Nineteen consumer complaints about the Manx.net email service have been received by the island’s communications regulator in the last 12 months.

And 18 of these were made after Manx Telecom announced it was ending its free-to-use email service, a Freedom of Information response has revealed.

They includes concerns raised about hacking.

Manx.net users now have to pay a subscription fee to keep their email address, with Manx Telecom having transferred its long-running free service to a new provider after more than 25 years.

Junara, which had been powering the Manx.net platform since 2019, took over full control from October 21.

Subscription started on January 21.

Those wanting to continue using their @manx.net, @isleofman.com, or @isleofman.org address have paid £65 per year (discounted from £79) for a pre-paid plan or £6.50 per month (discounted from £7.50).

Email accounts for those who don’t want to subscribe will be permanently deleted from April 21.

In response to an FoI request, the Communications and Utilities Regulatory Authority (CURA) listed details of 19 complaints received since January 1 last year, 18 of these being between October 21 and January 16 this year.

Three of these raised concerns that customers had fallen victim to a scam and their account had been hacked.

Others raised concern about the lack of alternatives, the short notice given to the changes, perceived unfairness and alleged breach of contract and possible miss-selling.

During the switch to Junara, Manx Telecom and the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance had warned residents to remain vigilant against online scams.

But Junara insists it is not aware of any hack or breach of its email systems.

A spokesperson said: ‘Junara is part of the Atmail group, a global team of email specialists trusted worldwide.

‘We have been providing secure, reliable email services to customers in the Isle of Man since 2019, and to hundreds of millions of email users globally for more than 27 years.

‘Isle of Man customer email accounts were already hosted on Atmail systems prior to the transition to Junara.

‘This means there has been no email account or data migration, and no change to the security controls in place for these accounts. This transition to Junara has not introduced any new risk to customer email accounts.

‘Compromised email accounts are an ongoing, industry-wide issue affecting all global email providers and are most commonly the result of credentials obtained through phishing or password reuse.

‘We are not aware of any hack or breach of our email systems, and our monitoring and checks indicate no evidence of a system-level compromise.’

She added: ‘If customers use their email account password for any other service, or believe their account may have been compromised, we strongly recommend they log into webmail immediately and set a new, unique password that will not be used elsewhere.

‘Customers should also remain cautious and avoid clicking on unexpected email links claiming to be from Junara.’