Email Bombing: A Noisy Distraction with Dangerous Intent
You open your inbox and suddenly there are thousands of emails. Most are harmless-looking—subscription confirmations, newsletters, and generic messages from sites you’ve never heard of.
It feels like spam. You might even laugh it off.
But this isn’t just a nuisance—it’s a targeted cyberattack tactic known as email bombing. And it’s designed to distract you from something far more serious happening behind the scenes.
So, what is email bombing?
In short, it’s an attack where your inbox is deliberately flooded with messages—sometimes hundreds or even thousands per hour. The real aim? To bury something important.
That could be:
- A password reset email from your bank, email provider, or cloud account.
- A security alert warning of an unauthorised login.
- A transaction notification showing that money is being moved or data accessed.
The attackers don’t want you to see these alerts. And in the noise, it’s frighteningly easy to miss them.
Real-world examples
- Back in 2016, a UK journalist had her inbox flooded with subscription spam. Hidden underneath was a password reset for her Apple ID, followed by suspicious login activity.
- In 2020, a number of cryptocurrency investors were targeted this way. While they were busy deleting spam, attackers were busy taking control of their wallets.
- More recently, in 2023, small businesses in the UK were hit with email bombing campaigns just as unauthorised payments were being processed—effectively masking the alerts.
How to protect yourself or your business
- Don’t ignore sudden waves of email—it could be a warning sign.
- Search your inbox using terms like “reset”, “alert”, “login” or “transaction” if you suspect an attack.
- Ensure critical accounts are protected with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Use separate email aliases for admin accounts, subscriptions, and banking.
- Consider setting rules to flag or separate suspicious traffic, so alerts don’t get lost.
Email bombing isn’t about spam. It’s about creating digital chaos to distract you while something far more damaging is taking place in the background.
If it’s happened to you or your organisation, it’s worth looking beyond the clutter—because the real threat is often hiding in plain sight.
