Spam and temporary deletion of email account

[BarkingMadBarking]

Hi, I'm receiving a lot of spam on one of my email aliases. The spam filter is working well, but it's getting difficult to check if there are any genuine emails in the spam before I perform a bulk delete.

If I delete the alias, it may solve the problem. Perhaps the senders would get an undeliverable message and after time, remove me from their list.

Does anyone know if it's possible to reclaim the email address and the minumum time I would need to wait after deletion before BT says it is free?

In summary, I'd delete say, x at btinternet.com wait some time, add an alias for x at btinternet.com

I release someone could take x at btinternet.com

Thank you

[licquorice]

Once deleted a btinternet email address cannot be reinstated. It is deleted permanently.

[BarkingMadBarking]

Thanks for the quick reply @licquorice 

There seems to be another thread discussioning the blocking of domains not working.

Does anyone know what the webmail option "mark as spam and block...." actually does?

Does it send a "non delivery / address unknown to the sender"?

What does the "block" do?

Is it just blocking from appearing in my inbox?

[licquorice]

It only blocks it from your inbox. Nothing is sent back to the sender which would be futile in any case for spammers.

[gg30340]

Just for clarity.

If you delete a BTMail email account the contents of that account are held for 60 days during which time it can be re-activated and the contents restored. After 60 days the contents of the email account are deleted permanently and can not be recovered.

The email address of that account now goes into "limbo" for three years during which time it can be re-used by the BTMail account holder if required however the contents will not be re-instated. If it is not re-used it will be permanently deleted and the email address will no longer be able to be used.

How do I close or delete an email account? | BT Help

[BarkingMadBarking]

Thank you for the clarification @gg30340 

I don't use the email address that frequently. I was using Outlook POP3 to pull down the emails but have moved to the webmail interface to look at the spam.

I may try deleting and then reclaiming after the 60 days. I'd have my emails locally in a PST file so would only miss any "new" emails that are mainly spam.

I've had the email for many many years and it is only in the last 4 months that I've started to receive spam. Approx 110 messages per week.

As @licquorice says, the spammers may not notice the email address disappearing and stopping tryying to use it but I can but try.

[licquorice]

I wouldn't be in a rush to do anything. There is a current crop of spam that seems to be particularly difficult to deal with. Until recently I have only ever had extremely few spam mails, probably only single figures per year, but I have been getting quite a few lately.

Hopefully once this particular crop have been sorted the situation will return to normal.

[BarkingMadBarking]

Thanks @licquorice 

i saw the another thread about spam filtering not working. I'll bide my time.