Blocked Senders

[petlevo_con]

What is the maximum amount of blocked emails I can hold in my account?

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

You can block up to 500 senders.

https://www.bt.com/help/email/using-bt-mail-s-anti-spam-features

[andydenyer]

At the rate spam is getting through at the moment, I'm going to be filling up that list pretty quickly!

[licquorice]

You may as well try to nail fog!!

[Keith_Beddoe]

I do not use BT Mail, however there was a way of filtering out spam on the old Yahoo mail, which may also work for BT Mail.

Spam is not specifically targeted at you, its simply the fact that your email address is hidden in the BCC: field, so you receive it as you are on that list.

What you could do on Yahoo was to create a filter which specified that if the TO: field did not specify your email address then it would be deleted. This had to be the first rule applied.

If you did subscribe to mailing lists, then you needed to create a filter before that, to ensure you receive mail from that specific mail list.

What you are creating is a "white" list, so only mail specifically addressed to you, arrives in your inbox. That is similar to the way a call blocking phone works.

As @licquorice  has said, you will never be able to create enough blocking addresses, as there are an infinite number of combinations. 

[gg30340]

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@andydenyer wrote:

At the rate spam is getting through at the moment, I'm going to be filling up that list pretty quickly!

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That is because you are trying to block an infinite number of email addresses by blocking one email address. The spammers use a different email address every time they spam you. 

As has been posted, you need to set up a rule that basically blocks all email messages unless it is specifically for you ie you create a white list. You also need to be very aware of who and where you give out your email address and how you interact with spam email. Do not click links, do not "unsubscribe" , do not allow images to load without your permission, do not give out your email address to any company without checking what they will do with that information etc.

[andydenyer]

@Keith_Beddoe 

Thanks for that suggestion, and I have now set up such a rule and have it positioned between the rules I have for directing emails to my inbox (so gmail addresses of friends etc. - so my white list in effect), and the rules for directing potentially unwanted emails in to a special folder for reviewing at my leisure and either marking as spam or creating a new 'white' rule if it is genuine (e.g. other gmail addresses I had omitted from my white list).

At the moment, I have not set the rule to discard, but rather redirect them to a special folder just in case it catches something genuine that I hadn't thought of.  But at least it should keep my inbox clear of such junk.

And before you say that there is a separate 'safe senders' list, I have tried that but it doesn't seem to work (or, at least, that gets checked AFTER applying any rules set, as it has still sent emails from those senders to the special folder I have set up instead of my inbox, if, say they relate to a gmail address).