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AIBU?

To think that actually, yes, it is my employer's job...

21 replies

drspouse · 17/10/2017 11:32

To try and sort out the deluge of spam that comes in to my work email?

Large employer, job involving some customer facing and a lot of communication with people at my level in other organisations.
So I can't either hide my email address from the public domain nor can I avoid checking it.
Every day at least 10 spam emails in my inbox waiting in the morning plus another 10-20 come in during the day. This is not including the 30+ that the system does detect.
We're not just talking companies trying to sell me something vaguely work related (and I mean very vaguely). We're talking 5 or 6 emails one after the other with really obvious spam keywords in.
I may be quite dense and untechnical though. Is there more that my employer's IT department can do? At least half my emails are spam (though as I say they do manage to filter some of them).
They say they can't do more - that I should just "label them as spam" (and then Outlook ignores my labelling and lets all the same emails back into my inbox) and "filter the detected ones" (which I do - straight to trash).

OP posts:
trilbydoll · 17/10/2017 11:37

We have to send ours to a 'missed spam reporting' email address and I think it then improves the filters. I never get any spam straight into my inbox, it all gets stopped by the filter and I get one email a day with my quarantined messages in.

drspouse · 17/10/2017 11:55

OK so it is totally possible!
I should maybe start sending them all to the general IT mailbox...

OP posts:
InspMorse · 17/10/2017 12:17

If your systems team or employer won't tackle the issue there are still things you can try.

Google 'managing e-mails & spam

www.pcworld.com/article/2886662/software-productivity/5-ways-to-manage-emails-and-control-spam-in-outlook.html

Sonders · 17/10/2017 12:24

The more you mark emails as spam, the less you'll get (in theory). You can also set up rules, e.g. send all emails that contain the word 'penis' to junk.

Of course, that example won't work if you're a urologist!

chipscheeseandgravy · 17/10/2017 12:26

If your getting them from the same company/ you can set a rule for all emails from that person/email to go to a specific folder (therefore never darkening you inbox again) it also means that you can quickly look through to check that nothing has ended up there accidentally.

DJBaggySmalls · 17/10/2017 12:29

If a company isnt dealing with spam I'd be concerned about what else on their computer system they aren't dealing with, and looking to cover my back.

For example, does your company deal with data thats covered by the Data Protection Act, and who is the Data Controller?
Do they use CCTV, and who is the Data Controller?

drspouse · 17/10/2017 12:47

If your getting them from the same company/ you can set a rule for all emails from that person/email to go to a specific folder

I do block specific senders but either the block doesn't work or (more likely) they rotate the email that is sending the messages.

Sonders marking them as junk doesn't seem to make much difference, everything in my Junk folder is stuff I've filtered there myself IYSWIM. I send the ones that are marked by IT to "trash" and the ones I mark myself to "junk" so I know which are IT-marked and which are the ones that got through without IT-marking if that makes sense.
So for example I get 2 or 3 daily to "register for X meeting", the same organisation theoretically but all the email addresses are different. So blocking one doesn't help but also "marking as junk" doesn't seem to help.

Fortunately I am not a urologist but they use so many euphemisms of course!

DJ yes they do have such data and there's a lot about our IT systems that is worrying! Fairly major internal system has been down-up-down-up for a few days now.

OP posts:
rjay123 · 17/10/2017 12:59

So you are saying they are coming from different emails each time, and yet you somehow expect IT to have a magic solution?

disahsterdahling · 17/10/2017 13:03

Forward them all to your IT department. They'll soon sort it out then.

disahsterdahling · 17/10/2017 13:04

Google catches pretty well all of my spam, and I receive zero at work, so yes it is absolutely possible for the IT department to have a "magic" solution".

Butterymuffin · 17/10/2017 13:05

I don't get anywhere near that many, and I don't think my employer's IT department are that hot. I would forward every single one to your IT helpdesk people and keep asking them what should be done.

drspouse · 17/10/2017 13:10

So you are saying they are coming from different emails each time, and yet you somehow expect IT to have a magic solution?

That's not how I recognise spam so it shouldn't be how spam filters recognise spam.
Of course they don't all come from the same address!

OP posts:
MissConductUS · 17/10/2017 13:11

We use Outlook with Office 365, Microsoft's cloud based email service. The only spam I get is from companies that have scraped my email address off of our website, so I use "block this sender" in Outlook and then never see another.

Ask your IT people to have a look at Office 365.

drspouse · 17/10/2017 13:17

It doesn't really help if they are all the same content but from different senders, though.
We use Outlook (Mac in one location and Windows in another) and however much I block one sender, the same email content pops up with another one.
Also there seems to be a limit to how much I as an individual user can block i.e. a set number of email addresses).

OP posts:
mishfish · 17/10/2017 13:19

Also do you open before deleting?

I think they can see who has opened which means an active inbox so avoid opening them and just go straight for the delete

drspouse · 17/10/2017 13:22

InspMorse those ideas for rules look helpful - I hadn't thought to look at who mails are to i.e. if I'm just a CC.

OP posts:
drspouse · 17/10/2017 13:24

I'm not sure they can see mish (how would they?) unless you click on a link, but it generally depends on how quickly I can work out if it's spam!

OP posts:
mishfish · 17/10/2017 13:27

There's certain marketing mailing subscriptions like mailchimp that people use to send mass mailings, they do record who and how many people opened an email, if someone opened one they may be moved onto another 'list'

mishfish · 17/10/2017 13:28

help.campaignmonitor.com/email-open-rates#tracking

Sorry don't know how to link but that explains it

drspouse · 17/10/2017 13:41

Interesting!

OP posts:
Standingcat · 17/10/2017 13:52

I feel your pain! I find it really hard to keep my inbox from filling up I received 100MB if emails in just over 2 weeks whilst off sick.

The sending things to junk or deleted folder still stores them for 30 days which doesn't help!

not sure what to suggest though

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