Q Since linking my iPad to my iCloud account I have been receiving a phantom email every day, with no sender, subject, or content. Is this some ominous attack?

A No, these are probably just artefacts of the mail server system.

Occasionally they prove to be failed attempts to send a malicious email, that break when one server decides not to continue. Sometimes they are the result of a simple failure: when mail servers communicate, they first negotiate how they will communicate, then the sender transmits messages to the recipient server.

This message is not making it, hence appearing as an empty message in your mailbox. You may be able to delete them, in which case they should eventually cease.

If they persist or you find that you cannot delete them, the next step is to check your iCloud connection. Try disconnecting all your devices from iCloud, check the account details that you are using on each system, ensuring that you are using the same .me sign-on, and re-connect. If that does not do the trick, contact your mail provider’s support and get them to remove the message from your mailbox. It should then disappear for good.

Updated from the original, which was first published in MacUser volume 28 issue 18, 2012.