iPhone spam - unpleasant

bobbycow · Jun 6, 2013

I have had an iPhone for many years and have never had this problem before.
Most of the messages are semi customised and a lot come from Facebook where I don't even have an account!
I have tried to discover a source but they seem to come from different places.
A lot are unpleasant porn related stuff.
First of all they are not related to places where I have been surfing!
Secondly, like I say, hard as it may be to believe, I don't have either Facebook or Twitter.
The other very odd thing is that these emails ONLY appear on my iphone and iPad - NEVER on my laptop or desktop.
And once deleted they disappear from the deleted folder after a couple of days.
(and no they are not going straight into the deleted/junk folder on the laptop/desktop as I keep a close eye on this.)
I don't understand how email can be going only to the two (i) devices and how I can put an extra spam filter on these.
Are there any other actions I can take?
Many thanks for any suggestions.

VTR · Jun 7, 2013

Hi and welcome to the forum!!!

So the email client on your iPhone is the same one you use on your PC/laptop?

bobbycow · Jun 8, 2013

Hi,
eh, no I guess not.
I use Outlook (the full shebang not Outlook Expresss) for my laptop/desktop) but I'm not sure what runs the iPhone - I think it must be mailer-daemon.
I'm guilty of not having thought that through but I'm not sure how to pursue it.
I can't see any way of controlling spam on either the iphone or ipad themselves.
Am I missing something?

xrayeyes · Jun 8, 2013

Even though you don't have an account, FB is preloaded on your phone. Just to make sure it is not using your info, go to Settings>FB and make sure everything is "OFF"

So, you don't know what email program you are using on your phone? Didn't you have to set it up?

bobbycow · Jun 9, 2013

xrayeyes said:
Even though you don't have an account, FB is preloaded on your phone. Just to make sure it is not using your info, go to Settings>FB and make sure everything is "OFF"

So, you don't know what email program you are using on your phone? Didn't you have to set it up?

OK thanks for the tip - I did that.
Sorry I must seem pretty dumb - the instructions I was following when I set up the phone said to use "other" when it came to choosing a service. Beyond that I didn't seem to have a choice of service or program as far as I can remember - it was all done for me by the phone.

Looking at the phone now there is no indication that I can see of what email client it is using - but I presume mailer-daemon because I have read somewhere that is what iPhones use. The settings are almost identical to those used by Outlook 2013 except that is uses IMAP instead of POP3.
I still can't see any way of adjusting junk email settings. I am obviously missing something obvious.

If you can enlighten me I'd be very grateful.
Thanks

xrayeyes · Jun 9, 2013

It's ok we'll get u sorted out! 😀

So to clarify, do you use outlook as your email program but a separate email service, ie. bobby@????

Or are you using outlook.com?

My suggestion would be to make sure your spam filters are set up correctly on the main server of the email client you are using. And I would do it on your laptop, it is much easier. For instance I use @windstream. I would pull up my windstream account FROM the windstream main server rather than going through outlook.

I hate that you are dealing with this. I've never had an issue with spam on my phone. And most email programs these days are good at filtering them out. You may want to even consider contacting you email provider to have them work on this for you!

bobbycow · Jun 10, 2013

xrayeyes said:
It's ok we'll get u sorted out! 

So to clarify, do you use outlook as your email program but a separate email service, ie. bobby@????

Or are you using outlook.com?

My suggestion would be to make sure your spam filters are set up correctly on the main server of the email client you are using. And I would do it on your laptop, it is much easier. For instance I use @windstream. I would pull up my windstream account FROM the windstream main server rather than going through outlook.

I hate that you are dealing with this. I've never had an issue with spam on my phone. And most email programs these days are good at filtering them out. You may want to even consider contacting you email provider to have them work on this for you!

Hi,
many thanks for your help.
On the desktop I use Outlook as the client and the spam filter catches the few missed by the web based filter - but these are all harmless commercial spam and very few in number and easy to filter out.
On the laptop I run Thunderbird for email - otherwise the same goes as for the desktop.
I don't usually look at the web based email, but when I do I tweak the spam filter to catch more of the above spam - BUT there is never any trace of the unpleasant spam I have been talking about on any of the above sites. In particular never anywhere on the web site - not in the spam/junk box or anywhere. It solely goes to the iPhone/iPad.
So I can't see it is possible to adjust anything here. Is it possible to adjust anything at the iPhone end?
How is it possible for emails to be send directly to the iPhone without going through the ISP?
It is baffling me.

xrayeyes · Jun 10, 2013

I would again suggest that you get in touch with your ISP to have them take a look at this situation. Outlook and Thunderbird are only programs to read your mail with, and may do a decent job of filtering what your ISP is not. It sounds like an ISP email provider problem! Might help us out if you can tell us who you use!

bobbycow · Jun 11, 2013

xrayeyes said:
I would again suggest that you get in touch with your ISP to have them take a look at this situation. Outlook and Thunderbird are only programs to read your mail with, and may do a decent job of filtering what your ISP is not. It sounds like an ISP email provider problem! Might help us out if you can tell us who you use!

