Virgin Media Community

[ALF28]

I have a primary email with old ntlworld address.

Have opened secondary virgin media email  also

The old ntlworld is a primary attached to my account so virgin say it can not be deleted without closing the virgin contract, have tried several times.The ntlworld email has been subject of hacking,  phising, blackmail constantly for several years. Thus virgin will not allow deletion or changing this old address even though it is being targeted by hacking and spamming every day, I am using filters to block  spam but spammers change sender address a lot. The spam often is not identified even though invalid sender address used. It is a security risk to me.

Recent spam is from triblive via comcast, hollywoodbowl, benchmarkemail, club@info.diy.com and emails from outlook claiming to have my passwords wanting blackmail payments.

In refusing to assist my security is at risk, and although I have taken measures not to use the old email any more I still get 2.500 spams or more per year from unknown people

Interested in any comments.

[HowardML · Accepted solution]

The advice you received is correct. This is how the VM system is built. Primary addresses cannot be deleted.  And that is where the discussion ends.

But there may be a solution. You can stop using it for e-mail purposes and after 150 days VM will completely deactivate it for e-mail purposes. You must not inspect it or access it during that period.  However it will always remain valid for logging in to My Virginmedia.  

You can then use your secondary address as your main e-mail contact, whether accessed via webmail or an e-mail program.

[ALF28]

I now agree with virgin  (changed my mind) it is best to keep an old email address used for about 20 years anyway even though it gets lots of spam emails. After 4 years I am still getting some valid email from accounts I had forgot or ceased using for a while but needed sorting. Also these days it is best to keep hold of all email accounts old and new to be in control and prevent recycling or hacking of the email by doing regular activity. I have noted some ntlworld.com and virginmedia and virginmediabusiness.co.uk.com email accounts are used by spammers now so it is wise to keep control of the primary email even if it is a spare email or no longer used due to spam issues etc.

perhaps virgin are wise in that regard and not using it for 150 days would result in loss of access/monitoring/control

I just yesterday had to deal with an important account not used since 2018, so good job I have maintained primary email.

genuine emails can suddenly appear form old accounts from years ago, so glad I still maintain this email now.

always wise to check authenticity of emails using "view source" but contact  the company directly rather than click on any link go via their official web page

log in and ensure address is https. ( this avoids phishing)

if spam is troublesome it can be dealt with using blacklist and filters see "spam and blacklist posting" (using regex filtering)

check password works regularly and change often is what I do. I also use secondary virginmedia.com email accounts.

Virgin let a lot of spam through and should use Bayesian filters which are readily available, some email provided stop all spam.