WEB.de: Blocking mailbox access on heavy/only DS usage. Password reset needed.

[g6094199]

This is more of a FYI but it should be noted somewhere for users witch share the same problem.

My gildfriend, myself and a chummy couple use the german freemail provider WEB.de (part of United Internet AG ). The accounts are used for DS only!

One day (09/2022) DS stoped working (outgoing messages are pending, no incoming messages). Since i was abroad I blamed the german mobile networks for it, but the problem didn't vanish, as it normally would. So i started investigating.....DS was ok....Phone reboot...no enhancement....so i tried to login into web interface of the mailbox and was instantly forced to reset my password, because of "suspicions activities". So i changed my pw, set DS up to the new one and bingo, DS started working again. Normally i would go on, but mentionable is that my gilfriend ran into the same problem one day after me and our friends also a few days later! So its seems WEB.de is analyzing (reading) its mailboxes and will consider encrypted mails as "suspicions content". Hell yeah.......germany in 2022! Since there are more fremail providers part of the United Internet AG it maybe affect also gmx.de and mail.com!

[Simon-Laux]

I highly recommend paid providers that are not based on ads and actually have to listen to what we users say. posteo (though @gerryfrancis reported often that posteo doesn't like heavy DC usage either), mailbox.org, servercow (if you have an own domain), usw. (there are also other providers that are good, but I don't know them all, we did some testing recently: https://delta.chat/en/2022-01-16-dapsi2blogpost)

That said maybe we should add some warning on https://providers.delta.chat/?

Also you could write to their support and ask what's going on and if they can fix it?

[gerryfrancis]

posteo doesn't like heavy DC usage either

@Simon-Laux It has been a long time since I had a serious issue with Posteo. For about half a year they have managed to avoid classifying Delta Chat read receipts as SPAM any longer, but in general they are particularly keen to keep their reputation. Legit emails sent from Web.de and GMX (Freemail) accounts often are rejected by other (foreign) email servers, causing headache to those who have not been starting the "email wars". So what we are seeing now are the consequences of WEB.de (and probably GMX, too) to get control of the situation: restrict user access to email accounts. On the other hand, I get lots of (unwanted, but inevitable) SPAM into my GMX Freemail inbox, and I find that rather disproportionately...

[gerryfrancis]

so i tried to login into web interface of the mailbox and was instantly forced to reset my password, because of "suspicions activities"

A friend of mine had the same issue several weeks ago with a GMX email account, but got it sorted as soon as she configured quite a strong password (created on a password generator website). :)