I'm getting mail addressed to ...@suddenlinkmail.com I'd never heard of them before & its not me!

In your Rules, whether you are filtering “from” or “addressed to,” include only the domain names, (all the characters after the @ sign). Do not include the @ sign, nor any characters before the @ sign. Those constantly change, as you’ve discovered.

I’ve created Rules with corresponding folders for the worst offenders. My Junk mailbox is relatively clean and manageable. Only messages that SpamSieve considers Junk go there. If I see some spam sender with greatly increasing frequency, then I will add a Rule and folder in iCloud Mail.

Had the similar problem. Mine are addressed to ******@suddenlinkmail.com. So, it's a mystery to me how these are coming to me. I set up a rule that says "any recipient" contains "@suddenlinkmail.com", then Delete Message.

I supposed it's possible that a software revision on local clients (Mail running on macOS) might block these, but I am doubtful. Seems to me the problem is that the Apple Servers are passing through messages that aren't addressed to actual iCloud addresses.

I'm working with an Apple Senior Advisor right now. Expect to hear something by tomorrow (June 18). I will relate anything I find out. However, the SA did say something like, "the more people report this problem to Apple Support, the more likely it will get attention."

In the meantime, if you want to keep those "suddenlinkmail.com" spam emails out of your inbox, I suggest the iCloud.com Mail rule below. (You have to do this with the iCloud web interface, not in the Mail app.) You will end up still getting them, but they will go to Trash.

But, you can schedule regular emptying of Trash. See: https://www.lifewire.com/empty-trash-quickly-os-x-mail-1172841#:~:text=Configure%20Mail%20to%20Empty%20the%20Trash%20on%20a%20Schedule&text=Then%2C%20on%20the%20menu%20bar,menu%20to%20select%20your%20preference.

For any of those spam messages that appear to be addressed to some nonsense email address (suddenlinkmail.com, etc.), take a look at the full header of the message.

Select the message. From View drop down menu, select Message, then all headers.

If your real email address appears anywhere among all the gobbledygook, I think this means that the originator does have your real email address. (Can anyone who understands these headers confirm this?)

If that is the case, then these messages showing up as addressed to suddenlinkmail.com etc is sort of a blessing, because it gives us a way to identify these messages and use a rule (in iCloud.com Mail) to move them to Trash before they come to our In Box. (Note, if you move them to Junk, you will just have to deal with them again.)

I’m afraid that what you confirmed is the bad news. For those of us who are getting bombarded with those “To: Suddenlink mail.com messages, it appears the spammers have our real email addresses.

The good news is that Rules created (on the iCloud server, using a web interface [Safari], can keep them out of our In Boxes.

My understanding is that Rules on the Mac are only applied to Mail coming into the In Box. With the “move to Trash” rule in the Server, they should not go to your In Box. Therefore, you can delete the Junk rule on your Mac.

I have scheduled Mail to empty my Trash daily.

Also evaluating an approach where I created (on the Server) a new Folder called Suddenlink Cr*p, and a Rule to move those messages to this folder instead of Trash.

This keeps the Trash manageable. But now I need to empty the Suddenlink Cr*p folder once in a while. Being able to use Automations to manage Mail folders would be a blessing. But, I don’t think Apple allows that currently.

Suddenlinkmail.com has not replaced your Apple email. It is being used as a coverup by some scammer where it shows up addressed to you in your email. Somewhere imbedded is your actual Apple email address as well as mine and probably thousands more. If you notice the characters before @suddenlinkmail.com are always changing. I have been on the phone with Apple tech support several times trying to make rules for other junk mail I was getting several months ago. They say it is a moving target meaning a rule created may work for awhile to block them until the scammer changes it and it is back to square one. Somehow our email addresses are in the hands of scammers in the dark web and their goal is to get our personal information so they can steal our money. They flood the web email with thousands of these emails hoping someone will make a mistake and respond with personal account information. Never click in the body of the email or reply. At the very top line of the email, (subject line) there is a drop down arrow. Clicking on that shows the true address of where the email originates. The suddenlinkmail.com are coming from .sg which is Singapore.

