Non-blockable Phishing Mail

@ wrote:
Is there any way to stop this crap short of deleting my old email addresses and setting up new ones? (That would be a royal PITA)

I'm afraid not, short of whitelisting (creating rules for emails that CAN get through) rather than blacklisting (creating rules for emails that can't get through).
 
This is what I had to do when I did an "idiotic" thing some 2½ years ago that made me a target for spam. I tried blacklisting but it didn't work. Eventually I whitelisted my entire address list and then set up some simple criteria in several rules that whitelisted mails that I receive from legitimate organisations, eg. any mail that has the name of the legitimate company in the message header, or any mail that has the company's website address in the the sender's address.
 
Fortunately, the mailbox affected was not my main email address but another one I use only when signing up for mailings I wish to receive from companies or for any affiliation or subscription that may have the slightest possibility of being dubious. 2½ years later, and I'm still receiving mails as a result of that idiocy of mine 😠 though a lot less than before. Of course, they all get eaten up by my rules.
 
This solution may or may not work for you if the email address concerned is your main one. If not, my sincere condolences.

Thanks, Muddy7, for the reply! I was afraid it might come to something like this. Problem is, my "friend" had both my junk mail address and my normal address in her email contacts list, so my main address is getting bombarded too.

Oh dear 😞

@ wrote:
An idiot "friend" of mine had his wife respond to a phishing email to teach her a lesson about internet dangers. In doing so, her address book (which includes my email address) was compromised by the spammer. Now I get 6-10 spams a day, but I cannot set up a rule in Outlook to stop them because each email has a different sender "address" and obvioiusly fake URL; the spelling is also atrocious. Is there any way to stop this crap short of deleting my old email addresses and setting up new ones? (That would be a royal PITA)

It sounds like your ISP/Email provider isn't doing a very good job filtering spam/phishing emails. I wouldn't necessarily consider 6-10 daily to be that bad, but certainly annoying. You could try contacting your ISP/Email provider, or their website should have suggesstions for managing spam.
 
My suggestion would be moving to one of the popular web-based email services. They tend to do an excellent job at filtering out spam and phishing emails. As much of a PITA as it can be, you may find yourself wishing that you had done so sooner - I know I did. 
 
-Dan

Thanks, Dan.
 
Any suggestions as to a good web-based service provider? My current email provider is a giant joke.
 
Richard

@ wrote:
Thanks, Dan.
 
Any suggestions as to a good web-based service provider? My current email provider is a giant joke.
 
Richard

Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo tend to be among the most popular. Perhaps the community would like to chime in with their suggestions. 
 
-Dan
 
 

Sure thing @.
 
@...I use Outlook and Gmail that's pretty good at filtering Spam. I know others may use Thunderbird ..

@ wrote:
Sure thing @.
 
@...I use Outlook and Gmail that's pretty good at filtering Spam. I know others may use Thunderbird ..

I use Outlook and Gmail as well with no problems at all.

I use Outlook (the Office365 version not the web-based Outlook.com).
 
As a general rule, it seems to be pretty effective at consigning to the Junk folder spam coming to my main business email address. But if I recall correctly, not nearly so effective with the family of spams coming to my secondary email address as a result of my idiocy 2½ years ago (I say if I recall correctly, as I have been operating the rules I mentioned above for some time now, so difficult to remember). Before then, I had zero spams coming to that email address.
 
Anyway, so far I haven't had any spams coming via that email address for four whole days now (I regularly monitor the mails coming to that email address through a webmail page). But I'm not counting my eggs yet as recently I had a similar hiatus for three days 😠

Okay, super! I use Outlook, so I'm good there.
 
I also tried building some whitewash rules, and I have noticed a significant drop in the spam traffic.  Thanks for al the ideas!
 
Richard

"whitewash rules"
 
That's a new one on me. What's that?

As it was explained to me, creating rules that allow email to enter your inbox and tossing everything else into a spam folder.  Working so far!

So if I understand, the same as whitelisting: which is sending everything to the Junk folder (or, in my case, deleting everything) except for addresses (or other criteria) which you whitelist. Which is my current procedure with my problem email address (detailed in a previous post here).

Argggg!  I meant "whitelisting", not "whitewashing." I was think of my tax returns! (grin)

Yeah, those pesky tax returns 😠. Oh well...
 
Small problem with whitelisting when it's your main email address: anybody you omit to whitelist (for example, someone you subsequently meet and share email addresses with) will have all their mails consigned to your Junk folder unless and until your update your rules. Livable, but you have to keep a close eye on your Junk folder and modify your rules accordingly.