Spam in your inbox: how to report spam and recover quarantined email
Published on November 9, 2026 7 min read
Spam in your inbox or a real email missing? Learn how to mark spam in your email app, why filters block real mail and how long quarantine keeps it.
When spam lands in your inbox, mark it as spam (or junk) instead of only deleting it. The message moves to your Spam folder and your email app gets better at recognising similar mail. Suspicious mail is already stopped before it reaches your mailbox: the LJPc hosting spam filter holds it in a quarantine. If a real message ends up there, ask support within 7 days and we deliver it to you. With the premium spam filter you manage the quarantine yourself, going back 90 days.
How the LJPc hosting spam filter works
If your email is hosted with LJPc, all incoming mail first arrives at our spam filter (the servers in your domain's MX record). Only then does a message go on to your mailbox. The filter checks every message in a few steps:
- At the front door. Mail from a server listed on several well-known blocklists, or from a sender domain that does not exist, is refused straight away. The sender then gets an error message back.
- Viruses and dangerous attachments. Messages carrying a virus go to the quarantine, and dangerous attachments such as executable files are removed from the message.
- A spam score for every message. The filter weighs hundreds of signals: the content, the links, the reputation of the sending server and whether the sender can prove it is genuine with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Above the threshold, the message goes to the quarantine. Below it, the message reaches your inbox.
The spam rules are updated automatically, and when we see a new spam wave, we add our own rules against it. The filter is on by default for every customer.
Spam in your inbox: report it as spam
When spam slips through, mark the message as spam. That beats deleting it in three ways:
- The message leaves your inbox and lands in the Spam folder of your mailbox, where you can still find it if you made a mistake.
- Apps with their own junk filter, such as Apple Mail and Thunderbird, learn from what you mark and move similar mail to Spam on their own.
- You stay away from the links and from "unsubscribe". With obvious spam, unsubscribing only confirms that your address is active. Unsubscribe from newsletters you once signed up for yourself.
Here is how to mark a message as spam in the most common apps:
| App | Mark as spam | Not spam after all |
|---|---|---|
| LJPc webmail (ljpc.email) | Select the message and click Junk in the toolbar (Spam in the Dutch interface) | Open the Spam folder, select the message and click Not junk (Niet spam) |
| Apple Mail on Mac | Select the message and click the Junk button in the toolbar | Click Not Junk or Move to Inbox |
| Mail on iPhone or iPad | Swipe left on the message, tap More, then Move to Junk | Open the message in the Junk folder, tap Move to folder and choose Inbox |
| Thunderbird | Select the message and click Junk, or press J | Click Not Junk |
| Outlook and other apps | Drag the message to the Spam folder (in Outlook sometimes Junk Email) | Drag the message back to your inbox |
What you mark stays in your mailbox and your email app: the message sits in the Spam folder and your app learns from it. The spam filter on our servers judges mail for your domain with rules that apply to all customers. If you want your own marks to fine-tune the filter itself, use the premium spam filter: there you mark messages in the customer portal, and the filter takes that into account for the next messages from that sender.
Does a message look like an attempt to steal your password or payment details? Read email security to learn how to spot phishing and protect your domain.
Why does the filter sometimes block real email?
The filter judges every message on its characteristics, so genuine mail can look like spam. This happens most often with:
- automatically sent mail, such as invoices or reminders from accounting or invoicing software, often with an attachment;
- messages that consist of HTML only, without a plain text version;
- senders whose SPF, DKIM or DMARC is missing or misconfigured;
- mail from a sending server with a poor reputation, for example because other users of that server send spam.
Because every message gets its own score, the filter can let one message from a sender through and hold the next one. A slightly different subject, an extra link or another sending server can tip the balance.
What helps when mail from a regular sender keeps ending up in quarantine:
- The sender sets up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for their domain and sends a plain text version alongside the HTML. That improves delivery of their mail everywhere, not only to you.
- You report it to support with an example (sender, date and time). We look at why the mail was held and what it takes to let it through from now on.
