Download Article as PDF


computer and email

Spam is a problem that never seems to go away. email service providers are always coming up with new ways to identify suspected spam to try to keep it out of your inbox. this often involves assigning points to certain words or phrases, and enough points will get the email blocked. sometimes simply sending an email to a large number of recipients can get an email flagged as spam. It’s a never-ending battle between spammers and service providers.

Unfortunately every now and then a legitimate email is caught in a spam filter and never makes it to your inbox. There is often no notification when this happens, and you may only discover the email if you look through your junk folder. In some cases, it doesn’t even appear there.

If you want to ensure that email from a particular address is never mistaken for spam, you need to ‘whitelist’ it. In other words, tell the service provider that the sender’s email address is legitimate and the emails are not spam.

Follow the instructions below to whitelist email addresses in the more popular email services. Remember: If you are on a network, whitelisting on your own computer may not be sufficient. You may have to ask your IT department to whitelist the address on the main server.

Outlook 2010

  1. Click the Home tab.
  2. Click Junk.
  3. Click Junk Email Options.
  4. Click Safe Senders.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Enter a particular email address or an entire domain name if you want to whitelist all their email addresses (e.g. [email protected] or just lawpro.ca)
  7. Click OK to finish.

Outlook 2007

  1. Right-click on the email you received (in the list of emails).
  2. Click Junk Email
  3. Click Add Sender to Safe Senders List to finish.

Outlook 2003

  1. Open the email message from the sender you want to add to your address book.
  2. Right-click Click here to download images in the gray bar at the top of the message.
  3. Click Add Sender to Senders Safe List to finish.

Gmail

  1. Follow the Settings link in Gmail.
  2. Go to Filters.
  3. Click Create a new filter.
  4. Type the desired email address under From: Enter a particular email address or an entire domain name if you want to whitelist all their email addresses. (e.g. [email protected] or just lawpro.ca)
  5. Click Next Step ››.
  6. Make sure Never send it to Spam is checked.
  7. Click Create Filter.