Panic! 10,000 assorted spam emails just tried to download to my account

[#1]

I downloaded mail OK about 8.45 am but just tried again at 9.20 and it said there were about 10,000 waiting to download. 
I stopped it after about 200 came down. They seem to be all sorts of spam - has something gone wrong at PN or is this a more general internet problem?

EDIT: Please look at page 2 - the problem now seems to be not a sudden massive surge of spam but that POP3 is trying to download all my old email messages (inclduing all the old spam) from the PN server (I have to have "leave messages on server" set in my email software). But I have not changed any settings in my software recently.

[#2]

Is it all bounceback emails? If so then it's likely a spammer was using your address as a return path in a spam run. It should calm down pretty quickly.

[#3]

Yep, looks like your email address has been used by a spammer for a mail shot!
Nothing you can do about it I'm afraid, you just have to wait for all the bounces etc to subside.
You could try using webmail to delete the emails before they are downloaded but it may have a problem with the volume. You could ask PN to delete the contents of a mailbox but that may also contain valid email.
You could try a 3rd party spam mail reader like mailwasher to try and delete them.

[#4]

EDIT: But I've just looked at *webmail* and I can't see any spam waiting!

[#5]

They may not be marked as spam but normal email hence why mailwasher may help.
Have you enabled the spam filtering on your account (won't actually help in this case but for the future) so it moves flagged spam to a spam folder?

[#6]

....and Chris, no, none of it is bounced emails.
In the ones that I downloaded and which didn't get deleted immediately by Thunderbird's spam filter they are messages about obesity, online pharmacies etc.
They appear to be sent direct to various names before the @ in my domain address.

[#7]

Quote from: Peter

Have you enabled the spam filtering on your account (won't actually help in this case but for the future) so it moves flagged spam to a spam folder?

No I don't use the PN spam filter, I use my Thunderbird (on Linux)  filters instead.
I generally get, probably, a couple of hundred spam emails a day but that is not a problem - Thunderbird just gets rid of them very accurately and effectivley. But this is as if somone somewhere has opened a door and let through an avalanche of spam.

[#8]

PN - please respond re the following.........
I still don't understand - my webmail shows no spam waiting BUT each time I connect to download, that still shows over 10,000 waiting.
How can this be?

[#9]

If you don't have the Plusnet spam filter enabled none of the emails you receive will be classified as spam. No spam waiting is therefore correct.

[#10]

Quote from: jelv

If you don't have the Plusnet spam filter enabled none of the emails you receive will be classified as spam. No spam waiting is therefore correct.

When I say there is no spam waiting I don't mean emails which have been tagged, I simply mean spam emails - all the usual rubbish advertising drugs etc etc. I'll put it another way, the only emails on my webmail are ones that I want (or the usual few spam emails).
There are not 10,000 spam emails on my webmail waiting to download - tagged or not. Yet my usual Thunderbird download indicates there are 10,000.

[#11]

Do you use POP3 or imap in Thunderbird? If POP3 can you have a look using imap (webmail uses imap access to the mailstore) so I'm wondering is the emails are only there via POP3 (a difference would be most strange).

[#12]

I use POP3 - what is IMAP?

[#13]

Internet Message Access Protocol
Another varient of E-mail server

[#14]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP

[#15]

What software do I need to use IMAP (I am on Linux).
[Whoops! Sent before mozillazine mesage arrived!]