Share via

Outlook.com doesn't send any emails to junk folder

Aaron T 5 Reputation points
2026-03-13T10:37:34.25+00:00

My inbox is constantly inundated with spam and phishing emails. Not a single email gets caught by the spam filter.

I see that the email headers of these emails often contain `X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL with values of 9, 8 or 7, so Microsoft clearly identifies that they are a high risk of spam, but they still go to my inbox.

I've tried creating a custom rule to filter based on this header, but it doesn't work either.

I have also confirmed that I haven't accidentally added an entire URL or TLD to my safe senders/domains.

I used to just use Gmailify to rely on Google's spam filter instead, but unfortunately they've discontinued this feature.

I'm losing my mind over this - I get more notifications for spam emails at this point than I do for legitimate ones. How can I resolve this? Setting my incoming mail handling to "Strict" is not an acceptable solution here - I can't just assume that any email that's not from a contact is spam.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
0 comments
Answer recommended by moderator
  1. Aaron T 5 Reputation points
    2026-03-16T16:33:13.04+00:00

    Just sharing a quick update after I was finally able to figure out how to reach the live support team (I had to use an incognito window to get the option to appear).

    In order to resolve the issue, I did the following:

    1. In Outlook.com, go to Settings -> Email -> Junk Email and set "Incoming mail handling" to Strict.
    2. Save changes, then log out of Outlook.com
    3. Log back in, then go to Settings -> Email -> Junk Email and set "Incoming mail handling" back to Standard.
    4. Save changes.

    After a few hours, junk emails stopped arriving in my inbox, and were instead being correctly routed to my junk folder.

    It is important to highlight that this took a few hours to start working - don't expect results immediately!

    @Chloe L thanks for your help with initial troubleshooting on this - we can now consider this issue resolved.

    1 person found this answer helpful.

1 additional answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Chloe-L 11,550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-13T21:38:42.1033333+00:00

    Hello Aaron T.

    Based on your description, it seems that the Exchange Online Protection (EOP) backend is correctly identifying the threat, but the final mailbox routing mechanism is failing to respect that verdict and is dropping the messages into your Inbox. 

    Please try these steps to set up an alternate rule to catch these emails: 

    Step 1: Delete the existing, non-working rule. 

    Step 2: Create the Forefront Anti-Spam Rule 

    • Navigate to Settings (Gear icon) > Mail > Rules. 
    • Click Add new rule. 
    • Name your rule: "Force High SCL to Junk" (or similar). 
    • Add a condition: Select Message header includes. 
    • Enter the text to look for: Input the following string values. Press Enter/Return after each one to add them as separate triggers: 
    • SCL:9 
    • SCL:8 
    • SCL:7 
    • SFV:SPM  (Note: SFV:SPM stands for Spam Filtering Verdict: Spam. Including this catches anything EOP flagged as spam, regardless of the numerical SCL). 
    • Add an action: Select Move to and choose the Junk Email folder. 
    • Click Save and use the "Run rule now" play button to process your current inbox. 

    I hope this alternate rule helps properly filter your inbox. Please let me know if these steps work for you.

    If the answer was helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote. For additional questions, you can click on the "Comment" button.

    Note: If you would like to receive notifications about this issue, please follow the steps in our documentation to enable email notifications.

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.