Virgin Media Community

[mikethesaint]

I am trying to stop receiving emails from Wowcher. I have added their email address info@email.wowcher.co.uk to my blocked emails but they still keep appearing in my inbox rather than going into my spam folder. Can someone confirm what I need to do.

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@mikethesaint wrote:

I have added their email address info@email.wowcher.co.uk to my blocked emails but they still keep appearing in my inbox rather than going into my spam folder.

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I think I can tell you why the emails are still coming through. It may sound confusing but it is because that is not the address they are coming from. 😮

I have checked that address on a few email checker / verification sites and they all came up with the same message, namely that the address does not exist.

The problem is that using the standard SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) with the appropriate email software it is still relatively easy for bad actors to spoof (falsify) the email address that an email appears to be coming from.

In my opinion the emails you are getting are more dangerous than merely spam. They are probably phishing emails containing links to fake websites, set up to harvest credit card details or similar for example, from the unwary.

Scammers mainly spoof the sending address to make their emails appear legitimate so that more people get taken in by them and fall for the scam. It may be possible to determine the actual sending address. However, even if you do, it is not much use blocking that either because scammers always change the actual sending address at frequent intervals precisely to evade blacklists.

In my experience you are better setting up a filter rule in Webmail that looks for a specific phrase or word that regularly appears in the subject line of the scam emails.

The good news is that in my experience, scammers will blitz an email address with loads of emails for a period of time. However in most cases they typically move on to a fresh list of addresses after a few weeks. Their logic probably being that if they have not caught you by then they are never going to.  So I would expect the problem you are currently seeing to die down naturally anyway.

Preferably don't open any further emails from that source and definitely do not click on any links in them.

I hope that's helpful.

Coenoby

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @mikethesaint 

I'm so sorry to see has been happening with this email address and thank you for your post! 

Can I ask if the advice @coenoby provided has helped at all? 

Thank you again!

[mikethesaint]

It was a helpful explanation but unfortunately it does not resolve the issue of me receiving all these very annoying emails from Wowcher in my inbox. All I can do is just keep deleting them when they arrive.

[Molly_G]

Hi @mikethesaint,

Thanks for your reply and sorry to hear you're still receiving these unwanted emails. Have you tried accessing the Advanced Settings > Filters so that emails mentioning 'Wowcher' or similar phrases can be directed to the spam folder? 

Thanks,

[mikethesaint]

Thank you for your response.

Sorry but can you give me some instructions on what I need to do.

I have looked at settings but I don't seem to be able to find Advanced Settings.

Many thanks

[Molly_G]

Hi @mikethesaint,

Just had a quick check and whilst this is found under 'Advanced' on my own, it doesn't appear to be on VM Mail. From the best of my knowledge the steps should be:

1. Click Settings
2. Expand the E-mail options
3. Select Filter Rules
4. Click on Add new rule
5. Create New Rule - 'Wowcher Spam'
6. Add Action Condition - 'Subject'
7. Subject Condition - Type 'Wowcher' into the box
8. Add action - Move to Folder
9. Select folder - Spam / Junk Mail
10. Click Save

Please also see the page on Using Filters with advice on how to do this with the VM account.

Hope this helps - let us know how you get on 🙂 

[Graham_A]

FYI Some of the advanced options are only available in the full screen version of VM Mail.  If accessed from a mobile device they may not show.

[mikethesaint]

Hi,

Thank you for the suggestion.

I will give this a go and see what happens.

[Akua_A]

Please let us know how you get on @mikethesaint.

Thanks,