the ‘+Add’ option and type ‘no spam’ in the Filter Name text box and ‘@’ in the text box next to Sender contains. Make sure the ‘Inbox’ option is active for the ‘where mail will be delivered’ option.

How to report an email as spam to Yahoo?

Even if you have blocked certain email addresses, you will still receive spam emails. However, you can report emails to Yahoo so they can prevent future emails from being sent to you.

For classic Yahoo mail

Here is how to do it:

Select the check box next to the message in your inbox that should be reported as spam.
In the toolbar above your inbox you will see ‘Spam’, select it to move the message to the spam folder.

For Basic Yahoo Mail

The steps here are almost the same, just the interface is quite different,

Select the check box next to the message in your inbox that should be reported as spam.
In the toolbar above your inbox you will see ‘Spam’, select it to move the message to the spam folder.
Alternatively, you can also mark an individual message as spam while reading it, as follows:

On the toolbar, select ‘Actions’.
Click ‘Report as spam’ and then select ‘Apply’.

For the Yahoo Mail app

If you’re viewing emails in the Yahoo Mail app, you can report individual messages as spam right there:

Open the email you want to mark as spam.
Then select the three dots to the right of the sender’s name.
From the drop down menu, select the ‘Spam’ option.

What if Yahoo’s spam filter doesn’t work?

If the filters are not working correctly or the spam emails are not being sent to the correct folder, make sure;

There shouldn’t be a conflicting filter over a filter that doesn’t work.
Do not use negative criteria like ‘does not contain’ instead of positive criteria like ‘begins with’.

Tips to avoid spam emails

You should also try to avoid receiving spam emails in the future by keeping the following in mind:

Avoid replying to an unknown sender.
Do not give out your email address to random people.
You don’t need to respond to emails asking to unsubscribe from services you never subscribed to in the first place.
Do not believe websites that claim to help you with spam emails, as some of them may scam you.