btinternet email for another user is being directed to our Account (GDPR issue)

[Penkers]

Hello,

I've registered to the forum to raise a concern on behalf of my mother.  I do not have a BT account, but she does.

Since 1st February she has been receiving emails (227 so far) for another btinternet user who happens to have an address similar to her.  To explain the issue, I'll use non-specific examples:

Mum's email address = somethingdate@btinternet.com

Other person's email address = someoneelse.somethingdate@btinternet.com

We've tried contacting the helpdesk via the chat facility, which clearly did not understand the problem. She's also called the helpdesk, who have passed her issue on to a different level who will apparently call her back (she's currently staying with me so not available on her landline and has not received a call to her mobile number yet).

As my Mum is not particularly tech-savvy, I'm keen to be the person who talks to the resolver as I understand more about the issue - and the serious data breach that is occurring.  A friend of mine works in IT and has looked at the mail header of one of 'someoneelse's' incorrectly directed emails.  He can see that a Spam service is stripping the 'someoneelse' element of the email address and routing the email to my Mum instead.

I imagine the other person is also calling the helpdesk asking why he's received no emails since 1st Feb.  If indeed it is a Spam service causing this re-routing, he (and my Mum) cannot be the only people impacted by this problem.

Have I come to the right place or do we need to wait for a call back from the helpdesk?

[Penkers]

nb - reading some of the other posts regarding btinternet emails being rejected as SPAM - I wouldn't be surprised if these issues are related...(ie - those being rejected have a 'somethingdate' element of their email address which is unique - not a valid one like that belonging to my Mum.)

   nb I can provide email header info to help look into this issue...

[VeteranISPUser]

---

@Penkerswrote:

nb - reading some of the other posts regarding btinternet emails being rejected as SPAM - I wouldn't be surprised if these issues are related...(ie - those being rejected have a 'somethingdate' element of their email address which is unique - not a valid one like that belonging to my Mum.)

   nb I can provide email header info to help look into this issue...

---

Hi @Penkers. 

I suppose the obvious question is are these regular personal emails or spam/phishing emails?

It is normal practice for spammers to place legitimate email addresses in the Blind copy to address and place anything in the To address which doesn’t have to exist.

[Penkers]

Hello, @VeteranISPUser!

The emails for 'someoneelse'  are a mixture of spam/marketing/real emails. The sort of stuff most of us receive every day.   Some from banks, delivery companies to confirm delivery, and a number of password reset attempts when, presumably, he realised that he wasn't receiving any emails. 

I believe my Mum's email is secure, but the other user is seriously compromised.  Mum is - rightly - disconcerted about this. I imagine the other user would be even more so.

[licquorice]

I would normally have agreed with @VeteranISPUser that your mum was receiving the mail from spammers because her address was invisible in the Bcc field, but this seems a bit different.

I will ask if one of the mods could help.

[licquorice]

Just a thought, have you tried sending a test email to the other address and if so does it arrive in your mum's inbox.

[Penkers]

Hi there - yes - I've sent test emails to both my Mum and the other person.

Mum received both emails.

[licquorice]

Ok, that rules out spammers sending with your mum's address in the Bcc field. It is possibly that the true recipient has erroneously set up forwarding to your mum's account.

The mods should get to the bottom of it.

[Penkers]

Thanks, @licquorice, you may be right.

I do have a run down of the information from the message header, which suggests where the issue happens - I'll be more than happy to share this with the appropriate person to look into it.

[DanielS]

Hi @Penkers,

Thanks for getting in touch with us. I've sent you a private message so we can look into this further for you.

DanielS