how to get Mail to follow the rule and delete junk mail

Question

Level 1

71 points

how to get Mail to follow the rule and delete junk mail

Running Apple Mail on Mojave 14.6 in a 2013 Air (can't update without buying a new computer and besides this one is incredibly reliable, flawless).

For the first time in decades of emailing, I'm getting dozens of junk mails a day, almost all labeled Geek Squad, Norton or McAfee (these are all fake) with fake invoices for $400 (that seems to be a favorite figure).

I have rules telling Mail to delete any mail coming from sources using those names, but instead Mail puts them in Junk Mail, so I have to do it myself, meaning I have to click on at least one in the list to be able to select all and delete them -- and each time I click on one I worry (probably needlessly) that it'll infect me.

I end up doing this many times a day -- I guess I could just do it before I go to bed or something, but I really don't like it there at all and want Mail to follow my rules.

Why won't Mail do what I tell it to and how can I make that happen? I get the risk of deleting non-junk mail, but my real email is pretty limited in senders and recipients and I don't want Mail to be second-guessing me here.

Under "When junk mail arrives" I checked "Perform custom actions" -- and the custom action is "Delete message".
I checked all the choices under the "Exempt" category (sender in contacts, previous recipients, using my full name) and none of the junk mails fit those exemptions.
"Trust junk mail headers" is unchecked.
"Filter junk mail before applying my rules" is checked.
In making the rules, I've used the names since these seem to never change -- always Geek Squad, McAfee and Norton. I gave up using addresses since those are always different even a little bit.

I've seen similar questions and none seem to have answers that work, so I wonder if I've missed anything. Many thanks! (Why doesn't Topics include Mail under Applications and Services?)

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 30, 2023 10:05 AM

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Answer 1

william98 Author

Level 1

71 points

Nov 30, 2023 1:07 PM in response to BDAqua

Yes. Mail puts them in Junk Mail instead of deleting them, though the rules say exactly what your screen grab says. Another source I'd never heard of before is googlegroups.com -- most of the junk has that in the address, which I've also targeted for deletion, to no avail. Google says the real googlegroups is not the sender -- it's phishing.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,177 points

Nov 30, 2023 8:33 PM in response to william98

Rules work on the Inbox, but I think they can be made to work on Junk box or other box if selected when initiating the rule.

So, maybe NOT honor Junk Mail filtering??? Ad not before running the Rules???

Shouldn't your last pic say Contains: googlegroups.com

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Answer 3

william98 Author

Level 1

71 points

Nov 30, 2023 10:32 PM in response to BDAqua

Hmm...not filter junk mail before applying my rules...maybe that'll work. I never thought of that. The only rules I have to delete are from these particular phishers, so it shouldn't delete legit emails that sometimes end up in junk, or even junk that doesn't specify to delete. I'll give it a shot and let you know. Thanks for the idea!

The googlegroups.com is actually spelled out, it just didn't get into the screenshot. I'd never heard of googlegroups until the last several months when they started flooding in. I saw that googlegroups is legit, but of course phishers will use anything they can to get into your email. It's so bad with Geek Squad, Norton and McAfee that I don't want anything to do with the legitimate companies, which I guess isn't very fair of me, but just those names have a very bad ring now.

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Answer 4

william98 Author

Level 1

71 points

Dec 4, 2023 9:46 AM in response to BDAqua

OK, I unchecked Junk Mail filtering -- it seemed to work for a couple of days, unless it was just the spammers taking a vacation -- then the junk started showing up again today from the same crew -- though so far not as many of them, but then maybe they're just readjusting to the drudgery of spamming after lying on the beach in the Bahamas -- hmmm, actually that's probably where they work from, under a cabana sipping mai tais, tapping away on their laptops...

I just wonder why the rules don't work when I've made them both general and very specific

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Answer 5

william98 Author

Level 1

71 points

Dec 4, 2023 9:59 AM in response to BDAqua

I just realized I misspoke when I said Mail puts this junk in Junk Mail -- sometimes it does that, but most times it puts them in Trash -- that's not what I would call Delete, but maybe Mail interprets Delete as Trash? Because there's no specific "Perform the following actions" place called Trash, it's just Delete -- if that's so, and Delete actually means Trash, I guess I'm hoping for the impossible, and I apologize for wasting your time -- so I have to do the actual deletion myself in "Erase Deleted Items" from the Mailbox drop-down menu

again, my apologies for not getting my terms right

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