Did you know that an estimated 162 billion spam emails are sent every day ? That is around 50% of all the emails in circulation on any one day. Many of these spam emails are associated with advertising, but there are also many from criminal organisations trying to get hold of your data (these are called "phishing" mails, where the criminals try to get you to enter bank details etc).
The email providers have a tremendously difficult job dealing with all of this. Each day over 300 billion emails get sent and the providers have to try and work out which ones are genuine mails and which are spam or from criminals. To do this they use special software filters that spot any suspicious or spam emails and the providers then block these emails. This means the recipient never sees the mail as it does not even reach their inbox.
These filter are estimated to be about 95% accurate - this means that a few spam emails will get through to your inbox. What it ALSO means is that a few emails that are genuine will get blocked. Some providers are more aggressive that others at blocking emails. Be aware that your computer/tablet/phone will also look at incoming mails and your device will move any suspicious mails into your own spam or junk folder.
This is something that we are all going to have to live with and the issue has been getting worse recently.
If you believe you are getting a lot of emails blocked, there are a few things that you can do:
- To improve the chances of U3A emails getting through to you, add a new entry to your address book (or contacts) called something like "U3A K2" and assign the email address as "noreply@u3abeacon.org.uk".
- If an email is in your spam (or junk) folder and you want to receive emails from that person or organisation, this can usually be dealt with by right clicking and picking from the available options like Not spam or Never block sender. This will add the sender’s email address to a Safe Senders List and stop future emails from that sender going into Spam or Junk folders. Some devices do not have this facility; if this is the case for you, please read on.....
More detailed information and recommendations:
The method of changing Junk/Spam settings varies depending on who the email provider is and whether it is accessed via a website or via an email application such as Microsoft Outlook. Details for some of the more commonly used email providers and applications are shown below. These instructions centre on the U3A Beacon emails, but the same process can be applied to any email address.
G-Mail
Log in to your G-mail account via a browser - Chrome or Firefox, Edge or whatever. In the mail account click the 'Settings' cog - top right
Go to All Settings>Filters and Blocked Addresses>Create New Filter
On “From” line enter, "noreply@u3abeacon.org.uk"
Click "Create Filter" Checkbox - "Never send it to Spam".
Click "Create Filter" again
Apple Products
There are no junk mail settings on iPads, iPhones and Macs apps, or at least those supplied by Apple by default. Users need to log in via their email provider’s website and adjust the settings there.
The situation is similar for Android smartphones and tablets.
Outlook.com (including Hotmail)
Log in to Outlook.com and have a look in your Junk mail folder. If there are any U3A emails in there right-click the email and choose "Not junk". The email will be moved to your inbox.
Click on the gear wheel icon (top right) to open the Settings menu and click Options. Under Junk email, click "Blocked senders". If there are any U3A addresses in the list, select them and then click the dustbin icon to remove them from the Blocked Senders list.
Click "Safe Senders" (under Junk email). Type "noreply@u3abeacon.org.uk" in the box and click on the plus sign to add that email address to the Safe Senders list.
Sky/Yahoo Email
If an email arrives in the Spam folder, click "More" (or right click) followed by "Not spam". This will move the email to the Inbox.
To check what is on your Banned Addresses list, click the gear (cog) icon, followed by "Settings" and then "Banned addresses".
Microsoft Outlook
If an email arrives in in the Junk folder, right click and select "Junk", followed by "Not Junk". This will move the email to the inbox and advise you that “Outlook will not block future emails from noreply@u3abeacon.org.uk”.
Alternatively, you can click the Junk icon in the top menu or right click the email and select either "Never block sender" or "Never block sender’s domain".
To add the U3A email address to your safe senders list, click the Junk icon in the top menu, followed by "Junk email options". Click the Add button on the Safe senders tab and enter "noreply@ u3abeacon.org.uk" in the box.
BT Internet
Click here to read a comprehensive article on how to add "safe senders" to your account and how to mark emails as "spam" and "not spam"