Has anyone noticed an absurd amount of SPAM on icloud emails? Apple used to have the best filters. I now get upwards of 100 emails every hour in my junk folder. I used to go months before getting even 10 junk emails. What happened to Apple's spam settings?
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If your account is pretty old your .mac and .me addresses are totally locked to your iCloud address as permanent aliases and can NEVER be removed. So you'll never be able to fix it from that standpoint. Try getting a spam filter like SpamSieve. Apple should be automatically doing something like that in my opinion. One solution, that could be very problematic, would be to get a different iCloud account. BUT, then you may lose some programs and will definitely lose Apple music or iTunes. Apple has no way you can move things to a new Apple iCould account without issues. Or do a new account but discontinue email totally on the old account and restart email with the new account. Then, you would still have access to things like iTunes but would have to sign in to your old account to use it. Due to the ever changing nature of spam nothing Apple offers truly works for long. Especially with spam from lists and groups. It just keeps coming with simple changes of a letter, or number somewhere in the from or to fields. What I was told was to send all spam to abuse@apple.com. Either directly or as an attachment. This takes time but if it overloads Apple maybe they'll finally start to take it seriously. Of course they don't read any of it but perhaps an uptick in numbers will be noticed. This is shameful on Apple's part. I have had many conversations with Apple about this and they either have no idea or what they offer won't really work. There is no reason I can think of for them not to allow the deletion of mac.com and me.com or to be able to switch to a different iCloud account without all the hassles and losses of programs, data, whatever. They can't even tell me what would really be affected.
If your account is pretty old your .mac and .me addresses are totally locked to your iCloud address as permanent aliases and can NEVER be removed. So you'll never be able to fix it from that standpoint. Try getting a spam filter like SpamSieve. Apple should be automatically doing something like that in my opinion. One solution, that could be very problematic, would be to get a different iCloud account. BUT, then you may lose some programs and will definitely lose Apple music or iTunes. Apple has no way you can move things to a new Apple iCould account without issues. Or do a new account but discontinue email totally on the old account and restart email with the new account. Then, you would still have access to things like iTunes but would have to sign in to your old account to use it. Due to the ever changing nature of spam nothing Apple offers truly works for long. Especially with spam from lists and groups. It just keeps coming with simple changes of a letter, or number somewhere in the from or to fields. What I was told was to send all spam to abuse@apple.com. Either directly or as an attachment. This takes time but if it overloads Apple maybe they'll finally start to take it seriously. Of course they don't read any of it but perhaps an uptick in numbers will be noticed. This is shameful on Apple's part. I have had many conversations with Apple about this and they either have no idea or what they offer won't really work. There is no reason I can think of for them not to allow the deletion of mac.com and me.com or to be able to switch to a different iCloud account without all the hassles and losses of programs, data, whatever. They can't even tell me what would really be affected.
It's not Apple settings. It's a malicious email bomb. Mine started 3 months ago. A bot signs you up for random real websites. Can't be tracked to the perpetrator. Just keep dragging to junk, block contacts, and if it's a real website (look at the actual "from" address, not just what is says it is), unsubscribe. And contact abuse@icloud.com.
An easy-to-understand explanation:
SAME HERE. JFC WTF happened? What is even more disconcerting is I cannot change my email address. My main apple id. Once created it's locked in. That's just bs. So rule upon rule I create to immediately place any email received using the words in any kind of variation from You'vewon! or Youve won or youhavewon cause they keep changing the letters around or adding a period and then a set of numbers at the end to keep getting through to you. Even just opening the email to read it pings their servers back to let them know you're there. So if you create a rule to send it directly to trash (but do not tell it to mark it read) and then you just empty your trash or let it empty on auto, they'll stop. But it takes finesse. I have over 50 rules keeping my junk and inbox empty. I maybe get a new one ever so often, but the rules using every possible variation of words numbers and letter combinations is only thing maintaining my sanity.
I've been a user about that long as well, and same––never had this issue until very recent months.
I should add that you can forward the spam to Apple using Message––>Forward as Attachment (Apple's preference) or by just using Message––>Forward. I wound up doing the latter this afternoon because I had so many to send that they would no go as attachments, but in future I will send them as attachments, in batches. I get at least 100 per day.
