Spam

[shamick59]

Have Virgin turned off their spam filters?  I am getting so much spam in my ntlworld account. Don’t get anything on my gmail account  Any suggestions on how to stop this please?

[ALF28]

MALVERTISING

websites with fraudulant malware adverts that can infect devices.

I noticed some unsolicited email newsletters in my inbox  for both for microsoft and mac's  security which I receive and appear to be genuine, with links in them.

Having investigated the companies sending these email newsletters, my antivirus blocked a website which re-directed to a page to do a computer security scan without  me clicking anything, this was blocked by my antivirus as "malvertising", a new one for me,I have not come across this before.

My edge browser was tring to connect to  a website known for malicious activity, and my firewall blocked the website,so I was doubly protected by antivirus and firewall alerts.

I will blacklist these unsolicited security emails that I did not subscribe to, and best only to read security bullitins from reliable sources such as microsoft or antivirus software companies threats news. These emails  may be linked to the fake antivirus emails mentioned in posts and assume that these are designed to look genuine regarding security issues and some people will assume they are genuine, easy to be tricked.

Some of these companies appear to be genuine  with their own website, which is not microsoft, but claim to be doing  microsoft security advice or mac security.

alf28

[Robert_P]

Thanks for the heads up ALF28, if you could forward these emails here so the team are aware and can start to look into this further. It does seem more sophisticated than the usual Phishing email so it's great you have posted to help make people aware and keep their data safe!

Rob

[ALF28]

Thanks for your reply. I am now using email filter discard, which efectively blocks email senders- a good solution for me.

I have used the filtering discard action to get rid of most of my regular spam emails and unsolicitted newsletters.

The email filter conditions can be from, subject or a header and I can block most spam this way.

The virgin email filter options are more flexible  and very effective, better than some other email providers where the options are more limited.

Since using the filter to discard  (delete) I get very little spam now, but care is needed with precise filtering to ensure no genuine emails go to discard.

I am using discard to avoid some dangerous fake scam emails I was receiving regularly and  long term.

It is the best solution for me so far, and I am doing the same with my gmail which has unsolicitted newsletters also, but they use filter to delete in place of discard.

In some cases headers can be used to pick out an Ip address or range of ip addresses and also block bcc emails.

alf28

[ALF28]

spam -still coming

Recent spam includes -

fake royal mail delivery notice (tagged spam)

fake nhs covid passport notice

fake virgin media direct debit error (tagged spam)

tsb billing error  (tagged spam)

Virgin are picking up most of these scam emails tagging them as spam which is good. As I whitelist my inbox, these scam emails I now filter to  folders  and ignore them as they are dangerous. I avoid using the spam folder in case genuine emails are deleted after 30 day by mistake. 

I also now have replace the discard action with a file to folder, so no emails are discarded by mistake, as the filters do not always work as you expect and the settings can sometimes be disrupted/changed or glitch.Wise to check filter settings and also avoid losing any genuine emails by always filing everything to any number of folders that can  be set up/added under "my folders" so any email can be checked/found if needed with a search in a particular folder.

As some older virgin emails may be discontinued? , I take the precaution now of forwarding my emails to a secondary virginmedia.com email address. On some occasions the forward filter can fail, but works most of the time. My ntlworld.com email still works but some posts indicate issues with some older-pre virgin email addresses not working properly or access problems.

alf28

[Ashleigh_C]

I'm so sorry to hear that this has been ongoing @ALF28

Have you been able to report these via the email that my colleague linked previously?

Thank you.

[ALF28]

thanks, I usually report to   report@phishing.gov.uk

alf28

[Robert_P]

That's fine also ALF28, if they are reported here also it puts them on the teams radar if they aren't already aware 🙂

Rob

[shamick59]

Thanks for this info - unfortunately I've tried 3 times to use this but the emails keep bouncing back with undeliverable message

[Gareth_L]

Hi shamick59 

Are you using report@phishing.gov.uk

Gareth_L

[shamick59]

Yep 3 times I’ve tried 🙄