Block Senders of Harassing E-mail

We have all probably received e-mail that we didn’t want. The >DELETE< button works well to get rid of an occasional annoying e-mail, but what can you do if you receive a lot of annoying e-mail from someone? Spam filters work fairly well to block unsolicited commercial e-mail but may not be effective when the e-mail is directed specifically at you. However, e-mail blocking and filtering is often a very effective way to solve the problem of annoying / harassing e-mail.

Most e-mail providers let you block e-mail from specific senders or even block e-mail from entire domains. Here is how to block senders of annoying / harassing e-mail in some of the most popular e-mail services.

To block a sender in Gmail:

• Sign into your Gmail account.
• Open a message from the sender you'd like to block.
• Click the down arrow located on the top right-hand side of the e-mail.
• Select Block "sender name" in the drop-down menu that appears.

To block a sender in Microsoft Outlook:

• Open Microsoft Outlook.
• Open a message from the sender you'd like to block.
• Right-click somewhere in the message.
• In the drop-down menu that appears, click Junk, and then Block Sender.

To block a sender in Yahoo Mail:

• Log into your Yahoo! Mail account.
• Right-click a message from the sender whose address you'd like to block.
• Select Block from the drop-down menu that appears.
• Check the boxes next to Send all future emails to Spam and Delete all existing emails.
• Click OK.

To block a sender in Mozilla Thunderbird:

• Open Mozilla Thunderbird.
• Open a message from the sender whose address you'd like to block.
• Right-click their address at the top of the message and select Create Filter From...
• In the Filter Rules window that appears, first give the filter a name. For example, something like "Blocked Addresses" would work.
• In the Perform these actions: section, change the box to Delete Message.
• Click OK.

You can also create filters to handle e-mail in certain ways. Filters give you lots of options, such as filtering e-mail that contains specific words in the Subject Line, or in the Body of the e-mail.

By blocking senders of annoying / harassing e-mail and using filters to sort e-mail containing specific words in the Subject Line and/or Body of the message, you can solve most cases of harassment through e-mail.  Almost every set of recommendations for dealing with on-line harassment and cyber-bullying says that you should block the sender of annoying / harassing e-mail - because blocking works, it solves the problem.

Of course, blocking the senders of annoying and harassing e-mail isn't the only thing that you need to do to protect yourself from cyber bullying - but it is one of the most important.

It is also worth noting that in most cases where a "victim" of on-line harassment and cyber bullying did not block the harassing messages, the "victim" was part of the problem - often engaging in an on-going exchange of e-mails with the alleged "cyber-bully".

How to Block Someone on Facebook

How to Block Someone on Twitter

How to Block Someone on Instagram

There is nothing the requires you to respond to on-line harassment, or to allow toxic people to share in your social media. Do Not Feed the Trolls - Just Block Them.