Stop the flow of spam email

[DavidO]

HI

In my continuing battle to stem the flow of spam email I'd like to know if there is an option to temporarily disable a Bell email account rather than delete it. I'd still like to use the address but perhaps disabling it will bounce the spam and reduce the amount received.

Thanks....

[Sams · Accepted solution]

Hi David. If you go to the internet section in your bell.ca account there is a Manage Bell email link. In there you can select the email you want to deactivate and click the delete button. This will deactivate your email account and give you the option to reactivate it at a later time.

If someone sends you an email while your email account is deactivated then they will get an auto reply message that tells them their email was not delivered.

I don’t know if this will actually solve your spam problem but interesting approach. Let us know if it works. I think there are many spam control options you can try if you log into your email on the bell.net portal using a browser on your computer. 

[DavidO]

Hi Sams,

Thanks for the info.

I've seen the delete option but wasn't aware it would just deactivate and could be later re-instated. I've tried several spam filters that Bell has available but I have a couple of email address' that have been breached and the spammers just change the address' they send from. So I thought I might just disable the accounts for perhaps a month and when enough email bounces back to the source I'll be dropped from their database.

If all else fails I'll just get rid of those accounts.

Regards,

David....

[Sams]

I feel your pain David. Spam drives me crazy and seems like you can never get away from it.

on my main email account, I set all emails except ones from my contact list to go into junk folder.

Bell does let you have a bunch of email accounts so it’s easy to create new ones. I created a junk email account that I use anytime a site that can potentially use my email for spam asks me for an email address.  I will have to try your approach……...maybe you’re on to something. 

[DavidO]

I too have a junk email for just the sort of occasion you mention. Sadly it's not the one that's been breached.

I'll post again in a couple of weeks or so and let you know if my little experiment works.

[DavidO]

Sadly my experiment failed.

I think the idea is sound. The problem was that when I used the option to delete the Bell email that was being spammed it remained in my list of email address's but eventually got deleted from the Bell server. So I'm still trying to find how to pause an email account so the spam will bounce back but eventually re-enable the account and see if the spam has stopped.

[BellPatricia · Accepted solution]

Thanks for letting us know @DavidO!

Spam messages can be very annoying, but disabling your email account will not really prevent new spam messages from being sent to you in the long run.

Instead, may I suggest some troubleshooting steps? If you haven’t already, take a peak at the post Getting spam emails. It has some easy tips that can help reduce spam volume. 

If you've already tried those troubleshooting steps and have not seen a reduction, let us know.

@BellPatricia 

[DavidO]

Thanks for your input.

I'm retired now but most of my career was in Tech Support. Went to your suggested link (Getting Spam emails)and here are some of my results.

I am aware of the junk/spam difference and I control my junk usually by using the unsubscribe option (I use Outlook for the desktop).

What I've been doing is checking on the Bell Webmail before downloading any mail to my desktop and adding the domain or sender to the "Block Sender" field in the Security Settings.

I do it this way because I'm trying to stop the spam at the Bell server before it comes down to my desktop. I'm not aware that if I block a domain/sender from my desktop location it reflects that info back to the server.

One thing I have discovered is the "Block Sender" field on Bell Webmail will only take so much text and then the "Save" button produces an Error until I delete some text and then re-save.

I assume I can rest assured that if I delete an email address on the Bell server that it is gone for good?

[Snickers17]

I have bell.net email address and have been receiving a lot of spam lately. I don’t really want to create a new email. I mark them spam and forward them to phish@bell.ca but it doesn’t seem to help. Any suggestions?

[BILL1]

my wife is having the same problem.  I have used every method of blocking and  nothing works.  Need a way to block these emails based on a keyword in the sucbject line,  like McAfee.  getting fed up.  help Bell

[snowblower]

I use gmail (behind my own url). I almost never get spam email. They seem it have it nearly totally under control. Not sure why Bell has this problem in 2023.

[oldman55]

I am having the same issue on my bell.net account. No amount of filters seem to be able to stop this as the email address and domain change on every email. If they get enough reports they eventually will do something about it. There was a similar problem last year that eventually got fixed.

[dks · Accepted solution]

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@DavidO wrote:

HI

In my continuing battle to stem the flow of spam email I'd like to know if there is an option to temporarily disable a Bell email account rather than delete it. I'd still like to use the address but perhaps disabling it will bounce the spam and reduce the amount received.

Thanks....

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While I am not going to take that step, there is something you can do if you use the Microsoft Outlook client. You can mark an e-mail a Junk and block the sender. Any subsequent e-mail from that address will go straight to Junk. I empty the Junk folder regularly. 

[BuryGirl]

Does Bell email have any spam filters? Or, is the only way to control spam coming into your email is to select the option to "block the domain" on each individual email? 

[WelshTerrier]

Bell does block some things.... spam is a whole subject by itself. Define spam & my categorical answer to you is no!

Bell does not black spam! I wish they did but......