Settings: Junk Mail: Blocked Senders: Domain Gostarmedia.com & *@gostsarmedia.com do not block incoming spam

Dear user,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

We understand your frustration with being inundated by spam from the gostarmedia.com domain, and that your attempts to set up rules and blocked senders have not been successful. Thank you for detailing the steps you've already taken, which helps us better understand the issue you're facing.

The situation you're experiencing is a common tactic used by spammers, who frequently change subdomains or forge sender information to circumvent blocking rules. Although you've set up blocking rules for @gostarmedia.com and gostarmedia.com, the spam still gets through, which might indicate that the senders are using variations or that these emails are being marked as "not junk" before reaching your inbox.

Here are some more in-depth suggestions and possible explanations:

1. Regarding Wildcards and Domain Blocking Limitations: Your suggestion about wildcards (*@*.gostarmedia.com) is indeed very valuable, and many users would appreciate more flexible blocking options. Currently, Outlook.com's "Blocked Senders" feature primarily targets complete email addresses or top-level domains (like gostarmedia.com). For more complex subdomain variations, a simple domain block might not be enough to cover all cases.
2. Review Your Existing Rules: While you've set up rules to categorize emails containing "gostarmedia" as spam and move them to the Junk Email folder, spammers sometimes use clever methods to bypass these rules, such as using terms in the subject or body that don't directly match, or sending from seemingly unrelated addresses that then reference the domain in the content.
   • Please double-check your rules to ensure they use "Sender address includes" instead of "Sender address equals".
   • Make sure this rule has a higher priority (i.e., it's placed higher in the list) so it's processed before other rules.
   • Consider adding more conditions, for example, if the email subject or body also contains "gostarmedia," then treat it as spam.
3. Utilize the "Mark as Junk" Feature for Training: You've been manually deleting these emails, but a more effective approach is to mark them as junk instead of just deleting them. When you mark an email as junk, you are "training" Outlook's spam filter. The system learns the characteristics of these emails and will be better at identifying and blocking similar emails in the future.
   • In your inbox or any folder, select the emails from gostarmedia.com and then click the "Junk" button at the top.
   • Even if they are already in the Junk Email folder, you can mark them as "Phishing" or "Junk" to further reinforce the filter's learning.
4. Check Your "Safe Senders" List: Confirm that gostarmedia.com or any related addresses have not been mistakenly added to your "Safe Senders" list. If they are on the safe list, these emails will be allowed through even if you have blocking rules in place.
   • Go to Outlook.com Settings > Mail > Junk email.
   • Check the "Safe senders and domains" and "Safe mailing lists" sections.
5. Beware of Sender Spoofing: You mentioned that the emails might not have been sent from your account, which suggests the possibility of sender spoofing. In such cases, even if you block a specific domain, attackers can bypass filters by forging sender information. Microsoft 365 has robust anti-spam capabilities, but highly spoofed emails can sometimes still slip through. Continuously marking them as junk is key to improving identification rates.

We understand your desire for Hotmail to more effectively block this spam. Microsoft's anti-spam team is continuously working to improve its filtering algorithms. Your feedback is crucial for these improvements.

Please try the suggestions above and persist in marking these emails as junk. Over time, Outlook's filters will become smarter at identifying and blocking spam from gostarmedia.com.

Most sincerely,

Henry-N - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

I have tried all your suggestions, but I still get gostarmedia.com junk. Nothing works.

Some other thoughts.

Utilize the "Mark as Junk" Feature for Training

To be clear, when you do this, it adds an entry to your blocked senders list. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when should I expect you to update your server-side filters to block this domain? It's utterly pointless to spam the Blocked Senders lists with individual email addresses from the same domain.

Check Your "Safe Senders" List.

I already did this! Next?

Beware of Sender Spoofing

In order to perform a sender spoof they still need to have a domain attached? No? Also, I'm aware of this approach and their email address doesn't contain my own.

None of this is working. Can you please just ban the domain?!

Thanks!

Same with me, driving me crazy.

Same problem here.

I have tried to block the domain and set up several different rules, but still these gostarmedia emails continue to get through. Very odd?

HELP!