Is your Hotmail account flooded with spam emails? You are not alone

Users of Microsoft’s email service Outlook (formerly Hotmail) were inundated with spam emails on Monday. All unwanted messages ended up in the inbox despite the activated spam filter. Angry users can have dozens of unwanted emails in their inboxes within hours.

Microsoft’s spam filter apparently failed completely for many private users on Monday. However, corporate Microsoft 365 Exchange mailboxes do not seem to be affected.

Numerous private Outlook users also unanimously report that the spam problem has already worsened in recent months and weeks. The spam avalanche reached its peak on Monday. Microsoft now seems to have the flow of spam under control again.

As a user, there’s little you can do to prevent “faulty” spam filters unless you want to switch email providers. Outlook users report that the junk email got into the inbox even if the spam filter was set to the highest level.

The technology portal The Verge therefore advises those involved to temporarily disable the notifications for new e-mails in the e-mail app on the smartphone during a spam wave. “This prevents your phone from constantly waking up to show you a notification about a spam email, which you absolutely don’t care about,” writes the tech portal.

According to Microsoft, the malfunction was resolved on Tuesday and Outlook.com is working as usual again.

(oli)