Hi If you have the Message Pane open, clicking on an email does open it. Try - close message pane (F8) Select the messages you don't want and [Shift] [Delete] to permanently delete them or - Right click the message and choose delete from menu. You can also set Thunderbird not to send message acknowledgements without asking. That said, if the spammer is looking for working email addresses, simply not getting a bounce message from the email server might be enough for them to keep trying. Hope that helps, Agnes

Hello Agnes, Thank you for your help. The F8 option is helpful, but deleting it either with shift-Delete or right mouse click does still result in quickly opening it first before deleting it. Your option to "set Thunderbird not to send message acknowledgements without asking" seems the best one. How do I do that? I checked the options in Thunderbird, but did not find this option. Best, Mattijn

Hi Well, the Thunderbird email acknowledgement settings control responses to emails that are sent with a request for a 'return receipt'. You can adjust the settings at - Menu - Options - Advanced In the General tab under Advanced - the first item - click the button for Return receipts. The first few settings are about sending your emails out with receipt requests, the next are about how to respond to incoming emails. there are options for Always send, Never send, and Ask me. Hope that helps, Agnes

Found it !! Thanx.