Anyone experiencing random blueyonder emails not being received?

[kbamford1959]

For the last couple of years I seem to fail to receive some emails - and ironically, they tend to be ones that are reasonably important - in particular, a few sites where I have instigated password changes and have been awaiting verification emails to be able to reset them, and never received the email so unable to change passwords.  Also some totally random emails not being received also.  I ordered a part from a camera shop on Thursday, order confirmation came thru fine, but not the shipping confirmation.  So I complained it hadn't been delivered and was told it had shipped as per a confirmation email that had been sent to me, which I didn't receive, nor did I receive the resend.  I had it sent to a gmail account instead and the mail came through fine.  Of course what I dont know, is what emails I may have missed altogether.

I have only filtered genuine spam addresses and message content - I am not interested in any body part enlargements nor am I interested in meeting "interesting" young ladies with scammers sending copious amounts of junk these days especially following data leaks such as linked in etc et a few years back.   

Any simple answers out there or anyone had the same problem and resolved it?  I fear my only sure way forward is moving to a gmail account permanently

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@kbamford1959 wrote: 

1) Any simple answers out there or anyone had the same problem and resolved it?

 2) I fear my only sure way forward is moving to a gmail account permanently

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Taking those two points separately:

1) Simple answers.

A member of this forum@boothy99 has done some great work to show how to set up a single filter to weed out spam messages that get through the VM spam filters.  See post 32 on this thread https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Spam-VM-s-filter-is-useless/td-p/4477831/page/4 

There may be a later version of that filter but the post I have linked to shows you the principle of setting one up. Obviously, you will have to set up the specific filter contents that are needed to catch the spam you are seeing.

However, personally I have an issue with creating filters to weed out spam.  The filters in email clients and webmail are really designed for simple tasks such as sending all messages from eBay to a separate folder. In my experience it is too easy set a manual spam filter that inadvertently catches genuine emails. You will note that boothy99's filter caters for that by sending any emails that are caught by the filter to a separate folder rather than simply discarding them. In my view that's essential but it does mean you have to check through that folder from time to time to pick up on "false positives".

2) Move to a Gmail account

Personally I have been with VM since the Ntlworld days but I have never used VM email as my main email account. In fact using the "free" email account that comes with any Internet Service Provider is not to be recommended.

Remember, the VM email service is only available to VM broadband customers so, if / when you move from VM to another ISP you will lose your VM email accounts. Also, Gmail offers a much higher level of security than VM email and in my experience Gmail's spam filters do get it right 99.9 % of the time.

So, personally I would recommend you moving to a dedicated email service such as Gmail.  While I am at it, Gmail also acts like an email client. So, for example, if kept your VM email account running alongside your Gmail account you could manage your VM emails from within Gmail.

Those are my thoughts for what they are worth but in the end it's all down to your personal choice. 🤔

Coenoby

Edited to add:

I have just realised that I did not cover your point about genuine emails to your blueyonder account going missing. That does seem to be a bit of a "feature" with all the VM email domains not just blueyonder.   There are a number of reasons for that not all within VM's control. Again though, moving to Gmail is one solution to that problem.

[japitts]

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@coenoby wrote:

So, personally I would recommend you moving to a dedicated email service such as Gmail.  While I am at it, Gmail also acts like an email client. So, for example, if kept your VM email account running alongside your Gmail account you could manage your VM emails from within Gmail.

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I'll echo all of what @coenoby  has mentioned, but also add - consider purchasing and owning your own internet domain as another option.

This setup can vary from the all-out hosting option where your email is held lock, stock & barrel on your domain host and you use them directly, to a simple "copy & forward" option where an existing ISP-provided and/or gmail account hides behind your down, but it's the domain address you provide to the outside world.

The cost will vary depending how complicated you want to make it, but if you want to have full control & ownership of your email account "in perpetuity", it's the only guaranteed answer.

[kbamford1959]

Great advice, thanks

[kbamford1959]

great answer, and thanks

[boothy99]

Thanks for the reference Coenoby 👍👌

I now also save any scum emails as .eml files and send these to ....

report@phishing.gov.uk

Take a look here ...

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/report-suspicious-emails

Spam has virtually come to a halt since using this free service.

Note the use of "saving as .eml" .... if you use "forward" as a complete email, this will inevitably get stopped by Virgin's spam filter and not get through 🤔🤨 

No need for a subscription / registration ... just forward as attachment(s) any scum you receive  👍