Automatic creation of folders by an email?

[bordonbert]

I've just checked my emails and found a brand new folder in Thunderbird. This is named "Black Friday" and contains two emails from Banggood. I have definitely NOT created that myself nor has my wife who is the only other potential user.

I deal with Banggood emails manually as soon as they land, usually they are of no interest to me but occasionally they may have something I look into so I don't blacklist them. The idea that Banggood may have created this folder themselves is quite worrying to me. I run ESET Internet Security which is kept up to date and permanently running. I would not have thought this would be possibile but it has happened. Is it feasible?

[DanRaisch]

How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[bordonbert]

Thanks for the quick reply Dan. It's a Hotmail POP account.

[DanRaisch]

Do those emails from the vendor include any links or attachments? I can't immediately think of a way that a message, without any sort of user interaction like clicking on a link or opening a file, could cause Thunderbird to create new folders.

[bordonbert]

Both the folder and the emails, (two of them), were all showing as brand new and unaccessed, (bold in the listing), when I found them. They had come through a few hours before and no one had been on the PC in that time. No link or file had been accessed. It's a mystery to me too though this isn't my own area of expertise and I'm amazed that Eset didn't kick up about it and ask if it was legitimate.

The Properties of the folder show nothing useful as far as I can see and the Black Friday index and text file in the "pop-mail..." account folder in storage show nothing untoward, only a couple of references to "Black Friday" in the text of the email content, nothing which obviously relates to a folder or location.

I think I'll have to try moving and renaming the folder and emails for reference and see if they crop up again. I'm in the UK where we don't even have Black Friday as a long standing institution, ( - - - yet, 51st State and all that). If this is down to Banggood then it is quite worrying and needs to be explored. I'll keep this thread up to date with any developments Dan, and thanks for your input.

[DanRaisch]

Thanks for that feedback. Perhaps someone else will review this thread and offer some thoughts on how that might have happened. In the meantime, you could move the files (Black Friday and Black Friday.msf) out of the Thunderbird profile so they would no longer be accessible within the program. That would let you see if future messages from that vendor might cause the creation of the same or similar folders.

[bordonbert]

Good idea Dan. I've done that and will check it from time to time. There is one other avenue I have found and ruled out.

I found a rule set up in Thunderbird to move any email with "Black Friday" in its subject into a Black Friday folder. I wondered if perhaps I had set this up a few years back to deal with the plethora of sales emails I get around this time and the rule was creating the folder in order to fulfil its task. I set up a new rule and a matching folder which I then deleted to test it. An email sent to my address which triggered the test rule just opened a dialogue box informing me that the folder no longer existed and the email was put in the root folder for the account. It can't be that.