Redirect email to black hole not working

[#1]

I can't get a redirect to blackhole to work. Any ideas?

A long time ago I had a linkedIn account and I registered it using a specific email address (chrisli@xxxxx.plus.com). The linked in account hasn't been used since I retired 10 years ago but people still harvest that email address from it. It was for this very reason that I registered a specific address so that if it became a problem I could redirect it to blackhole which I have done. (I have struggled to close the linkedIn account because they now want a government ID which I'm not prepared to do just to close the account.)

The unwanted emails still get through to me!

[#2]

@chrisandaud Have you got the 'catch-all' enabled ? I'm not sure if that MAY override the blackhole (I don't use PN mail much these days)

[#3]

Yes, I have. I'll try switching it off and test it. Watch this space!

[#4]

I can advise that the catch-all does not over ride redirection to the blackhole (blackhole@abuse.plus.com).

I run catch-all on my default mailbox and similar to @chrisandaud every business gets a unique email address; if it gets abused and receives junk, it becomes redirected to the blackhole address above.  I then never see emails to that address again ... whilst anything not expressly identified continues to be delivered to the catch-all.

For clarity, if an address was a mailbox or alias, that mailbox or alias MUST first be deleted.  The create anything function in the mailbox tool is not very clear when an error occurs.  Such has caused me to think that something is not working, when in fact it never actually got configured!

[#5 · Accepted solution]

I've just realised what the problem is. For the benefit of anyone else with this problem (unlikely) I'll explain. I have my own domain which was registered with 123-reg but last year I moved it to fasthosts. Its mail is forwarded by them to my plusnet account. My mistake is that when I moved it I lost the retention of the the specific address so plusnet was getting a default address.

Thanks for all the help.

[#6]

@chrisandaud thanks for the update.

If you have your own domain you might want to think about getting a true hosted email package rather than just use simple email forwarding. Forwarding can break SPF requirements and cause emails to be lost ( see a typical explanation here https://serverfault.com/questions/1133587/is-it-still-possible-to-use-a-catch-all-email-forwarder-to... )

Packages can be as little as £20/yr.

@Townman thanks for the info that catch-all doesnt override black hole.

[#7]

@MisterW Thanks for the tip. I was told this by companies wanting to sell mail packages but the deal breaker is this: One of my domains is for a bowls club. My website shows email addresses for e.g. secretary@xxxbowlsclub.uk and each year or whenever the secretary changed I change the configured forwarder to the actual incumbent's personal address. That way our aged committee members don't have to set anything up or regularly look at another mailbox and if it is abused I can change the forwarder or even black hole it. The downside is that we can't send mail from that address. I don't have a better solution.

[#8]

@chrisandaud,That would still be possible with what @MisterW is suggesting.  I do similar with a swim club, where I've got a mixture of mailboxes (accounts that store the mail, and can be sent from and to), and forwarders which are going to a mixture of both swim club accounts and other accounts, such as treasurer@swimclub.co.uk forwarded to dave@swimclub.co.uk and also chairman@swimclub.co.uk and jane@swimclub.co.uk forwarded to janexyz1983@hotmail.com.

(All names and domains completely made up!)

[#9]

@chrisandaud 

A "better" solution is to have role holders use the role-based mailbox directly.  I run a charity and also support CAMRA's IT services.  The perennial issue with forwarding email from organisation / role based email addresses is that the subsequent replies (and the back and forth) are no longer using the role-based email address.  Thereby future communications do not go via the organisation's email address but go straight to the role holder's personal email address ... totally defeating the purpose of having organisation / role based email addresses.

Some email clients will support "Send on behalf of" so that it might appear that the response came for the organisation / role based email address, but the personal address (sender's address) is not hidden entirely.

[#10]

@chrisandaud that shouldnt be a problem. The package I have allows unlimited mailboxes and forwarders , subject to a 2Gb overall storage (similar to Plusnet). It even allows me to host multiple domains (I have three).

The downside is that we can't send mail from that address.

Yes, as others have said, I can see that is a problem when people are replying to emails forwarded to their personal accounts. Let me have a think...

[#11]

"That way our aged committee members don't have to set anything up or regularly look at another mailbox"

In reality this is not the hurdle people suggest it is - the majority of the people active in the organisations I support or over retirement age and having done the once only set up with their email clients, manage multiple mailboxes without difficulty.