- With the premium spam filter you add the sender's domain to your allowed senders yourself.
Missing an email? How to find it
- Check the Spam folder of your mailbox, on all your devices and in webmail. If you use Outlook, also check Junk Email: Outlook has its own filter that can move mail there. Search all folders for the sender as well, because a rule in your email app can move a message too.
- Ask the sender whether they received an error message. If so, the message was refused at the front door or went wrong somewhere else. The error explains why; how to fix email problems covers the most common ones.
- If the sender got no error, contact support within 7 days. Include the sender's email address, your email address, the date and approximate time and, if you know it, the subject. We look the message up in the quarantine, and if it is there, we deliver it to you. After 7 days the quarantine deletes a message automatically; in that case, ask the sender to send it again.
- With the premium spam filter, open the customer portal, go to Services > Spam filter, choose your domain, open the Quarantine tab and click Release next to the message.
You can reach support with a support ticket in the customer portal, at support@ljpc.nl or on +31 85 130 6429. A sender does not notice when their message is quarantined: for them it was sent. So ask, even if they received nothing back.
How long does the quarantine keep email?
That depends on your spam filter. The standard filter is included with your email; the premium spam filter is an add-on per domain.
| Feature | Standard filter | Premium spam filter |
|---|---|---|
| Quarantine retention | 7 days | 90 days |
| Viewing the quarantine | Support looks it up for you | Yourself, in the customer portal |
| Releasing a message | On request, through support | Yourself with Release, or with the Geen spam (not spam) button in the daily digest email |
| Allowing or blocking senders | Report a regular sender to support | Yourself, per domain |
| Your spam marks | Your email app learns from them | The filter takes them into account too |
| Cost | Included with your email at LJPc hosting | 10 euros per domain per month or 100 euros per year, excluding VAT |
If you receive a lot of spam, or want to retrieve held mail from suppliers and customers yourself, the premium spam filter is the better fit. How it works, what you can do in the portal and how to request it is explained in the premium spam filter.
Spam through your website contact form
Spam that arrives through the contact form on your website is sent to you by your own website, so to a spam filter it looks like a genuine form submission. The best place to stop it is the form itself:
- Add a bot check, such as Cloudflare Turnstile, Google reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha. Most WordPress form plugins support one or more of them.
- Still getting spam with an invisible check? Switch to a visible version where the visitor ticks a box, or make the threshold stricter. An invisible check gives each submission a score and lets borderline cases through; a visible checkbox or a stricter threshold stops more bots.
- Use a honeypot: a hidden field that people do not see and bots fill in. Many form plugins have this option built in.
If a web developer built your website, ask them to set up the check for you.
Frequently asked questions
Should I delete spam or mark it as spam?
Mark it as spam. The message moves to your Spam folder, where you can find it again if you made a mistake, and apps such as Apple Mail and Thunderbird learn from it. With obvious spam, avoid the links and the unsubscribe button.
How long does the LJPc hosting quarantine keep held email?
With the standard filter 7 days, after which a message is deleted automatically. With the premium spam filter it is 90 days. If you are missing a message, ask support as soon as possible.
Can I view my email quarantine myself?
Yes, with the premium spam filter: in the customer portal under Services > Spam filter, optionally with a daily digest by email. With the standard filter, support looks up a message for you and delivers it if it is in the quarantine.
Why does one email from a sender arrive and another not?
The filter gives every message its own spam score. A slightly different subject, an extra link or another sending server can tip the balance. If it keeps happening with the same sender, report it to support with an example.
Does the spam filter learn from what I mark as spam?
Your email app learns from it, and the message sits in your Spam folder. The filter on our servers uses rules that apply to all customers and are updated automatically. With the premium spam filter you mark messages in the customer portal, and the filter takes your marks into account for the next messages from that sender.
Is the sender notified when their email is quarantined?
No, for the sender the message was sent. Only when the filter refuses a message at the front door, for example because the sending server is on several blocklists, does the sender get an error message back.