Spammers are an insistent bunch. We might have tens or hundreds of spam emails daily, but some particular senders are repeat offenders, bothering us with their "offers" day after day. Let's see a simple trick to delete spam permanently from a particular sender in Gmail and Outlook.com.
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Why we can't delete all spam automatically
There is a reason that there is a spam folder in our inbox, and our webmail or e-mail client doesn't delete all spam automatically.
No matter how sophisticated, automated spam filters aren't perfect. It often happens that a legitimate email gets thrown in the spam folder by mistake. And this is why the spam folder exists, so we can give a last look before we delete.
However, some senders send us nothing but spam. And since we already know we won't be getting anything useful, ever, it's safe to automatically delete spam from them.
To do this, we will use our webmail's filtering capabilities. This method will work pretty much on every webmail service and desktop e-mail client.
How to delete spam permanently in Gmail
So, let's say that as we check our Gmail, we find an email from ESPAÑA LOTERIA NACIONAL in the spam folder. Even though we might not live in Spain or speak a word of Spanish.
What we do is click on the "more" button next to the Reply, and select "Filter messages like this".
Select filtering method
Gmail will choose the email address as the default filtering method.
However, spammers are changing email addresses all the time. So, we could replace the address with "ESPAÑA LOTERIA", to filter any and all such future messages from a sender using this words as a name.
Caution! We need to be extra careful when filtering by name.
There is zero chance that an email from "ESPAÑA LOTERIA" would ever be legitimate. But, if the spammer is using a real name, such as "Doran Kevin"...
...we should avoid filtering by name, in case another, legitimate "Doran Kevin" ever decides to email us.
Permanently delete spam
No matter how we select to filter this message, we proceed with "create filter with this search".
On the next screen, we check "Mark as read" and "Delete it", and then "Create Filter".
From now on, every email from ESPAÑA LOTERIA will never end up in the spam folder. It will be automatically marked as read and deleted by this filter, keeping both the inbox and the spam folder clean.
Edit or delete the filter
If we ever want to change the filter, we need to go to the "Settings" menu...
...select the "Filters" tab and edit or delete the rule.
How to delete spam permanently in Outlook.com
This Frank Astheimer guy is terribly prolific.
So, we select one of his messages and select "Create Rule" from the menu.
Select filtering method
Outlook.com will also select the email address as the default filtering method.
On the other hand, "Frank Astheimer" isn't the most common name in the world. We could create a rule with it, in case this guy selects another email address.
Permanently delete spam
Once we selected our filtering method, we can select to delete those guy's messages.
We can also add an action, to Mark the message as read.
Now, we will never see Frank Astheimer's messages in our Inbox or Junk folder, ever again.
Edit or delete the filter
If we made a mistake or changed our mind regarding the filter, we can always edit or delete it. We will find it at the "Manager rules" option.
We can click on the rule to edit it, or click the trashcan icon to delete it.
How to delete spam permanently on any platform
Every email platform worth using can create rules, from Yahoo Mail...
... to Mozilla Thunderbird, on Windows or Linux.
It works the same way everywhere: we just filter the messages by the email address or sender name and set the rule to delete.
We can also filter by subject line or email content; this, however, is a bit riskier. A wrong choice on our part could delete legitimate emails.
Are you using other methods to avoid spam mail?
Filters and rules are a powerful tool to delete spam. There are however other methods to avoid spam mail in the first place, such as using "burner" email addresses publicly.
What method do you use to delete spam emails, or avoid them altogether? Leave us a comment.
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The gmail instruction do not "permanently delete", just marks read and moves to Trash. That's not permanent.
Yes, the permanent deletion is not immediate. But the trash on gmail do get deleted automatically after 30 days.
So, instead of seeing the spam folder getting filled up with the same spam, those messages go straight to trash. And unless you are checking trash regularly, you will never see them until they are permanently deleted.
Is there really no possibillity to make a filter so that the deleted email is really permantly and directly deleted and not sended to the trash.
And/or is there a possibility to change those 30days into 1 or 3 days ?
As far as I know, neither Gmail nor any other email provider have a "permanent" delete option as a filtering rule.
There is also no option to change the number of days for the automatic deletion.
I agree with Disman. On gmail, your filter solution merely moves spam from the spam folder to the trash folder. The spam is not really "permanently" deleted--it's just moved from one folder to another folder (until it's truly permanently deleted after 30 days). I wish gmail would allow immediate auto-delete as soon as the spam goes into the trash.
Yep, simply moves it to trash. Further more, by marking the email as 'read' you've just potentially sent a 'read receipt' to the spammer.
GMail is one of the only services I've come across where you are not able to create a server-side filter to do nearly *anything* you want - including sending an email permanently to the bitbucket. It's a mistake not to allow that feature, IMO. It's up to the user to take responsibility for their own filters and the actions they perform - including the potential loss of a legitimate email.
The problem is if you use an email client like Outlook, even though you are using IMAP to connect to Gmail, if you get a lot of email that you delete, both Spam and otherwise, your Outlook data file will become unecessarily bloated as the data file doesn't shrink when you delete files. So having 30 days worth of spam in your trash folder bloats the Outlook data file. This is one reason why there are those of us that don't even want the spam in our trash folder. I believe you could use a script to solve this issue. Google gmail permanentaly delete trash script.
Using wildcards in filters can also be a problem. -Tired of Viagra and Cialis spam eMails?
Using filter such as " *Cialis* " will effectively stop anyemail whose subject contains the word "Cialis" but it will ALSO stop and eMail whose subject contains the word "SpeCIALISt" -this could be a problem if you are in fact, a "Specialist" or regularly received eMails with that word in the SUBJECT...