Have you been bombarded by spam emails this week? Here’s the reason why

Microsoft has acknowledged that people’s Outlook and Hotmail have been flooded with unwanted emails

MICROSOFT users have been subjected to a barrage of spam this week after the company have had issues screening out junk emails.

Hotmail and Outlook users may have noticed a lot more junk emails have been slipping into their Inbox folders this week because the filters have been having problems.

Microsoft first acknowledged the issues on Tuesday evening, writing on a service page: "Some users may be receiving excessive spam mail."

But later the technology company claimed to have been able to put in fixes which were designed to protect the inboxes of users and its infrastructure, the BBC reports.

According to an update on the Microsoft Office 365 service page, the problem was fixed on Wednesday afternoon, although the company hasn't disclosed what caused the issue.

Earlier this month, tech experts revealed exactly how to prevent a stream of spam entering our inboxes from companies we’ve never heard of.

It takes a bit of forward planning, but there is a little-known trick to track who is selling your email address.

If your email address was [email protected], next time a website asks you to enter your details, add +(name of the the website) before the @ sign.

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So if you were signing up for eBay, you would enter [email protected].

Google doesn’t read the plus sign, so anything that follows isn’t picked up.

However, next time you get an email you don’t want, check the email address it’s sent to.

If it includes the ‘+(name of website)’ but wasn’t sent from them, you have caught your culprit.

Reducing the number of unwanted emails we receive is often one of the quick fixes psychologists recommend to reduce stress and feel happier.

You might want to consider these other tips to keep your inbox a spam-free safe haven.

If you receive a message that you suspect could be spam, don’t open it.

If you have already opened the email before realising it's spam, it’s not too late – just don’t open any of the links.

Even ‘unsubscribe’ options count – sophisticated scammers look for any way to fool you so rather than preventing further messages, clicking the link will only confirm your email address is active and probably attract more unwanted messages.

Don’t go dishing out your personal email address to anybody and everybody and, if you have a website, don’t make it public as this is easy fodder for spammers harvesting details.

It’s also good practice to keep your anti-virus software up to date so if you realise something was a scam too late, you have a final line of defence.

And make sure you don’t reply.

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Microsoft Outlook and Hotmail users have been bombarded with junk emails because the company have had screening issues, Stop Viagra Spam Emails Hotmail.