I've been having a problem with mail forwards - they used to work and now they've stopped.

My provider's helpdesk says it is because I do not have corresponding POP mail boxes set up? Isn't that complete tosh?

One reason to use forwarders is to avoid using up POP mailboxes. Why else would accounts provide limited POP mail boxes but unlimited forwarders?

That doesn't sound right at all!

Unless they have a very weird setup which I've never heard of before, there is no need to have a POP mailbox. In fact, you should not have a POP mailbox and forwarder of the same name on your account.

Are you sure they don't mean that you don't have a corresponding email account where the "mail forward" is being forwarded?