delete based on From name - not address

[TomTell]

Hi Folks,

my name is Tom, and I have spam . . .
. . so say we all . . eh?

I use (2) Outlooks - one as part of Office, and the web-app as it shows up 'built-in' in Win11.


used to be OutlookExpress?

I use "Rules" to eliminate a lot of spam.
mid-2025 I made the spammer's hit list and was getting 100+ spams per day.
that email account was basically useless.

as best I can interpret the email header data, the spammers sent one email to a hotmail account, which forwarded the email to bunches of hotmail addresses, one/or more of which accounts forwarded their spam to even more accounts.
apparently... MS caught on to that scheme and killed it....
like,,, if MicroSoft will do the work for you, why bother with all the effort to spam thousands . . . ?

did the "close account" thing . . .
in prior years/decades?/versions? closing the account for some period of time... (apparently) produced a system response "no such email account" which most of the intelligent spammers (is there such a thing?) thence deleted my email from their lists.

the "closed account trick" apparently does not work anymore. outwardly the email account remains 'active.'
when I 're-opened' the account after 60+ days ... hundreds of spams had accumulated - from closing to present.
so,,, that trick for getting deleted from spammers' lists, , , no longer working.

which brings me to the issue of Rules.
I get blatant spam from the same "name" but all with different, and totally bogus, email addresses/accounts.
two to 20 emails from the same name, all different email addresses.
but "Rules" From: obviously only looks at the email address.

how does one 'flag for delete' emails from a 'name' but not the email address'?
example: ultra-simple-stupid, but demonstrates the problem....
our high school class 'reunion' group got hacked.
the spammer sends me email from "Jerry xxxx" with a bogus email addressi, weekly.
"Jerry xxxx" is dead. he is not sending anyone/any classmate emails, anymore....
but the spammer - who links porno accounts . . . - does not know that.

but I have been unable to establish a rule:
Delete any email where "Jerry xxxx" in the from line, and stop processing more rules.
the 'rule' seems only to recognize the email sender address - which is bogus and different on every email from "Jerry xxxx" . . .


example of inability to flag&delete:
20+ spams "From: Ozemplic"+ garbage - all with different&bogus sender email addresses.

is there a way to flag&permanently delete emails with specified text in the from line, and not just the <sender@address>

[Hornblower409]

Look at some of the Message Header.
View internet message headers in Outlook - Microsoft Support

Ensure that the Header from line has the format "From: Xxxxx <yyyy.com>". Where "Xxxx" is the Display Name you are looking for.

Create an Outlook "Message Header Includes" Rule
Create rule based on email header - Microsoft Q&A

Use something safe like Assign A Cat for the action. Play with it until you are sure it's working right. Change the Action to Delete.

You may need to use additional Conditions and Exceptions to eliminate any false positives.

[TomTell]

thanks for the lead!


I think I tried the Header option, but it didn't work 'as expected' - many of the mega-spams had 'invisible'? bcc lists - or some such... but I'll give it another go.

[TomTell]

rats. that is not working....


the 'name text' of the sender is not in the header - it appears only in the body of the email, first line
From: name <email>


the email being totally bogus . . .


Outlook provides tools for from email, to email, subj, body, etc etc - but oddly not text/word(s) in the from line.


the other puzzle, when I set up a condition with action "permanently delete" Outlook automatically checks "stop processing additional rules" - then when I save the rule it says 'contains conflict and will not operate' - or words to that effect . . .
I cannot uncheck 'stop processing' - if I re-create a new rule from scratch 'stop processing' is not checked, until . . . the rule is saved. editing the rule shows 'stop processing' checked-and-cannot-be-changed.....

[Hornblower409]

Originally Posted by TomTell

the 'name text' of the sender is not in the header

action "permanently delete" Outlook automatically checks "stop processing additional rules"

'contains conflict and will not operate'

If the Display Name is not specified in the Message Header then I have no clue as to what is going on.

Action "permanently delete" will always force a "Stop Processing". There would not be anything for any following Rules to run against. "Stop Processing" only applies if the Conditions for the Rule are TRUE. Otherwise it has no effect on following Rules.

All I can suggest for the conflict error is to disable all of your Rules and then enable them one at a time to see who is causing the conflict.

If that doesn't work you can try a Rules Reset. This will clear ALL OF YOUR RULES. You will have to add them back one at a time manually.

Unraveling Email Rules: Mastering Outlook's /cleanrules Command