My Outlook inbox is suddenly getting a ton of spam and I don't know how to stop it

Great, hope it works! So far so good here, will keep checking though to be sure.

awesome..thank you. i have done as u suggested and will keep my eye on the junk folder to make sure its not blocking addresses it shouldnt be

Jeff, I believe we're onto something with regard to having a "paid MS account vs a free one"!! But I did do a 'test' a couple of days ago with my free MS account after google searching the internet for various ideas. I found this query in Microsoft Community with these steps (as follows) that the initiator suggested and have been checking my JUNK folder religiously just to be sure my important communications & other mail wasn't going there after I initiated these suggested steps. And so far, so good... NO MORE SPAM MAIL in my inbox in my free MS account and nothing that shouldn't be going to my junk folder has gone there! Maybe this is the fix!

STEPS as follows:

1. Go to https://www.outlook.com and log in using your Microsoft account.
2. In the upper right corner on the Outlook browser bar, click the (Gear Icon)
3. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of that panel, click on (View All or it may say More Mail Settings)
4. Now on this page you'll see a left Category Panel with choices to select, select (Mail)
5. Under the Layout panel that should now show, select (Junk Mail or it may say Preventing Junk Email)
6. Scroll to the bottom of this page & under the FILTERS or it may say JUNK EMAIL FILTER, check the box that says: "Only Trust email addresses in my Safe Senders and Domains List and Safe Mailing Lists" or it may say: "Exclusive -- Everything is sent to the junk email folder except messages from your contacts and safe senders, Outlook service announcements, and alerts that you signed up for".
7. Be sure to SAVE and that's it!

As I mentioned above, just to be sure everything is copacetic... keep checking your Junk email folder regularly for several days. I've been seeing ALL of that crazy spam/junk there that I was seeing in my Focused inbox for weeks and now, it's all going where it should be. I haven't found ANY of my regular communication emails, or other mail that I regularly expect and want --in my Junk folder. Hope this helps you & everyone else who's had to deal with this nonsense! Fingers crossed. Best of luck.

thanks for the reply and confirming what i suspected.

NOPE! And that's why I agree with you... MS is messing with everyone who doesn't have a paid account! My other account with them was an "original" paid account for $19.95/yearly and the one for my business with their 365 was set up because of my business domain... needed to have one so that one is also paid for. But this one I'm using for free.. was originally set up to handle all my regular communication mail (not for my business) which the two paid ones are for. So I agree... MS is "pushing the paid subscription" and will continue to screw with everyone like they are now... inundating everyone's inboxes with the daily tons of SPAM MAIL!