# What happened to my email? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2023, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-email/982307 "2023-04-07T12:03:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-email/982307/1 "2023-04-07T12:03:12Z")
I have an Outlook (hotmail) account and the other day I started getting all kinds of junk mail in my in box. Like, a lot. I’m still getting junk mail in my junk mail box, as well. The appearance has changed, too. I don’t recall changing any settings or gettig anything say they were changing things. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-email/982307/2 "2023-04-07T13:35:06Z")
Web mail, or Microsoft Outlook the Office program? (Sorry, I don’t know whether or not the Microsoft online product Hotmail uses “Outlook” in its branding) ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-email/982307/3 "2023-04-07T13:56:34Z")
I find that, from time to time, it’s like spam day in my Hotmail account. I’m shocked at how bad Hotmail is at filtering out spam compared to Gmail – junk in my inbox and mail I want to see in my junk folder. Usually, I get five or six a day, but sometimes, I get dozens. It’s like they decide to turn off the filter or something. Anyway, maybe your Hotmail address showed up on a new spammer’s list. How is the look different? On the app, they now show an ad at the top that looks like email, but I haven’t seen a change in the browser version. Not FQ: I would love an option to send any email that has those bizarre high number unicode letters in the subject or the From straight to oblivion. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-email/982307/4 "2023-04-07T15:44:13Z")
I sign on to all of this. The occasional flurry of spam and the weird unicode subject lines happen to me, too. I use Outlook on my phone which basically never lets any of the spam through and also filters away some other not-spam-but-somewhat-nuisance emails like ebay watchlist reminders and newsletters from legitimate sources. These emails are in my inbox when I log into the account on browser. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-email/982307/5 "2023-04-07T23:26:20Z")
It started happening to me several weeks ago. Before that, the junk always ended up in the junk inbox. Now it’s a dozen or so a day in the focused inbox. I tried reporting those at first hoping that that would route them back where they belong but it didn’t work. There is also a lot more junk than there used to be. This is on my laptop; I don’t read mail on my phone so I can’t speak to that.