iDNet email

[Tacitus]

Do many people here use an *@idnet.com email address?  I have a couple which are only used as alternate addresses against my normal one.

However, both of these are plagued with spam, despite the fact the addresses have very limited visibility.   Most, if not all of the spam, is of the Viagra, girls, porn site variety which I would have thought was fairly easily blocked if iDNet applied themselves to the task.  My regular email domain addresses attract an infinitesimal amount of spam, which I suspect is due to a technically clued up hosting company being on top of the problem. 

However my sister receives an inordinate amount which keeps filling up her iDNet email allowance.  Whilst I'm taking steps to move her to an alternate email, this is a drawn out process since accounts etc have to be changed.  Ultimately it doesn't say much for iDNet's technical ability that they can't seem to block most, if not all of the spam. 

Is anybody else finding this?  I know that iDNet email is regarded as being a *free* service, but filters don't always work since the 'content' is an image. 

[zappaDPJ]

I get a huge amount of spam via my @idnet.com address but at least two companies where I've used it (Adobe & vBulletin) have had their databases compromised. Spam filtering doesn't work for me because I get hundreds, possibly thousands of very similar emails all sent from different domains.

It's a waste of my time but the amount of work involved switching to another address is huge so I just live with it

[Simon]

Two of my IDNet email addresses receive an almost constant barrage of spam, but two others don't.  I've even had Spam purporting to be sent from one of my IDNet emails to another!

Have you turned on the spam filters in your customer portal?

[Tacitus]

Two of my IDNet email addresses receive an almost constant barrage of spam, but two others don't.  I've even had Spam purporting to be sent from one of my IDNet Have you turned on the spam filters in your customer portal?

Yes.  I've also used the advanced ones to try and stem the tide, but the effect is marginal. 

Like Zap said, moving to another is a total pain which is why I got my own domain some  years ago, but the volumes of spam on my sister's IDNet account are such that there is little alternative.

Like you I've even received spam coming from my own iDNet address.  I really can't believe tech support are completely unable to do anything about it.  I suppose the thinking is that since they are a business oriented ISP, most clients will use their own domain and hence no need to bother.  However if iDNet can't keep spam off their own addresses I have to wonder how good they are at protecting the domains they host.

This is the only time in the 10 years (12 for my sister) we've been with them, that either of us has had a serious gripe with iDNet.

[Simon]

Have to actually spoken to IDNet?  They may be able to help.   

[Tacitus]

Have to actually spoken to IDNet?  They may be able to help.   

Yes, but the general attitude seems to be that spam is a fact of life so deal with it.  A certain amount is fair enough but this comes in waves and since it is the usual med, porn, viagra stuff I would have thought it fairly easily dealt with.  The ones that appear to be from yourself could surely be dealt with by a script on the server.

As I've said I'm moving my sister to other email but it's a faff and takes time.  From my own POV I could probably deal with it if wildcards were allowed in advanced mail filters:  put the dozen or so whitelist addreses first and then use *.* to delete anything else.  Can't do that for a regular user though.

Might have another go at them.  I just wondered if anyone else was having problems

[Ray]

Have you checked your email address at this site to see if it's been compromised in a data breach:-
https://haveibeenpwned.com/ had to ditch one of my Domain email addresses a few months ago as I was getting what you have been seeing - found out it had been involved in a data breach at adobe.com. 

[Tacitus]

Have you checked your email address at this site to see if it's been compromised in a data breach:-
https://haveibeenpwned.com/ had to ditch one of my Domain email addresses a few months ago as I was getting what you have been seeing - found out it had been involved in a data breach at adobe.com. 

Good point.  Looks as though all of the idnet email addresses are on that.  Given the two of mine are very rarely used since they are only supplied as alternates, it makes me wonder whether the idnet servers were breached.   Doubt we'll ever know.

It does show the need to move them if at all possible.  Probably difficult with mine but I'm not as badly impacted as my sister whose addresses are being moved.  A better filter system would probably remove most if not all spam on my accounts, but I don't see that happening.

I still think iDNet could be more proactive.

