I recently created a Protonmail address as I am wanting to move away from Google and move to a more open source and secure platform. However, when I go into my profile to change the email and re-confirm my account I get the message that the email address is banned. I'm assuming it is not my address specifically but all ****@protonmail.com addresses are banned? Is there a specific reason for this? I decided on protonmail because it is open source and more secure, but perhaps there's a reason not to make the move to protonmail, that is, if their service is frequently abused by spammers and so on.
"open source" and "secure" often do not go together. But I would suspect that the latter is the case, that is, at sometime in the past they were a haven for spammers.......or worse. Have you tried searching for "protonmail" with Google or Bing (just for instance) to see what comes up ??
I like the concept of proton mail, but I imagine criminals REALLY like it. My guess would be that the forum software is programmed to prohibit those addresses because of the increased likelihood that the user is a cyber-crook. Not saying you are, but just a general security policy. I do something similar with my gmail filters. Anything coming from domains ending in .ru, .bid, .eu, and several others don't even go to spam. They get deleted immediately. Saves me a ton of spam folder housekeeping.
@sam spade 2 Yeah I did a reasonable amount of research, or so I thought, before creating an account. Not going to get into a debate about open source and security and no open source doesn't mean secure but implying that linux, for instance, isn't secure, I would beg to differ. What made proton mail attractive is that they offer end-to-end encryption, they don't sell the contents of your email messages to 3rd parties...and no ads. I don't see a lot in coming back as to explain why their service is banned by PriusChat or other sites. I assume that some spammers have abused their service and protonmail is or has been slow to deal with abusers of their service, but other major email providers, gmail, yahoo and so on are abused all the time too so, what's setting protonmail apart?
@jerrymildred Yeah, I suppose there is some benefit there but I would also think that would also draw the wrong kind of attention. Then there is the darknet, I would also think that someone being a crook would want to stay off the the clearnet (which is what normal people use). Not to change the subject to InfoSec, but the amount of data that companies, particularly Google, collect about you, everything you do on the internet lives on a server somewhere and whether it is being used for good or bad, well you don't know, you can't opt out. My intent is to find something that isn't tied to my ISP, because if I ever move, change providers, then that email account goes poof, doesn't have to be protonmail but free and reasonably secure. Basically, I made an account and intended to try their platform out and move a few things over and didn't get very far before I ran into this and was curious as to why, if there was a specific reason.
I don't think that will happen. ASK your present ISP. Once you have an email address, you can keep it forever, in most cases, whether you are still a customer or not. Of course getting any support if you need it might be a problem. I still have an @sbcglobal address and I haven't been a customer of theirs for a LONG time.
Am in the same boat with Protonmail. This system here rejected it, so I had to use another. Protonmail has been my primary email for 'good trusted sources' for a couple of years (was one of the early signups so got the free 1gig space rather than 1/2gig). It's been solid, fast, no issues and sees nothing like the spam crap arriving at Yahoo. Quite bewildering really, why a service out of Switzerland that's encrypted and runs like one of the country's watches would be on a banned list. Have to presume something happened in the early days, perhaps following bad press instigated by a competitor.
Did some looking into it and for reasons I can't confirm, seems that some sites ban anything coming from RIPE...which is coincidentally a lot of European IP's...but that's sort of a hunch and not saying that's what's happening here, but my guess is a certain amount of spam, fake accounts, etc came from protonmail or other similar services and wound up on a blacklist. What I am concerned about is an email account I can't use with more important things...like bills and bank stuff. Not really waving my finger at the folks who run PriusChat. For now I'm looking at another email platform that doesn't seem to have the "banned" issue.
I need to ask. How do you expect the get a service (anything, not just email) that is free? I mean absolutely free with no strings attached? Law of conservation of energy would imply that someone somewhere has to pay for the service. If it's not you, who, then? Just something to think about.
