Just found that a number of forum emails (eg from watched thread notifications) have bounced back from a fairly new member, with their email provider saying they are marked as spam. Not good! Not sure how I can contact them to ask them to mark it as not spam as a DM wlll just lead to another bounced email probably. Any suggestions? Remove the email address from their account and wait for them to log in again maybe?
Forum emails bouncing to new member
- Thread starter Alvin63
- Start date
Suzanne O
Well-known member
What you should do here is DM him and tell him that he has to use a valid email address or he will be banned.
Mr Lucky
Well-known member
I had a couple of these. In one case they responded to my DM apologising saying it was an accident. The other one never replied so I think I changed their preferences to not receive email notifications.
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Mr Lucky
Well-known member
I just revisited the DM, Obviously people usually delete forum notifications (there's rarely any point keeping them) and I think it's easy to hit the junk icon instead of the bin icon.
What I did not know is that (at least with my SMTP provider) the end user [utting the email into the junk folder sends back to the SMTP provider literally a spam complaint. So the user did not actively think they were making a complaint about the forum, that's just the way that any moving to junk folder is logged.
That's what I was thinking was happening. New members maybe haven't checked out their settings to see they can turn on and off email notifications. And probably has marked it as spam. Either that or their email provider decided it was spam (btinternet).I just revisited the DM, Obviously people usually delete forum notifications (there's rarely any point keeping them) and I think it's easy to hit the junk icon instead of the bin icon.
What I did not know is that (at least with my SMTP provider) the end user [utting the email into the junk folder sends back to the SMTP provider literally a spam complaint. So the user did not actively think they were making a complaint about the forum, that's just the way that any moving to junk folder is logged.
I was also thinking to turn off their email notifications, so thanks for that. But I thought if I send a PM it will just send another email notification won't it? That would bounce, so they might not get it?
If it's been reported as spam, is that going to put a black mark on the domain/email address?
Mr Lucky
Well-known member
If BT have decided to bounce due to spam reports I think it you are right, the IP or domain may be blacklisted. Are you on shared hosting? That whole server could be blacklisted with is often what happens with shared server hence it's advisable to have a SMTP provider
Quite possibly. As above though the best solution is SMTP.
Thanks. I'm on SMTP already 
The member replied to the PM and said they had an email for that and doesn't seem aware of the fact that some have been bounced. I think it might be BT being a bit over the top.
Yes I'm on shared hosting. No other emails to other members have bounced.
It says message rejected on (date) policy 3.2.1.1 Your message looks like spam or has been reported as spam. I'm wondering if it was the message title - which was the title of their post referring to hamster "soft stool"
The member replied to the PM and said they had an email for that and doesn't seem aware of the fact that some have been bounced. I think it might be BT being a bit over the top.Yes I'm on shared hosting. No other emails to other members have bounced.
It says message rejected on (date) policy 3.2.1.1 Your message looks like spam or has been reported as spam. I'm wondering if it was the message title - which was the title of their post referring to hamster "soft stool"
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Looks like it's not uncommon with BT
community.bt.com
Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)
I am finding it impossible to send normal one-off email messages to @btinternet.com email addresses, which is causing my business problems. "Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM" "(reason: 554 Message rejected on 2021/09/17 16:24:29 BST, policy (3.2.1.1)" My servers do not...
community.bt.com
Mr Lucky
Well-known member
Yes I had that years ago with BT. Sadly I'm on the cheap shared IP with Postmark and every now and again it happens but they get it sorted quite quickly.
I've emailed postmaster@btinternet.com and asked them to whitelist it. Assuming they don't bounce my email to them!
Ok so I've just checked out the IP address on the server emails (which is not actually the server IP address - it's clearly one from a place they outsource their SMTP emails to). Which is why I left email with the server because the headers don't reveal the server IP - just an IP from the place they outsource their emails to.
Anyway checking that server email IP shows that it does indeed have a blacklist mark for "Backscatterer". This is not good, Will contact the server.
I did have one other email "blocked" and bounced back from a gmail address as well. First email went through. Second one got blocked.
Anyway checking that server email IP shows that it does indeed have a blacklist mark for "Backscatterer". This is not good, Will contact the server.
I did have one other email "blocked" and bounced back from a gmail address as well. First email went through. Second one got blocked.
Mr Lucky
Well-known member
Good idea. For a start let them know you discovered the reason being accidental and that you aren't a spammer.
Unless that blacklist mark has just appeared because BT internet reported it as spam? Contacted the server (just got the bot) and it said the server uses shared SMTP servers so blacklistings can occasionally occur due to activity from other users as well (whatever that means).Says they cannot directly delist it from a blacklist so I've asked to escalate to a real person.
Don't want to pay for an email package that has a blacklisted IP!
Contacted the server (just got the bot) and it said the server uses shared SMTP servers so blacklistings can occasionally occur due to activity from other users as well (whatever that means).Says they cannot directly delist it from a blacklist so I've asked to escalate to a real person.Don't want to pay for an email package that has a blacklisted IP!
Thanks. It's a genuine user and genuine email. The issue is btinternet partly, and my server partly it seems.
Suzanne O
Well-known member
Good to hear.
Post up a sticky thread about it just in case it bounces again. Let the members affected DM you to let you know so you can let your isp know.