[goldberg]

Have been getting the same range of e-mails to my @idnet.com address for several months.  More recently these have included "property investment opportunities" in Hull, Doncaster, Manchester, and various places abroad.  In the last few days the pattern has changed and there are more insurance-related spam e-mails.  Any day now I'm expecting Coronaviris spam.

Some while ago I analysed the raw source of these e-mails and noticed that there was a pattern in the range of sender's IP-addresses and domain names.
I've set up filters to filter out any IP address that begin with the first 16 bits of these IP-addresses, so quite a broad filter, and also filter any e-mails that contain one of the suspect domain names.

The majority of these suspect e-mails now get dumped in the Junk folder, allowing me to finally vet them before doing a "delete all" of the Junk folder contents.
This has to be done at least daily.  On a bad day there are 15 - 20 of these e-mails.  There are more of them just before a weekend.

I'm assuming the embedded links in these e-mails would immediately cause a malware infection if clicked-on.

[zappaDPJ]

Any day now I'm expecting Coronaviris spam.

I got this one today.

On a bad day there are 15 - 20 of these e-mails.

I'd say on good day I get 150 - 200 of them   The majority, around 80-90% do get caught by the filters I've set up but I've no idea how many wanted emails get trashed, unread.

[Simon]

I've had the WHO one for three days running now.   

Have been getting the same range of e-mails to my @idnet.com address for several months.  More recently these have included "property investment opportunities" in Hull, Doncaster, Manchester, and various places abroad.  In the last few days the pattern has changed and there are more insurance-related spam e-mails.  Any day now I'm expecting Coronaviris spam.

Some while ago I analysed the raw source of these e-mails and noticed that there was a pattern in the range of sender's IP-addresses and domain names.
I've set up filters to filter out any IP address that begin with the first 16 bits of these IP-addresses, so quite a broad filter, and also filter any e-mails that contain one of the suspect domain names.

The majority of these suspect e-mails now get dumped in the Junk folder, allowing me to finally vet them before doing a "delete all" of the Junk folder contents.
This has to be done at least daily.  On a bad day there are 15 - 20 of these e-mails.  There are more of them just before a weekend.

I'm assuming the embedded links in these e-mails would immediately cause a malware infection if clicked-on.

Interesting that you said about the Hull Investment spam.  I've had those too, to two of my IDNet addresses, which are completely unconnected in any other way.  It does suggest that IDNet emails may have been compromised in some way. 

[JohnH]

I've got 3 IDNet email addresses.

None of them get any spam except for the Hull Investment one.

I find that a bit odd and coincidental. 

John

[mikeporter]

I was looking at my Dashboard recently and saw that I had the spam filter activated. Must have done it some while ago and forgot about it. Anyway I had a look and found that it had caught a large number of Sex, viagra etc. spam. And here's me thinking my account was nearly spam free with what little I got being handled by Thunderbird.
So, for me at least, the Idnet spam filter works well.
Hope I haven't spooked things!

[peasblossom]

Hallo mikeporter! I don't post here very often but I thought someone ought to say hi.

[Simon]

Welcome, Mike!   

[andrue]

I run my own mail server. It makes it easier to run a DEA system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_email_address) as I can perform the mapping based on the RCPT command.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_email_address#Multiple_email_aliases

The last paragraph was written by me 'cos it's how I do it

My mail server gets a lot of spam but I've blacklisted bad addresses over the years so none of it ever gets to me. It's interesting to note that one of the most common emails is being sent to an address that I blacklisted over fifteen years ago. If nothing else that proves that rejecting an email will not prevent the address being used for spam.

[nowster]

Google allows you to use the "+" trick. I use it myself on my own domains.

[armadillo]

I have ten idnet email addresses. I do not get any spam on any of them. I have spam filtering turned off on all of them but I still do not get spam.

Well, actually I do get an occasional spam message (containing a probably malicious link) on one of the addresses and it is spoofed as if coming from one person who I know. I think her computer must have been compromised at some point and her contacts were stolen. However, though it started over a year ago, it has not escalated and is only one every month or two.

[Tacitus]

For the record I got in touch with support and they tweaked the spam score filter.  So far neither myself nor my sister have had any more of these, but they tend to come in waves so perhaps it's early days.