Very problematic junk email issue

Question

I'm getting hammered by a specific type of spam that is getting in my inbox, about 2-8 every hour. Is there a way to get help with it? There is no way on my end to filter, or block it as it comes from a new address each time. Allowing only people from my contact list is not possible.

The FROM is always a normal looking First & Last Name and the address is ******@outlook.com. The subject is a random number and the email content is 1-4 random words and sometimes numbers. There is an AI generated, pornographic PDF embedded or attached.

*Example*

From: Tona Canfield <******@outlook.com>

To: <list of random other emails with different domains>

Subject: account respectively persist weed

Attached: #MY MOVIE.pdf

Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm not aware there was an issue - because the filtering ebbs and flows. But the solution they suggested should help - it resets the settings. If it doesn't work, the solution is to delete the junk mail rule. You can do this using MFCMAPI if you use Outlook for Windows.

Answer 2

I appreciate the response Diane. That's a good idea, but I don't want to block PDF's. I have been diligently reporting the items as junk or phishing and the amount of this type of spam seems to be lessening.

I also saw this on another thread. Could be a joke, but the spam did reduce not too long after I did it. Is there any way to confirm this as true:

Ok, so it would seem that MS has now admitted there is an issue.... Text from MS reads;

Dean, I want to inform you that it is a global issue which has badly affected our users, and we have already escalated the issue to tier-2 team and our engg. are already working in this issue.

But I also want to inform you that it was recently resolved, but again we are getting this issue, so I can say that we are very close to resolve the issue, but right now we have a solution which has resolved many cases, let me help you on that.

To resolve the issue, we need to reset the junk filters so that we can trigger the server, so that then server will reset the junk filter setting and then your issue will be resolved.

Solution is to go into settings, Email, Junk email, scroll to the bottom of the page, under filters you will have two check boxes. Only trust email from and the other block attachments, pictures blah blah. Check both boxes, click save. Then uncheck both boxes and save... This will apparently reset the server. It may take a while but, according to MS, this resolves the issue......

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/options/mail/junkEmail

Answer 3

The only thing that is consistent is the .outlook domain of the sender address.

Unless things have changed, you can't block it (or other popular free domains)., only addresses.

Filtering on header contains ".pdf" should work - but if you receive legit pdfs, you need to set exceptions for those senders.

Answer 4

Hi Diane, I appreciate the response.

Everything is randomly generated, so there are no keywords to latch on to. The only thing that is consistent is the .outlook domain of the sender address. Should I block my own domain??? : )

This appears to be a Microsoft issue, and a possible huge security breach. Someone is able to generate or spoof a seemingly infinite amount of .outlook email addresses. I can only imagine what they would do if they were politically motivated.

I see a few of the emails are starting to go straight to junk, so hopefully the spam detector is learning.

Answer 5

Hi

I'm Diane and I'm happy to help you today.

Are there any keywords in it that are the same? Is the sender address or domain the same (and not one you'd get mail from)? You could filter on "senders address contains" and use the domain name in the rule.

If you don't get attachments normally, you can use a rule to delete attachments.

Or if the attachment name is always the same, use a message header contains rule - you would use the attachment name as the word.

Let me know how it goes, I'm here to help you further if needed.

-- Diane