Prevent Spam in Yahoo

Yahoo's committed to eliminating spam-eyuck! And you've got great tools to help keep spam out of your Inbox.

Yahoo! SpamGuard

Keep Yahoo! SpamGuard turned on. To check if it's on:

Click Options in the upper- right corner of your Mail page and select Mail Options.

Click Spam Protection from the list on the left.

In the "Spam Filter" section, do you see "SpamGuard is ON"? If not, turn it on by clicking the link: Turn SpamGuard ON.

Click Save Changes.

In this same section, you can also specify how often you'd like us to empty your Spam folder (we do it automatically once a month, but you have options to empty it faster), as well as indicating your preference for showing-or blocking-images. Image blocking is another way to fend off spam!


Image Blocking

Image blocking defeats the confirmation "hits" that spammers receive whenever one of their images is viewed. Since a "view" can include the moment you click to open a spam message, selecting "Initially block all images" is your safest choice. Here's how to do it:

Click Options in the upper- right corner of your Mail page and select Mail Options.

Under Spam, click Spam Protection.

At the bottom of the page is the "Image Blocking" section. You'll see three choices with three radio buttons. Select (click inside) the one that sounds right to you:

Always show images, except in Spam folder
Show images only from my contacts and certified senders
Initially block all images

The Spam button

If you get a spam message in your Inbox, check the box beside it, then click Spam. This alerts us to the latest tricks and techniques that spammers are using, and helps us clamp down tighter and fight spam more effectively.


If you change your mind or think you made a mistake, just look for the next message from that sender in your Spam folder and click Not Spam to reverse your vote.