Why am I suddenly getting so many spam emails on outlook.com from an apparent AI bot?

I've been following this thread whilst engaging in my own battle against excessive malicious email being sent to me,

I can't call it junk email or spam because that is irritating but benign, I stopped opting into online marketing a long time ago, if I do slip up in the UK all legitimate marketing emails are expected to come with a valid, functioning unsubscribe link, which I use,

the only unsolicited email I receive is scam mail of a phishing nature, most of it does get bumped to my junk mail box but some escapes into my inbox,

some is notoriously difficult to delete, it keeps respawning as if it over rides the delete function,

some lacks a sender address making it challenging to block,

in trying to understand how they work I realise they use pixel tracking, they hide an invisible image in the email that Outlook downloads from their server when I open the email and gives away the fact I've opened the email and may also report back other information like IP, time, OS, browser, email client etc.

I installed a browser add-on that identifies these tracking pixels and blocks them,

I've figured out that by selecting the filter option in Outlook.com, settings, email, junk mail, Filters: "Block attachments, pictures and links from anyone not in my Safe senders and domains list"

and also deleting every sender and domain in my "Safe senders and domains" list, I effectively block pixel trackers from being served by Outlook.com if I open an email,

well imagine my surprise, since the 26th of October 2023, the notification emails from MicrosoftAnswers@microsoft.com being sent when there is a reply to a question I'm following include a pixel tracker disguised as the Microsoft logo,

served from; https://answers.microsoft.com  and https://mucp.api.account.microsoft.com

microsoft is using the very same pixel tracking technology that spammers use to torment email users with their phishing emails,

does this conflict with microsofts email filters,

my Outlook.com accounts now regard emails from Microsoft to be 'junk mail' and 'spam', potential 'phishing' attacks,

how exactly does being policeman and villain, at the same time, work?

Please fix this, ive also been getting spammed for a couple weeks now!

junk mail is the herpes of the internet,

I'm turning this into a personal vendetta against junk mail, I'm sick of it,

I'm trying to eliminate all possibilities,

in settings, under junk mail;

I've nothing in the "safe sender and domains" list, nothing in the "safe mailing lists", I've not selected either of the filter options at the bottom,

every junk email I receive has it's senders address added to the "Block Senders and Domains" list,

I copy the address from the email, paste it into the list, hit return, if that address isn't already in the list a 'save' dialogue box will appear and I save it to the list,

if no 'save' dialogue box appears when I hit return it's because that address has previously been added,

if Outlook isn't revealing the senders address at the top of the junk email I have Mozilla Thunderbird installed on my PC as an email client, if I view the junk email in Thunderbird the address is visible, I copy it from there and then paste it into the Outlook block list,

once the sender is 'blocked' I report the junk email as 'phishing', this effectively deletes it,

once I've finished my clean up I go to 'deleted items' and empty the folder,

whilst still in 'deleted items' I then click on 'recover items deleted from this folder' and empty that folder,

I've gone through my inbox deleting anything that isn't important,

I've deleted anything in 'drafts',

I've deleted everything in the 'sent items' folder,

I went through 'People' which is the contact list, it appears some contacts have auto saved there in the past, I deleted any contacts that were redundant or I simply couldn't remember what they were for,

everything you delete gets bumped to the 'deleted items' folder, even when you empty that it still gets bumped to the 'recover items deleted from this folder' folder,

it's only when you empty that folder all the rubbish is finally purged, I've a sneaky suspicion that some emails have some sort of beacon or persistent cookie in them and it doesn't hurt to completely purge them from your account,

I've looked through all the other possible setting, I've deselected anything that seems superfluous,

under 'message handling' in 'settings' I'm experimenting with deselecting 'read receipts' and not automatically marking messages as read,

I've not set any 'rules' hence there is nothing under 'sweep'

under settings, general, there are 'advertising preferences' I've disabled every option,

I'm in the UK,

before blocking, reporting and deleting any junk email I first forward it to our National Cyber Security Centre so that they can examine it and act upon it accordingly,

the forwarding email address is on the webpage linked below;

https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing

depending which global judicial region you're in, there may be an appropriate govt. website you can forward your junk mail to.

if there isn't an appropriate govt. website handling junk mail you could email your representative and suggest one is created.

I seem to be winning, my junk mail has slowed to a trickle instead of constant torrent, I intend to persist, if I make any further discoveries I'll be keeping these threads updated,

never give up, never surrender!

edit: I've two hotmail accounts, on one there was an additional 'Archive' folder labelled 2021, it contained two emails of junk status I'd normally discard immediately,

I've no recollection of creating this folder or archiving these emails, they're inconsequential, but they did pop up in the list of attachments I reviewed and showed up when I checked that accounts cloud storage, (I forgot to note their size, but it wasn't insignificant)

I deleted the emails in the folder,then deleted the folder, then deleted the folder and the emails from the recover deleted items folder,

it's just a gut feeling, but these scammers seem to 'sense' when you're interacting with your email, as if they've got some sort of beacon or persistent cookie snuck away in your account,

hence the zero tolerance spring cleaning, disabling read reciepts, not automatically marking messages as read, I don't want them to know I've recieved their junk, you have to open the main body of the email to confirm it's junk and then deal with it, is this interpreted as interacting with the junk and an open invitation to send more?

I've been hammering this new regime for several days in a row, forward to report, block, report as phishing, delete, purge, tweak settings, OCD level spring cleaning,

the flow of junk has steadily reduced, at this point today it's stopped, I've not had a junk email in either account for something like 6hrs, which is unheard of!

edit #2: I think the spammers are using pixel tracking,

settings-email-junk email: tick the box marked "Block attachments, pictures and links from anyone not in my Safe senders and domains list"

I've completely cleared my 'safe senders and domains' list and also my 'safe mailing lists' list.

every email I view now has at the top the warning:

"Some content in this message has been blocked because the sender isn't in your Safe senders list"

I think this is as close as you get to blocking tracking pixels within the native settings of Outlook.com

I've not had any junk mail in 12hrs to either of my hotmail accounts.

Hi everyone

So I see that I'm not alone. Like everyone here for around a year now, I'm receiving DOZENS of spam EACH DAY, every one with nonsence words and a PDF file that I will never try to open.

So clearly put : Has anyone found a countermeasure yet ? It is my principal email address, and I can't change it. I need to filter this efficiently. What can I do ? Is there extensions or special configuration that I can do ? I can't ban all hotmail and outlook addresses.

I've been adding senders addresses to my junk email block list in the settings of Outlook,

some senders addresses aren't visible in Outlook,

I have Mozilla Thunderbird installed as an email client on my PC, the sender address is visible there,

I copy it in Thunderbird and paste it into the Outlook block list,

I report every junk email as phishing and this effectively deletes it from my Outlook junk mail folder,

I then empty my deleted message folder,

for a while some items seemed to bounce back to the junk email folder, but with repeated cycles I've managed to purge them,

(like whack-a-mole!)

I'm in the UK, I've added another step;

before starting the blocking, reporting and deleting I forward each item of mail to: ******@phishing.gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing

never give up, never surrender!