When spam reaches your inbox

Why some spam gets through, and what to do about it.

No filter catches everything. What reaches you usually falls into one of two cases, and the useful response differs between them.

A new spam campaign

New campaigns often arrive looking legitimate, sometimes from senders or systems with a good reputation, so the filter lets them past. Detection normally catches up within a few hours, because we take feedback from a global network of spam reporting sources. Once that network confirms the campaign, the filter starts blocking it without you doing anything.

If the same message is still arriving the next day, treat it as the second case rather than waiting.

One sender who keeps getting through

Where a particular sender keeps reaching you, blocking them is quicker than waiting for the filter to learn. Ask your email administrator to blacklist the address.

Send them the message headers as well, because the visible From address is easily forged and the headers show where the message actually came from. See how to locate your email headers.

Check how aggressively you are filtering

Spam filtering has settings, and the default errs towards letting a doubtful message through rather than discarding it. If you would rather block more and accept the risk of losing the occasional legitimate message, see choosing your spam filtering settings.