Massive increase in spam emails lately, since M&S leak - anyone else?

[Whatwaswrongwiththatusername]

Not an actual AIBU, but wanted to see if - and how many - of you have noticed this as well.

Basically the above. I have recently had a massive increase in spam in my junk mail folder. This is an email address that I’ve had 25 years now, so obviously a certain amount is to be expected. However, overall there wasn’t really much - certainly didn’t outnumber “normal” mail that lands in my funk folder, not very many at all really.

But recently I suddenly started getting a ridiculously large volume of spam now - multiples of many of them. They now outnumber, by far, the rest of the mail (these are usually the regular subscribed stuff, sites used for shopping etc etc). The only thing I can think of that has happened was the M&S cyber attack, assuming now my emails been sold all over the place. It’s driving me potty! I have to block and then delete each one in turn, but it just doesn’t stop them coming back, especially the multiples - as I assume they run some kind of random email addresses from their server (or however it works), so I still continue to get the same ones over and over again, as they seem to just keep sending from different emails so the blocking is rarely successful.

Has anyone else noticed this, or have any idea why, if you think it’s not the leak?

Not sure how to change the poll, but;
IABU = no, you’ve seen no change yourself
IANBU = yes, you’ve noticed it as well
Thank you.

Yes. Phishing/Spam emails and phone calls. Not sure what to do about it other than keep on deleting/blocking.

since I’ve found the email to report them I’ve started doing it today … done about 6 reports so far … will let you all know if it makes any difference !

Apologies for just shooting off like that!
Thank you for all your replies!

So, I have counted up - for the past week - how many are in my bin, as I block then delete. It’s actually quite astonishing numbers on some of the days! I’d say the majority of these are multiple messages from a few main “sources”:

16 mon 30th
21 sun 29th
35 sat 28th
48 Fri 27th
48 Thurs 26th
71 weds 25th
63 Tues 24th
302 approx wk 24th-30th

That’s really quite shocking!
I have also had a few spam calls but I’m not sure any more than usual. I never answer them anyway - if it’s legit they’ll leave a vm. I usually look the numbers up afterwards and if there’s other reports I block that number. So much easier to deal with (volume wise) than the emails!

I've had a noticeable increase of scam texts and scam phone calls since all this happened and I do think there's a link because beforehand I always used to comment that my friend got scam communications on her mobile all the time but I never did. Ever since the hacking I'm getting it all the time now. HMRC owed money, unpaid parking fines, click on this link to pay before you receive a court summons, royal mail need money to deliver your package, courier wants money or your parcel will be returned etc. It's all the time now and I don't give anybody my number.

I don't get any, and very few spam texts but I have no social media accounts. I have a M&S account and M&S credit card

I have an m & s account but haven't noticed any increase in spam e-mails/calls

This is me! I don’t know my number off by heart so hardly ever give it out. I’m getting the same type of texts which I ignore as parking tickets wouldn’t have my number, post I know if I’m waiting for something and job /cv phishing I’m not looking for a job. It’s still annoying though .

No increase here. My email address is old too.

Have you checked your email address on Have I Been Pwned

Yep, same here, and I seem to get loads all in one go in an afternoon. I get some that say ‘thank you for getting in touch’ etc etc.
except I haven’t.
I just block and delete.
I’ve also had an increase in calls too. I don’t answer any mobile No I don’t know, they can leave a message if legit.

No. I had a online m&s order that was cancelled so my email must have been one taken in the breach.

I use the Block Unknown Callers on the phone, anyone that wants to get in touch can leave a voicemail, Apple kindly types that out if they do, nobody does though.

This for me. Huge number that say you’ve got a parking fine, HMRC based stuff like that. Loads more spam emails that don’t seem to be caught by my filter and end up in in box

Oh god, yeah, “liz buys homes” is one of mine too! And the same about wanting to keep hold of very old emails from 25 years ago! I could never get rid of this email address - it has so much personal history and memories for me.
Ive updated, this morning, with a post counting up all the blocked emails (still in my bin) for the past week. More than even I thought it would be, especially some days!

