Why isn't a certain email being blocked when I have reported it

Question

I have a certain person repeatedly contacting me who I do not know and I am not interested in their disgusting content. I have repeatedly reported this as phishing and supposedly they are deleted and blocked when I do that but it keeps showing up with the same content and email address as [Moderator note: Removed PII]@hotmail.com. I want this reported and blocked so they do not have access to my email so why isn't this working?

Answer 1

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Hi lynn sipes

Thanks for posting, and I understand how frustrating it is to keep receiving unwanted and inappropriate emails despite reporting them.

Have you already tried the Q&A Assist suggestions? In addition, if the sender keeps getting through despite being blocked, you can add a rule as a workaround:

1. Sign in to Outlook on the web
2. Go to “Settings” > “Mail” > “Rules”
3. Create a new rule:
   • Condition: “From” contains the email address (or keywords commonly used in the message)
   • Action: Move to “Junk Email” or “Deleted Items”
4. Save the rule

Please feel free to let me know how it goes. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.

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Answer 2

Reporting a message as phishing in Outlook.com does not block the sender. It only reports the sender and message to Microsoft for analysis.

To actually stop messages from that address from reaching the inbox, the sender must be explicitly blocked.

Use one of these options:

1. Block directly from a message
   1. In Outlook on the web/Outlook.com, right‑click a message from that sender.
   2. Select Block > Block Sender.
   3. Future messages from that address will be delivered straight to Junk Email (or End‑User Quarantine if enabled by an administrator), not the inbox.
2. Add the sender to the blocked list in settings
   1. In Outlook on the web/Outlook.com, select Settings > Mail > Junk email.
   2. Under Blocked senders, enter the unwanted email address and select Add.
   3. Select Save.

Notes:

• Messages in Junk Email are automatically removed after 14 days and cannot be recovered.
• Reporting as phishing is still useful for Microsoft’s filters, but it does not itself block future messages from that address.

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References:

• Phishing and suspicious behavior in Outlook
• Block a mail sender in Outlook
• Block or unblock senders in Outlook
• Sender Support in Outlook.com