---
title: "Block email senders and domains"
description: "Block one email address or a whole domain in OpenEmail, use * and ? patterns for dated newsletters, and see which rule caught each blocked sender."
url: "https://openemail.uk/features/block-sender"
---

[Filters & blocking](https://openemail.uk/features.md#filters)

# Block a sender or a domain Say no once.

Turn away one address, or everything from a domain, straight from the message in front of you. Each block names the rule that caught the sender, and one click lifts it.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[All features](https://openemail.uk/features.md)

In short

## What does blocking an email sender do?

Blocking turns away mail from one address, or from every address on a domain. Unlike a spam filter's guess, it is your own decision, however legitimate the sender. Some services file it under Spam, others refuse it.

How it works

## The person or the whole firm

A message's ⋯ menu offers the address and its domain: a recruiter is a person, a recruitment firm is a domain. The Details table and Contacts can block the address too.

## Patterns catch a whole family

\* stands for any run of characters and ? for exactly one, so news-\*@shop.com stops every dated newsletter. A rule that would match almost everything is refused.

## Refused, not piled into Spam

When the address that sent it matches, the message is refused and the bounce names no rule. When only the From line matches, as with a mailing list, it goes to Spam.

## Pattern syntax

Blocked senders and Blocked domains both take patterns. A rule needs at least two letters or digits.

\* any run of characters ? exactly one character noreply@\* noreply at every domain \*.example.com every subdomain, as a blocked domain

What you get

## In the product today

Plus-tags covered

Blocking news@shop.com also blocks news+anything@shop.com.

Subdomains covered

A blocked domain covers every subdomain beneath it.

Paste a whole list

Commas, spaces and new lines all separate entries.

A Blocked filter

Contacts can narrow to blocked people, and each one shows its rule.

Good practice

## Getting the most out of it

1. 01
   
   Spare shared domains
   
   Block someone on gmail.com by address, since blocking the domain stops everyone who uses it.
2. 02
   
   Clear the backlog yourself
   
   Blocking leaves old mail alone, so search from:sam@recruitco.com and delete what you no longer want.
3. 03
   
   Check before you chase
   
   If someone has gone quiet, try the Blocked filter in Contacts before writing again.

Questions

## Asked often

Keep going

## Works well with

Phishing & spam filtering

Mail the sending domain itself disowns lands in Spam rather than the inbox.

Rules you write yourself

Your own conditions, and what should happen to anything that matches them.

Bad-language filter

Mail carrying the words you do not want to read does not open in front of you.

Start

## Your domain, your mail.

Point a domain at OpenEmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[Read the reference](https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/filters/block-sender.md)