Creating Inbox Rules for Spam

This article is for faculty, students, and staff seeking information regarding how to create inbox rules for spam in Outlook. Users can create a rule to send spam emails to the Junk Email folder and prevent these emails from appearing in the inbox. This article will describe how to do so. 

Outlook Office 365 Web Client

  1. From Outlook on the web - select the cogwheel in the top right and then Rules

  2. Then select +Add New Rule

  3. Name the rule and in the first condition select “From” and then enter the senders email address

  4. Under the Action, select “Delete” and then Save the rule

  5. Once you have made sure that Stop processing more rules is selected, click Save.

  6. You will be taken back to the list of your Inbox rules where you can reorder or edit them as needed.

Outlook Office 365 Desktop Application

  1. Select the spam email you wish to filter.

  2. Right-click on the email and click Rules from the menu that appears.

  3. Click Create Rule.

  4. Enable the checkbox for "Subject Contains" and type {SPAM?} into the textbox next to it.

  5. Enable the checkbox for "Move the item to a folder" and click Select folder.

  6. Select Junk Email and click OK.

  7. If you would like to have this rule apply to all emails currently in your inbox:

    1. Click Advanced options.

    2. Click Next until you get to the screen with "Finish Rule setup" at the top.

    3. Enable the checkbox next to "Run this rule now on messages already in [inbox]."

  8. Click Finish.

  9. Click OK.

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