Someones using my email address to send spam emails - how can I stop it?

[#1]

Thanks @Townman 

I have those settings but can't remember applying them. What is interesting is that what's being added to the Subject line of spam e-mails is not -SPAM- as showing in the settings, but ***SPAM***.

Please see the attached screen shot.

[#2]

Just thought I add my tuppence here - the last few weeks the spam filter on my accounts definitely seems to have been switched off. It's easy to see as I have a forward from PlusNet via Gmail and Gmail filters out all the new stuff that's now getting through (its really easy to spot in my case its in Japanese most of the time).

I just went to the user portal to check the settings and mail doesn't even show  - in fact it says my account is locked due to a pending change which is I presume is the Greenby move - despite not getting the 60 day notice email yet. In fact I just checked and the last mail about this was dated the 24th July.

So either PlusNet or Greenby have changed  the previously pretty good spam filters - basically I get about 20 / 30 assorted phishing or blackmail attempts a day to my main mail box and my family report the same - one box got over a 100 attempts using false Boots accounts this weekend alone

[#3]

@Dinalt 

Discussion such as this need to be informed with clarity.  SPAM filtering is different depending on which brand is running the service.  MAAF and plus.com are all still on Plusnet.  Much of Force9 and FoL are on Greenby, though accounts with a hosted domain name and some with websites are not.

Which email brand are you using?

[#4]

It's Plusnet and the number of actively hostile mails has Skyrocketed in the past few weeks / months. It's very noticeable for 2 reasons :

I've just changed phones and previously I never had my Plusnet email on my 'phone - I have it polled / forwarded using a gmail address (as you will recall for quite a while you could receive PlusNet emails but couldn't send as them without using an alias if you were no longer a Broadband customer. I set up Gmail to do this). I've now added my main mail box using imap and the difference in the no of emails received is incredible.

The other thing making it obvious is that the vast majority of spam I'm receiving currently is in Japanese - not one of these spam messages arrives via gmail. 

My wife received over 100 spam emails from one address last week (Hello@boots.com) - a quick search shows this is a known spam address / spoofed mail. I've also recieved the ones pretending to be from Plusnet and even a few from myself

The thing is this didn't use to be the case - I'd probably get 1 or 2 a month at most - now every morning my inbox is full of this stuff...  And as you can't access the spam setting in the Plusnet user management system not much use in looking there..

[#5]

I am now receiving e-mails into my Office 365 Outlook Inbox with ***VIRUS*** inserted at the start of the message header. Norton 365 is quarantining the virus which is good.

Something has definitely changed with the filtering undertaken by Plusnet/Greenby.

When will we receive an official technical update on these problems?

[#6]

Agreed, ebforum. It's definitely Greenby related and it wouldn't surprise me if they have sold the list.

I am now getting rogue emails from,,,myself!

[#7]

Are any MAAF users encountering a rise in the volume of SPAM getting through?

[#8]

Among the large increase in Spam I have just had several the same which were all rather different to others, in that they had absolutely no indication at all of any Spam checks in the headers:

Return-Path: <izrenwy@restore-eu.my>
Delivered-To: @******@********.f9.co.uk
Received: from dovecot-director-0.dovecot-director.enmail-prod.svc.cluster.local ([192.168.160.2])
	by dovecot-1.dovecot.enmail-prod.svc.cluster.local with LMTP
	id OJFOMxncOmn+qRQA0G7mNA
	(envelope-from <izrenwy@restore-eu.my>)
	for <*****@*******.f9.co.uk>; Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:58:33 +0000
Received: from mail.enmail.co ([192.168.118.160])
	by dovecot-director-0.dovecot-director.enmail-prod.svc.cluster.local with LMTP
	id kI3rMhncOmlyfgkA4CTlXA
	(envelope-from <izrenwy@restore-eu.my>)
	for <*****@*******.f9.co.uk>; Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:58:33 +0000
Received: from mail.restore-eu.my (mail.restore-eu.my [62.173.142.251])
	by mail.enmail.co (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6BEB810015736747
	for <525de30dbdnews03@******.f9.co.uk>; Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:58:32 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <77383864K61127203F05572173I25022566U@id.izrenwy.restore-eu.my>
From: "Original Gift" <izrenwy@restore-eu.my>
To: <contact@ashworthelectrical.co.uk>
Subject: Instant Two-Way Language Translator
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:55:20 +0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related;
	type="multipart/alternative";
	boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0018_01DC6AAA.C71F3CD0"
X-Original-Recipient: 525de30dbdnews03@********.f9.co.uk

Does that look right?  Is it possible that all Spam checks have been bypassed?

[#9]

Not sure if its relevant but had a mail arrive today which was flagged as containing a virus by my system. Looks like the detection system is completely broken now. 

[#10]

I and others have mentioned receipt of rogue emails from ourselves.

As a test, I blocked the sender, created a fresh email on my plus account to me and nowt. 

I unblocked the sender & tried again: it worked. As I was typing this the first one arrived.

I don't have the time or means of deeper analysis so any insight is welcome.

Frankly, this entire mess is a disgrace.

[#11]

@Dinalt could you PM me the time of the email with the virus please and sender email address if you have it?

[#12]

Done (it was also forwarded to abuse@plus.net)