A catch-all email account is an email address that you specify to receive all email that is addressed to an incorrect email address for a domain.

For example, if your email address is joe@yourdomain.com and you specify this to be a catch-all account, any of these addresses will still reach you:

joe3@yourdomain.com
myjoe@yourdomain.com

joes@yourdomain.com

For this reason a catch-all account can become a real problem because of spam. Spammers can write any invalid email address @yourdomain.com and your catch-all account will receive it.

The easiest solution would be to remove the catch-all setting from the email address, but sometimes you need to have a catch-all account.
If this is the case you can create a Rule through the Rules Wizard in MS Outlook to get rid of almost all spam and still keep your catch-all account:

1. In MS Outlook, go to Tools > Rules Wizard
2. Click on "New" to create a new rule
3. Select "Start creating a rule from a template"
4. Highlight "Move new messages from someone" and click Next
5. Check ONLY the option "through the specified account", and then click on the underlined word "specified" in the window underneath to select the email account that is a catch-all account.
6. Click Next
7. On the next screen check these 3 options ONLY: 1- delete it 2 mark it as read 3 stop processing more rules. Click Next
8. Check the option "except with specific words in the Recipient's address", and click underlined word "specific words" in the window underneath to add the email address that are valid. For example joe@yourdomain.com, info@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, customerservice@yourdomain.com . See notes below
9. Click Next, write a name for your rule, check "Turn on this rule", and click Finish

Notes: Step 8 is the most important step, as in here you specify the email addresses that are valid and you want to receive emails to. You can add as many as you want, but you need to specify at least one otherwise all your email will be deleted and sent to the Deleted items folder. Make sure to replace yourdomain.com with your domain name.

After turning on this rule, you can always monitor the emails that are being deleted and modify it to add more valid email addresses.

Out of 500 spam emails that we receive everyday, this rule successfully deletes 99% of the spam and leaves in our inbox only the emails that are addressed to valid email addresses.

Learn more about this author, Rick G.
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