If you have been following this discussion you can see where you can go to your iCloud account in Safari and create rules there to help manage this garbage but that is about it for now. the only other choice is to create a new email account and delete your current one. I choose not to do this as it is too much work for me to contact everyone I do business with so for now I will just manage this.

Michael Fiechtner wrote:

Had the similar problem. Mine are addressed to ******@suddenlinkmail.com. So, it's a mystery to me how these are coming to me. I set up a rule that says "any recipient" contains "@suddenlinkmail.com", then Delete Message.

Rules only work on emails in the Inbox. So if the emails are ending up in the Junk mailbox you' have to turn off the junk filtering for that particular email so it ends up in the Inbox where the rules can work on it.

Don't use the entire email address when you create your Rules.

Instead, use the part that may be common to those messages... "@suddenlinkmail.com"

Of course, this risks filtering any legit email from that domain, so it's a compromise.

There is no other way to filter this junk. It's become a fact of life, unfortunately.

Some users swear by services such as Spam Sieve, though I've never used it.

You have to make the Rule in iCloud Mail, not in the Mail App on your Mac. Just leave out the random characters that change and the @ symbol. You can do this for "from" addresses, and "to" addresses.

Good Luck!

With an Apple I.D., we all have an @icloud.com email address. We can also use @me.com. It's essentially an alias for your @icloud.com address. You can create additional aliases. But, you cannot change your @icloud.com address without deleting and getting a whole new Apple ID. So, No, you do not want to do that.

It's a little bit of work, but worth it. Just look at the full headers of those spam messages, and create Rules in iCloud to Trash or File based on the sender and recipient email addresses. Of course, NOT your iCloud address. I've got 5 Rules, and none of that obnoxious spam now gets through to my In Box.

If you are a Mac user, I highly recommend SpamSieve to handle "normal" types of spam.

The @suddenlinkmail.com email has NOT replaced your iCloud email address. As annoying as it is you can block these in a manner where these and others do not clog your inbox, no junk mail box. You must create a Rule (aka filter) in Mail, but it MUST be created in iCloud Mail, the web version of Mail available at iCloud.com.

Click on “All replies,” to see this entire discussion, and look for my posts. I have posted instructions several times.

NOTE: As a matter of policy, Apple cannot help you create specific rules. But, this discussion can.

What seems to have worked is adding a filter on the Apple Server. Log into iCloud, go to iCloud Mail and in Preferences, create a Rule that says Move messages addressed to sudden link mail.com to Trash.

That seems to have done the trick for me. Finally!!!

I don't expect Apple can fix this, as it's a "classic" spam issue. They could create a global rule on the Mail Server, but that would just send these messages all to Junk, and then we would still have to deal with them ourselves. As far as I know, Apple cannot just "Delete" messages.

But, I have one more suggestion that seems to be working well for me.

Looking at the full headers, I noticed that most of the messages addressed to some random @suddenlink.com address are being sent from a random @thermomix.com.sg address. I created a Rule (using the iCloud Mail web interface in Safari) to move these messages to a separate folder that I can ignore, and empty every once in a while. This keeps my Trash folder relatively clean, and keeps these out of my Junk folder. I do use Spam Sieve for the more garden variety spam.

Here's the Rule:

Make sure to create your special folder before creating the Rule. And if you prefer, you can move to Trash instead of a folder. And as new garbage like this appears, we will just have to add a new Rule. That's life, nowadays.

Let us know if it works for you.

One final suggestion:

I set up separate folders and created two rules, one for to "suddenlinkmail.com," the other for from "thermomix.com.sg."

Interestingly, they catch different messages. But, between the two of them, they catch all of the nasty spam that has plagued me for the last 6 months.

Hope this is my last post on this topic for a while.

Cheers!

There are many ways an email address can be "spoofed". In order to get to the actual process, or a representation of it, you have to examine the full email header.

https://www.lifewire.com/view-email-headers-os-x-1172780. Mail > View > Message > All headers