Yes. I’ve had the same email address for 15 years and hardly ever got SPAM, now it’s about 2 a week. I’ve also had 2 automated ‘HMRC owes you money’ calls and then weirdly, the other day, got added to a group text about a parking fine I apparently owed.

Everyone started replying to the whole group making jokes with each other. I was driving and could hear my phone pinging like crazy so I pulled over to check it wasn’t some kind of emergency. 😂

Luckily I deactivated my fb about 9 years ago. Early on there were a few genuine hack attempts, (other people noticed I was back online a couple of times, that I’d not done myself, so had to re-deactivate a couple of times, and I think change my password) but now the only fb emails I get I know are fake. I’ve only kept it so long as I have photos on there going back almost 20 years, some of which were lost during hdd deaths etc, so at some point I will reactivate and download all my data, inc photos (I hope are still there!), and then delete for good.

Funnily I’m also with GG, haven’t noticed anything off with their texts, but the fact you say it even went into the same thread as the genuine texts is a bit concerning. How did you find out what had happened?

Yes I had that weird group chat thing re the parking fine. Just deleted it. They come through the post.

My husband is being targeted too , some the same and he doesn’t have an M&S account.

Yes my numbers are like yours op, not just “a lot” but hundreds a week. It takes a long time to scroll though them to block. I’m not sure what the point is, I often get the same email three times in a row from different addresses. Do you think it’s so we abandon the address and it can be used nefariously? I heard an awful story on you and yours where a guy lots tens of thousands of pounds all through his email address alone (his phone company allowed that to be enough to pass security).

I am a member of another forum which has had to switch its log in protocols because it was being absolutely SWARMED by what they assume to be bots, but thousands a day. So I don't think it's even just texts and emails - there seems to be a whole new category of spammers and bots about at the moment. Perhaps it's AI, trying its luck?

Oh, Jesus, a few hundred+ a week is enough for me! Thousands? I think I’d rather sell my soul than get rid of my email account 😂

Isn't it a sad indictment of modern life that great, immensely useful ways of communication are invented - but then the vast, vast majority of them end up being abusive ones from criminals and chancers, so it rather spoils the whole purpose.

If you'd told me 30 years ago that, when a phone rang unexpectedly in 2025, I would end up routinely ignoring it - maybe glance back at the number later, just in case - as virtually every call is a thief or timewaster... I would never have believed you.

Technology has moved on so very far, but it seems to have helped the bad people far more than the good ones.

I'm sure the bad people would find a way around it, but I wish the suggestion that we could charge a mandatory tiny amount for all texts and emails could be internationally enacted.

If there were no possible way to avoid paying even 0.01p for every text or email, to go to charity, most of us would gladly lose a few pennies a month, if it meant that the massive scam companies would have to pay millions of pounds for the sheer volume of messages that their scummy model relies on.

Definitely more spam phone calls and text messages recently although I hadn’t connected it to the M&S leak - I thought it must’ve be internet based in some way. It’s very annoying.

I agree that AI must be involved somewhere. It's too much of a coincidence that numbers of trashy messages and calls have exploded just as AI has started to take off.

@Whatwaswrongwiththatusername I was suspicious as the Giff Gaff message was asking for information that I knew they already had, despite it being in the message thread with them. There had been a few odd things I was blocking lots of email addresses as I was having such high volumes of junk and those were coming back as undeliverable.

My sons both work in IT and through talking to them and googling it seemed that my Hotmail email address had been hacked somehow. I logged in and went into the settings and found forwarding had been set up to a scam email address which was in Eastern Europe according to the ending. It had also set up a specific instruction to hide any emails from Facebook Security, luckily I had already secured that with a new password.

I would urge everyone to check their settings.

This should be helpful https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/turn-on-or-off-automatic-forwarding-in-outlook-com-6246987c-6c8f-4144-b255-14fc07007dad