Increased spam getting through filters

[#1]

In the last month with no change to the spam filter settings I have had a significant increase in the amount of spam getting to my inbox. I have increased the severity of filtering but it has made no difference. What is going on? It is as if plus net is not bothering with filtering anymore.

[#2]

Previously on Homeland we used to have spam marked as [-SPAM-] in the Subject field, easy to see and an Outlook Rule or Thunderbird filter could be used to detect this and move the spam message to a suable folder.

What now appears to be the unannounced replacement for this is [-SPAM-] in the Subject field is replaced by X-Spam: Yes in the message header. With this information I was able to create an Outlook Rule and a Thunderbird filter to perform the same message filtering task.

What is unclear is if this new spam filter will become the long term solution.

What is also unclear is if the Plusnet email spam portal has any effect at all now.


Here is clip of a spam email header showing the X-Spam: Yes , the message is a typical garbage advert.

X-Spam: Yes
X-Original-Recipient: mail.user@<account>.plus.com
X-CMAE-Envelope: MS4xfISISi5KqvmMRUlXMnVNcJu5YOXWXd+aXAdLcMA0/Fkw6Y+bFpiN4ixXVO91EXvIc+NkpKrx73IgBCiDUGeUdlGYywd6KBQrGiv159rRS0aJSEQJI4T8
 qHOh8sGL4g5Izka8VPX11nmAQhTQQUo2J58cUcnsJj5eAzgGriuqcLWukKf5hwkhjjzv9OggW9fDFsdCf93dJn/N00jipmt8upS9b7PxKsqzwRqHau6pphWC
 xtH9xgDSSnFQy3RZH8LOMtCTa2ZilbV34cK8BVD9Jys=
X-pn-pstn-db:" Spam 99
X-PN-Virus-Filtered: by PlusNet MXCore (v5.00)
X-PN-Spam-Filtered: by PlusNet MXCore (v5.00)
Subject: 40%Off Psilycaps for Thanksgiving Only!

[#3]

Yep - same here.  Sudden huge increase.  I fwd everything to reports@phishing.gov.uk but today I only got spam.  8 of them.  TBH I was a bit disappointed with them, they didn't make much of an effort but it only takes a very small percentage to respond to make a profit.  I'm switching to proton mail now though.  Been with F9 for over 25 years, same email - only reason I keep it is a measure of loyalty and cos too much hassle to change it but gradually switching it all over.

[#4]

Yes, same here.  Loads of emails going to my junk folder whereas nothing went there before!  They must have just been filtered out or deleted before? Also, it's catching a hell of at lot my incoming email that isn't SPAM into the junk mail folder. Could do with some idea of what's going on and how long it's going to last?

I have to say that his whole email migration has been information light and not managed well at all.  We could have done with a progress portal and some idea of how long it's going to take.

On a positive note it makes migrating away from PlusNet much easier once my email is elsewhere.  It used to be a great ISP when they provided a full service at a decent price.

[#5]

The unannounced changes to the SPAM filtering are just chaotic, a product of the Agile age where releasing changes & customer testing are far more important than open communications or delivery competency.

I worked at a UK ISP & Hosting Services provider, at the time they were in the business of divesting DNS Registration Services to other providers, the only concern was to get the (not profitable)  DNS entries shifted. They migrated in batches of 1000s but under each record was an SME customer concerned their business websites remained online.

I'm not sure the individual customers got much of a thought in that process & the Plusnet Greeny mail migration come across as little if any better.

[#6]

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@rahewitt wrote:

Loads of emails going to my junk folder whereas nothing went there before! 

---

Lucky you, the spam I'm getting is not marked as spam and lands in my Inbox.

[#7]

Being a bit of a luddite not sure i understand all the tech. Details in your note. I have never had to set up any rules in outlook as the plus net filtering seemed to work very well. A couple of times over the many years I have been with plus net there has been short periods of spam, always explained with an apology from plusnet as a fault in their spam filtering. To me it looks like plusnet have disabled all spam filtering. Ie. A reduction in service coinciding with a migration to another supplier. When I get a chance I will call their help no. And see what response I get. Ive messaged already on facebook but just the standard response pointing to help pages. Maybe everyone experiencing this problem should call!! Perhaps plusnet is not keen to provide such a good service anymore.

[#8]

@Notsut Because email is being moved, first-line support have little or no guidance they can officially offer - if they do attempt to 'help', take what is said with a large pinch  of salt.

[#9]

Good point although I wasn't expecting them to provide technical help as the new supplier should be sorting this. However I am paying plus net for broadband including mail and they have reduced the level of service. I will call them more as a customer complaint. I do not believe this is a fault I am convinced it is a reduction in service ie a deliberate removal of spam filtering

[#10]

As has been pointed out elsewhere, but you may not have seen, email has always been an 'add-on' free service - it was never a component of the broadband contract.

[#11]

That maybe the case now but when I signed up multiple mailboxes were advertised as part of the package. My point still stands that the level of service has reduced.

[#12]

It’s not a case of the service being reduced but spammers becoming more cunning see https://www.redsecuretech.co.uk/blog/post/worm-like-spam-attacks-why-they-spread-so-fast-in-2025/537

Not every thing is a conspiracy.