This topic

Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 15:56:39 GMT

Way too much spam getting through, including scams!! This didn't used to be the case when it was BTYahoo, but since it happens almost daily...

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

tulloch — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 16:28:21 GMT

It's ridiculous now. With Yahoo virtually all spam was filtered out. Since the changeover I get a mountain of the stuff. Have more or less abandoned this service now. Took some time, but was worth it.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

monarchjock — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 21:37:08 GMT

Funny that. I got just as much spam when I was still on BT Yahoo.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 06:23:31 GMT

More of it.

Just look at the sender. How come this isn't getting recognised as spam? It should be all too obvious!

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

Deckie — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 11:41:10 GMT

I have the same emails. I tried blocking the addresses every time but they’ve got round that as you’ll notice that they all have slightly different addresses so blocking one won’t have any effect. On my accounts lots of this spam gets filtered out by the system but a lot still get through somehow. You could try blocking just the domain names using an asterisk for the username (*@onleadspro.onmicrosoft.com in your example) which I have to do in settings on the web server. It seems to work but you have to log in every time you need to add a new domain name to the list and as the addresses are spoofed there could be any number of them. You can check what the real addresses are in "View source" and block those domains as well/instead but I don’t know if that works without first clearing my blocked senders list. Do you know how to do that?

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 15:45:36 GMT

@Deckiewrote:
I have the same emails. I tried blocking the addresses every time but they’ve got round that as you’ll notice that they all have slightly different addresses so blocking one won’t have any effect. On my accounts lots of this spam gets filtered out by the system but a lot still get through somehow. 1) You could try blocking just the domain names using an asterisk for the username (*@onleadspro.onmicrosoft.com in your example) which I have to do in settings on the web server. It seems to work but you have to log in every time you need to add a new domain name to the list and as the addresses are spoofed there could be any number of them. 2) You can check what the real addresses are in "View source" and block those domains as well/instead but I don’t know if that works without first clearing my blocked senders list. Do you know how to do that?

1. That doesn't work - web-mail won't allow it without an "@" and there's no "@" and they change the 'onleadspro' for something else every time. It's "onmicrosoft.com" which needs blocking, but you can't as there's no "@" used.

2. Never tried it. But will it work if there is no "@" within the address? Because it will only allow the use of "*" immediately preceding "@" and most of these addresses seem to have no "@" within them.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

Deckie — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:54:55 GMT

It was accepted for me when I added it in as stated (e.g. *@onleadspro.onmicrosoft.com) and then when you click on refresh it removes the “*@“ and just shows as onleadspro.onmicrosoft.com in the list. Probably works for *@onmicrosoft.com as well.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 13:03:52 GMT

Yes, thanks, that does enable a manual entry in the blocked sender list in the way you suggest. Which makes me wonder why it's needed to add the (non-existant) "@" to get it to work if it's subsequently stripped off. I've normally only blocked using the automated function which spammers seem to understand they get around just by the use of "." delimiters within what would normally be the domain portion of the address.

Much of this spam didn't get through when it was BTYahoo, so why does BT not manage to block it now? I can't recall even needing to bother using a blocked sender list in BTYahoo.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

Deckie — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 13:59:29 GMT

I would imagine that the ‘@‘ isn’t needed as all the entries are domain names only. I tend to use blocked addresses now but spammers easily get round that by using a different spoofed address every time. There are about 120 addresses in the list atm, too many to examine the source code and enter domain names to the blocked list for every one. So I’ve turned off automatic download of images which would tell the spammer that it’s been read by legitimate address and to keep sending more. I don’t know how spam filters work and what they look for to determine what’s spam and what isn’t.

Maybe BTYahoo filters had better algorithms but may have trapped more legitimate emails than the BT filters.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 20:37:28 GMT

Can rarely recall BTYahoo blocking legit messages, save for the odd one from a new or infrequent contact where someone was using a peculiar subject line or similar (which could be quickly fixed by adding the sender to the address book or whatever it was called) and I've held the account for 20 years.

May try the 'images' thing - can you toggle it back on within a message if it's from a legit sender?

Sometimes one can see it's spam without viewing the message but I've noticed some spammers using gmail (or similar) addresses so have understood I need to open it before considering to block domain.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

Deckie — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 21:19:41 GMT

Yes when I know it’s legit I download the images from within each message. If blocking the images works to reduce spam I think it will happen over a long period of time.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 14:30:26 GMT

Blocking images sometimes results in this:

I don't have another device...

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

Deckie — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:26:51 GMT

I’ve never seen that error before. I tend to use an iPad and keep automatic download of images turned off and then download them in each legit email.

In Outlook you have to load images manually anyway unless you add the senders address to the preferred list.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:32:40 GMT

@Deckiewrote:
I’ve never seen that error before.

Wecome to BT Webmail...!! 😉

Tends to happen with most emails from one source - I'll keep monitoring it for now.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

Deckie — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:37:27 GMT

Me too, it’s not reduced the amount of spam yet. Maybe once my email address has been registered as legit it doesn’t make any difference turning off images to try and hide.

Re: Way too much spam getting through, including scams!!

DISRUPTED — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 01:34:51 GMT

Still loads of spam quite regularly, reporting it, marking as spam, blocking domains, preventing images from loading etc. makes no difference. Some is so obviously spam. Ridiculous sender addresses, repetitive domains usage, dubious origins, rubbish content, repetitive mailings. When you look at the source info. you see the mail handlers have already given it a high spam score, yet it still ends up in the in-box. Very little arrives in the spam box. Why blocking doesn't work I have no idea. Why BTmail doesn't pick up the high spam probability I have no idea. How long is it now, around 2 years if my memory serves me well and BT still haven't reduced the spam one jot. If anything it's probably worse. BTYahoo had this shorted, so how come BTmail haven't?