Sure I should have said. My ISP is SKY. I have approached them and they have not been too helpful. AS the emails are not appearing on their server they say it is not their problem - and I can kind of see where they are coming from. There isn't a big problem with SPAM from them, and what there is is trivial stuff. As they said how can they block stuff that they (and I) can see on their server?
O2 is the carrier for the mobile network - but there are zero emails coming through their site. Just as well because their filtering ability is just about nil.
They are not interested either and say that as emails are not passing through the website then there is no way of blocking them.
- is it possible form emails to pass through a server without leaving a trace?
- is it possible for emails to find their way onto an iPhone without passing through a carrier's website at all?
- is Facebook or similar sites able to access smartphone's databanks without accessing their carriers first?
None of this makes sense but it is getting more frequent and more unpleasant and I am not able to block it - the source keeps changing so as soon as I block one they send it from another.
Many thanks for your help

xrayeyes · Jun 11, 2013

Sorry, I have to give up. I am still not clear on where you are actually getting these messages on your phone. If it is in your SKY inbox on you phone...it's their issue. If it's instant messages you are getting...then you are going to have to block those emails or phone numbers. This is a carrier issue as far as blocking. IOS7 is supposed to have new features to help block unwanted messages if you can wait til then. Also.if you take your phone to an Apple Store or to a corporate Orange store they might be able to help you figure this out. Don't even bother taking it to a lower level franchise store.

If you want to post a screen shot that might help (press the home button and the power button at the same time and it will save it to your camera roll)

bear7962 · Jun 12, 2013

Let me give this a shot. I also get the type of spam you are talking about. Say it is a facebook request from a name you do not know, do not open it. This is a bot program and if used because people automatically open these kind of requests, thinking it must be someone they know who wants to connect on facebook. These email requests can not be avoided, its like telemarketers who run down a list of numbers hoping someone will answer and tell them some info they can use in their scheme. Set your email so this goes to your junk or spam program. Never click on the links they contain, these links can get info from your contacts and personal information. Its just the world we live in now I am afraid.

bobbycow · Jun 13, 2013

xrayeyes said:
Sorry, I have to give up. I am still not clear on where you are actually getting these messages on your phone. If it is in your SKY inbox on you phone...it's their issue. If it's instant messages you are getting...then you are going to have to block those emails or phone numbers. This is a carrier issue as far as blocking. IOS7 is supposed to have new features to help block unwanted messages if you can wait til then. Also.if you take your phone to an Apple Store or to a corporate Orange store they might be able to help you figure this out. Don't even bother taking it to a lower level franchise store.

Hi there,
I am sorry - I feel really bad I have exasperated you. I know I must not be explaining something right. The emails on the iPhone are not coming up in a specific "SKY" or any other box but just as generic emails. I have tried to track back to where they come from but without success. Some of them clearly come from Facebook, but beyond that I am not able to trace them either. I have tried googling the names and addresses used but there is no success. As I have explained before these emails appear solely in my iPhone and iPad and do not appear in my ordinary SKY email.
I cannot therefore block them with my carrier (SKY) as they do not appear on SKY and I don't see how SKY can block emails they don't receive either (which is what they have told me also.)
I am sorry if I somehow gave you the impression I was with Orange - my iPhone contract is with O2. However I do not get any emails routed through O2.
I have double checked this. It is therefore not possible to bar these emails thought O2 and they have said the same as they have no record of these emails either.

You mentioned instant messages - do you mean as in Instant Messenger from Microsoft? I do not have this installed either on my laptop or my phone, so I don't think it can be this.
So with the email not arriving through either through SKY or O2 it must be travelling through some other route. Facebook is turned off and I don't have an account but apparently it is capable of transmitting messages anyway - could all the messages be through FB even though there is no mention of it in the other messages? Is there some other means of transmitting messages incognito? They keep escalating which is worrying.
I think your suggestion of visiting an Apple shop is a good one, but unfortunately there is not one nearby and I shall have to wait until |I can get to it. I might try the O2 shop meantime which is nearer.
Anyway apologies for having troubled you, and thanks for your help.
Regards,

bobbycow · Jun 13, 2013

Hi there,
yes you are probably right. It is just that these emails have different characteristics so that each one is different and cannot be caught by the spam filter for the previous ones! Also they are getting more frequent. I have stopped opening them like you suggested already, just read what I can see by the preview on the filter, but it seems they can read my mind. The filtering abilities of the iPhone and iPad appear to be almost zero anyway and I don't understand how they can get emails to appear on these 2 devices without them appearing on the laptop/desktop first.
Thank you for your help.

xrayeyes · Jun 16, 2013

Hi bobby,
Sorry to have sounded exasperated. But, yeah, it is a bit frustrating because to be quite frank, I don't think you understand your smartphone and it's capabilities or basic functions. It would be worth your while to find someone that can help you through this instead of going through a forum.

And sorry, I should have been clearer about the Instant messaging...I was refering to texting. What icon do you open to see these messages? Is it the icon labeled messages or the icon labeled mail? Let's start there.

I would love to help you get through this though!

bobbycow · Jun 16, 2013

xrayeyes said:
Hi bobby,
Sorry to have sounded exasperated. But, yeah, it is a bit frustrating because to be quite frank, I don't think you understand your smartphone and it's capabilities or basic functions. It would be worth your while to find someone that can help you through this instead of going through a forum.

And sorry, I should have been clearer about the Instant messaging...I was refering to texting. What icon do you open to see these messages? Is it the icon labeled messages or the icon labeled mail? Let's start there.

I would love to help you get through this though!

No, it's ok, I understand your frustration. The icon I use is definitely for email.
I'm afraid I don't know anyone else who has an iPhone so I can't even compare notes.
|I can use all the functions pretty ok, it's just that I'm not too clear about what goes on under the hood, so to speak.
I really appreciate your deterimation to see this through for me. However unfortunately I am going away for nearly 3 weeks tomorrow, and I won't have access to email for most of that time.
Is there any way we take this up after I return?
Thank you so much for your patience.