My emails are on hold, what can I do?

Introduction

Email is a critical for daily business operation, and as such we have implemented a number of systems to ensure emails are not abused through account compromise, email compromise, or website compromise.

What is an email hold?

When an email account or hosting account is placed on hold, this means that no further emails can be sent out without submitting a support ticket.

Why is my email on hold?

Your email can be on hold for a number of possible reasons:

Large amounts of emails were sent out in a short space of time or irregular email sending patterns were determined.
Your website has insecure code, has not been updated (Wordpress) or has out of date Wordpress plugins. This results in your website having been compromised and infected with malware. At this point your website can then be used to send out spam emails.
Your email account password is too weak and was leaked in a data breach elsewhere or due to a phishing attack which leads to someone using our email account to send out spam emails.
Your hosting account has been compromised due to a malware infection on your device or a phishing attack. Your hosting account is then used to setup new email addresses which are used to send out spam.

Handy tips to prevent your emails from being placed on hold

Ensure your email account passwords are strong. We generally recommend using the built in password generator when creating / changing email passwords.
Ensure your website, plugins and themes are always up to date. The number one reason for websites being compromised is due to out of date Wordpress installations and plugins. To automatically update Wordpress, installed plugins and themes, you can read this article.
Scan your devices regularly for malware. If your device is infected with malware, changing email passwords in your hosting panel will not help.
Avoid becoming a victim of phishing attempts requesting you to change your email password or hosting panel password. We will never email asking you to change passwords.

By following the above tips, your website, emails, and hosting panel have better security, thus preventing compromise and spam attacks which place your emails on hold.

Updated on: 14/02/2024