Suspend an email user account

Shortcut to this article: opensrs.help/aup

The most common reason that you might want to suspend a user is because they are suspected of sending a lot of spam messages. You can suspend one or more services in order to achieve the suspended state appropriate to your business needs.

The suspension options available depend on the type of user account. For example, the only suspension option for Forward accounts is Receive Email.

Note: Suspended users continue to incur monthly bill.

To suspend user services in the Control Panel

1. In the Email section of the Control Panel, navigate to the user whose services you want to suspend.
For more information, see "Viewing Email user accounts"

2. Click the user name.
The user page opens displaying the User Settings tab.

3. If the service you want to suspend is Send Mail, Receive Mail, Connect via IMAP4, or Connect via POP3, in the Sending & Receiving section, click Edit. If the service you want to suspend is Login via Webmail or Send via Webmail, in the Webmail section, click Edit,

4. From the service's drop-down list, choose Suspended.

5. Click Save.

Service Suspended:

• Send Mail—The user can access their existing mail through an email client, incoming email messages will be downloaded, but no mail can be sent.
• Receive Mail—The user can access their existing mail through an email client, email messages can be composed and sent, but no further mail will be received.
• Connect via IMAP4—Connection to the user account with an IMAP4 client is denied.
• Connect via POP3—Connection to the user account with a POP3 client is denied.
• Login via Webmail—Account login to the Webmail client is denied.
• Send via Webmail—The user can receive mail via Webmail but cannot send mail through Webmail.

1. In the Email section of the Control Panel, navigate to the user whose services you want to suspend.

2. Click the user name.
The user page opens, displaying the User Settings tab.

3. If the service that was suspended is Send Mail, Receive Mail, Connect via IMAP4, or Connect via POP3, in the Sending & Receiving section, click Edit. If the service that was suspended is Login via Webmail or Send via Webmail, in the Webmail section, click Edit,

4. From the service's drop-down list, choose Enabled.

5. Click Save.

The OpenSRS spam filter monitors both inbound and outbound messages. Outbound messages may also be identified as spam by their recipients. If the number of messages that are identified as spam exceeds the threshold set by the service provider within a 24 hour period, the user is automatically suspended for AUP Violation.

When a user is suspended for AUP Violation, the user can no longer send mail via Webmail or SMTP, though they can still receive and view their mail. An email is sent to the Abuse contact for the company that owns the mailbox, along with copies of up to three of the suspected messages; the messages are sent in an attachment labeled evidence.txt. The Abuse contact can then decide whether to reinstate the user. For information on reinstating users, see “Reinstating a user” below.

Note: Suspended users cannot be deleted.

If the evidence samples indicate that the account was indeed sending out spam, but the end user has no knowledge of sending those mails, it is likely that the user's password was compromised. This may be because they used an easy to guess password or they replied to one or more phishing emails, or their computer may have a virus.

We recommend that you offer an Anti-Virus package to the user, if one is available, and that you immediately change the password for the account.

We also recommend that you strongly advise the user to change the passwords for any other online accounts (banking, Facebook, and so on) that used the same password as their email account.

To suspend user services in the MAC

1. Log in to the Mail Administration Console (MAC).
For more information, see "What is the MAC?"

2. Locate the user whose services you want to suspend.
For more information, see “Searching in the Mail Administration Console (MAC)”.

3. Click the user name.

4. In the Sending & Receiving section, click the appropriate radio buttons to suspend one or more services. See the table below for the implications of suspending each service.

5. Click Update.

To reinstate a user

1. Log in to the Mail Administration Console (MAC).
For more information, see "What is the MAC?"

2. Locate the user that you want to reinstate. For more information, see “Searching in the Mail Administration Console (MAC)”.

3. Click the user name.

4. In the Sending & Receiving section, from the affected services drop-down lists, choose enabled.

5. Click Update.