Outlook.com email spam and phishing attempts is getting ridiculous.

<p>I resorted to selecting what used to be called the Explicit setting*, where anything that is not in the Safe Senders/Domains/Mailing lists or Contacts list would get thrown into the Junk Email folder. Which means that every new email that I get, e.g. from a new service, or if they use a different From address, would end up in the Junk Email folder. Then if it is something I want, I would either add it to one of the "Safe" lists or create a new Contact for it, and move it to my Inbox. Yes, it is an inconvenience to have to check it periodically.</p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">For my contacts situation, since I use an iPhone, I have opted to create any contacts that I want in iCloud and let it synchronize it to my devices. These would largely consist of the ones that have a phone number that I may need to call.</span></p><p><br></p><p>Similar to what Soneraxx said, I also do not click on any of the spam emails and click on Empty Folder when I am done with taking out the legitimate emails. That also means turning off the Reading Pane so that it's not auto loading the emails. I use the Outlook.com website installed as a web app in Edge on desktop for full access, while on mobile I use the Outlook app and largely limit it to basic tasks on the Inbox (view, compose, reply, move/archive, or delete).</p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">*It looks like now the settings page has been changed to just two checkboxes on the bottom for "Junk email" under "Filters," both of which I have checked.</span></p>