The tech support rep said that the more spam they see, the more they can try to deal with it? Honestly, I couldn't get a more precise or clear answer than that... to my mind, if the CAN "deal with" email, then why aren't they "dealing with" this dross???
I hope many users go ahead and forward all their spam, every day. However, you do need to be able to access Mail on a computer, I think, in order to be able to Select All. I would never do this if I had to forward one at a time.
As per my daughter's input......
I've created a "spam" rule that I am adding each sender to. This of course has not in itself worked by just sending it to the trash....so her suggestion was to then have each spam email forwarded to reportfishing@apple.com (instead of the rule sending it to the trash). If you have done this you'll notice that it generates an automatic response from apple, "we take phishing very seriously.......". The beauty of the system is that I now have an additional rule which sends those responses from apple (which by the way go to your junk folder) directly to the trash.
Same here, I put it down to - Settings > Mail > Privacy Protection.Protect Mail Activity. It may hide the address but it may show that the address is active, so the spammers keep sending junk to that address.
I turned Protect Mail Activity to off, then two options appear,
Hide IP Address - turned on.
Block All Remote Content - I turned on too.
the amount of spam has not increased anyway, and if this is in fact the reason, hopefully over time the spam will decrease.
Did you upgrade to a new iCloud level at the same time as the spam increase, I think that this feature is linked to a paid level of iCloud.
hope this makes sense!
Greetings mac833,
Since you are receiving spam mail, start y ensuring your have enabled Protect Mail Activity. This could help reduce the spam you receive.
"On your iPhone or iPad
Learn how to enable this feature on other devices, by visiting the linked resource. This was also the resource you used to reach us.
Should the issue continue, Contact Apple Support for additional guidance.
We hope this helps to reduce the amount of spam you are receiving.
Best wishes.
Just posting what I did and "maybe" it will work for someone else. It's not an easy fix but my spam has been significantly reduced!! Today , there was one. This has been an issue for me since 11/22 so don't expect miracles ! At first I was following another posters recommendation to "forward as messages" to 'reportfishing@apple.com and also 'abuse@icloud.com". But honestly, the "report fishing" generates an auto answer from apple and that just completely overloaded my junk box! Then I started to just "block contact" on every single spam email. I set up rules for all of this.....still no luck. Finally I just reported everything everyday to the 'abuse' (that doesn't generate a reply from apple) and lo and behold ....it's been a week of a significant reduction. I hope this works for longer than one week....and hopefully maybe it will help someone else.
Since following the above advice and changing those settings from Privacy Protection to the alternate of Hide IP and Block All Remote Content. I have seen a drastic reduction in the amount of junk coming through. I suspect (as above) it has something to do with Privacy Mail.
I have a theory as to why we’re all getting more spam. Marketing teams have long tracked “open rates” as a measure of success of their email campaigns. But someone from my company’s email marketing team recently said that Apple’s new email privacy protections make open rates meaningless because emails going to Apple all get reported as opened, even if they weren’t opened. I don’t know if that’s correct - but if it is, it could explain the increase in spam. If spammers think we’re opening their emails, they’ll send more and more - or they might be targeting Apple users so they can pad their open rates. If my theory is correct, I hope Apple will adjust it so that everything gets reported as unopened instead of opened.
To everyone who is having the same extreme spam issue:
If you have a Twitter account, tell Apple publicly @AppleSupport. I see others are doing this as well.
Also, I'm going to start taking screen shots of the list of spams. The subject lines are so ludicrous, SO spammy, there is no way these should ever make it to any inbox. I'll start posting the screenshots here and on Twitter. If enough of us do this, Apple *might* take notice. :-)
This started a month or two ago. I have the legacy mac.com address.
My email@ iCloud.com and me.com - those go directly to deleted messages on iCloud (I never see them) as other people have used my email account so they are all spam.
My mac.com email I only use for apple and two of my closest people.
Never got any spam for decades!!!
Lately tons of spam. Yes, it goes to the junk folder but I still need to deal with it.
None of this is addressed to me. It looks like I am part of a mailing list. I don't see who all is being emailed and never see my email address as recipient but it is there somewhere.
