Preventing New Cases and Only Allowing Case Updates via Email

Some organizations want their customers to open cases via a web-to-case form rather than email so that specific data is collected from the onset. Email to Case Premium cannot be configured to "blackhole" any emails, for new cases or otherwise, but there are some approaches outside of Email to Case Premium that you may consider.

  • Sep 2, 2026
  • Knowledge

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https://kb.vicasso.com/?kb=000004829
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Consider one of the approaches detailed below. If set up properly, you could even allow certain inbound email addresses to open cases while disallowing others.
 
  1. Your mail server may be able to distinguish an incoming email for a new case versus an existing case by the presence of a Case Thread ID. Work with your IT team to filter out emails that do not contain a Case Thread ID in the subject or body and only forward those that do to your Email to Case Premium routing address.
  2. Use a combination of automation tools in Salesforce (auto-response, assignment rules, and flows) to auto-close cases opened via E2CP. Use a discrete Case Origin so that you can easily distinguish a case opened via E2CP from a case opened via other channels.
    • Consider adding a status such as "Auto-Closed" to distinguish cases closed in this manner.
    • Consider sending an auto-reply advising the sender of the proper way to open a case.
    • Consider using batch apex to periodically delete cases opened via email

 

Please Note: Help with both, mail server configuration or Salesforce local automation, is out of the scope of App Support, and further help cannot be provided. This article is provided as-is.

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Preventing New Cases and Only Allowing Case Updates via Email
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