It is impossible to do rules to block as one sender will have 10 different "send" emails. There needs to be a rule where you can do a broader block - like *@
For example I received these a minute apart - from address as shown:
info.41*@30169.irkaspersky.***
info.89*@27419.irkaspersky.***
info.95*@83386.irkaspersky.***
If I could do *.iraspersky.com, I could get rid of dozens a day. Ditto for other senders.
This is a recent problem. Apple needs to get a handle on these bulk senders. No bulk email should even hit the mailbox. That's my 2 cents.
I am so annoyed.
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I just called apple support again. the first person was hopeless and I asked for her to escalate to a more experienced person. she did that. he just says that this is what happens when we share our email address out in the world, and that Junk is doing what it should: filtering those emails into the junk folder. When I objected to this being sufficient, he really insisted that is all they can do. When I asked why this had not ever been a problem until 2-3 months ago, he just kept talking about how our email addresses are out there being bought and sold.... When I said that yes, I am aware of that, and that has been going on for years, so what is different now? No real answer.
I explained several times that I've had this email address for over 20 years, and yet only in the last few months has there been a very noticeable increase in spam. also that there is this thread in discussions and that I am not alone.
Here are a couple of things we could all try doing:
I have no idea if any of this will help, but I also figure it will at least cause them to realize there IS A PROBLEM! (And do I feel badly that they will be receiving a deluge of mail? I do not.. :) )
I did request that today's tech support person address the terrible advice I received last week from tech support, and also that he raise this issue so that Apple may actually pay attention to this.
I've already posted on this thread but found one important fact. I have sent this info to Apple...and a forward of the email headers.
So as stated originally I use my .mac address -(for three people!) and Apple only. The mail that is hitting my spam folder is addressed to the xxxx@icloud. I put a filter in years ago to send all mail addressed to the .icloud address to "deleted mail" - via settings in mail at my icloud account on Apple's site.. So It never reaches my inbox or junk inbox. A couple of people in different countries has submitted my email instead of theirs or used it as a junk email. This caused me to block all using the iCloud address.
So this worked until a couple of months ago. Suddenly bombarded on my computer.
All of these emails are not address to me. I may be part of a mailing list BBC's. ???
The real disturbing thing is I can see in the header that my email@icloud is mentioned quite a few times.
Somehow spammers that got the address from the dorks using my email address. They are subverting all filters. It must be something in the email headers.
As I said, I sent this to Apple (haven't heard back) so they should be able to do something to stop this.
Yesterday, due to immense frustration I turned off Apple mail on my computer. To find any actual mail, I go the iCloud and read it there. Since yesterday I have 590 mails collected my junk mailbox. This is growing exponentially.
I continue to get approx 100 ridiculous-to-disgusting spam per day. AFTER calling Apple Support twice—the second time I asked to have the issue escalated to someone who might know what they were talking about (see previous things I’ve mentioned in this thread about first support person telling me to go to these spam emails and “unsubscribe” !!!! of all ridiculous suggestions)—I stared getting several of the spam in my actual inbox, NOT only in my Junk folder. This is a step backwards.
I continue to forward ALL the spam, usually in batches, to
reportphishing@apple.com
AND
abuse@icloud.com
(The irony is not lost on me that when I receive a “thank you” from reportphishing@apple.com, THAT message always winds up in the Junk folder!)
This is just such a disappointing turn of events. After decades of being a loyal Apple user, this is the reward? Furthermore, being more “au courant” than most of the support people I’ve spoken with of late does not really inspire confidence…
PS—I also continue to periodically contact them at apple.com/feedback which apparently they read (as opposed to these forums, I believe?) The feedback link allows very few characters, so I am thinking that a CONSTANT barrage of feedback—similar to the constant barrage of spam—might get their attention? So many users say Apple just doesn’t care, though, so it’s disheartening to do this and see nothing change, or even get worse.
PPS—I have also set up rules to forward some spam to the above two email addresses automatically; however, for the most part the spam is varied from day to day, so it’s difficult to create rules for those, and also a small amount of it is NOT spam so I don’t want to just automatically forward every single item in the Junk folder to Apple. It’s confounding.
Spam overload on iCloud Email Address
