academic's cry for help

[dougtayl]

I am an academic (most of my life) and teach at a business school in Johannesburg, South Africa. I also run an investor relations business. For both activities I need to send out bulk e-mails (up to say 60 to 100 recipients max.)

I found that my original e-mail address had been black listed because some overzealous spam filter thought that academic attachments (readings, solutions, etc.) or invitations to results presentations etc. were spam. So I eventually created a new account with google mail. Now today the following was received WHEN I REPLIED TO AN E-MAIL!

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME. WHAT DO I DO?

And don't tell me that robocop here or any oher spam blockers sites are helpful - they want something called a server URL from me - what is that? How do I find it? Why don't they just let me tyupr in my e-mail address and tell me if I am blacklisted and how I get out of that predicament?

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!

Thanks

Doug

Mail Delivery Subsystem <mailer-daemon[at]googlemail.com> to me

More options 16:41 (19 minutes ago)

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

Shirley.Webber[at]fnbcorporate.co.za

Technical details of permanent failure:

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 550 Message rejected - host IP listed in SpamCop / SpamHaus

----- Original message -----

Received: by 10.48.80.12 with SMTP id d12mr588426nfb;

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 07:41:21 -0700 (PDT)

Received: by 10.49.65.4 with HTTP; Wed, 26 Apr 2006 07:41:21 -0700 (PDT)

Message-ID: <7bb40f440604260741h69337848mc80a2dd1bb3c0f3a[at]mail.gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:41:21 +0200

From: "Douglas Taylor" <douglas.trilogy[at]gmail.com>

To: "Webber, Shirley" <Shirley.Webber[at]fnbcorporate.co.za>

Subject: Re: FW: AECI SITE VISIT TO HEARTLAND CAPE AND SANS UPDATE - 9 MAY 2006

In-Reply-To: <4E94BD19E2FCF141926646B05DAABBC403E845A1[at]fnbbcymx03.fnb.co.za>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: multipart/related;

boundary="----=_Part_13975_17177444.1146062481711"

References: <4E94BD19E2FCF141926646B05DAABBC403E845A1[at]fnbbcymx03.fnb.co.za>

------=_Part_13975_17177444.1146062481711

Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

boundary="----=_Part_13974_29418797.1146062481711"

------=_Part_13974_29418797.1146062481711

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Content-Disposition: inline

Oh yes. And I have you down as coming. Maps will be sent out on 2 May.

----- Message truncated -----

[turetzsr]

Hi, Doug,

I am an academic (most of my life) and teach at a business school in Johannesburg, South Africa.  I also run an investor relations business.  For both activities I need to send out bulk e-mails (up to say 60 to 100 recipients max.)

42326[/snapback]

...To whom are you sending your bulk e-mails? Are they e-mail addresses of people you know for certain have requested your bulk mail? Please see our FAQ entries Has your email been blocked? (ISP, Mailing List Admin, Advertiser) and Am I running mailing lists responsibly? when you have some spare time -- you should find them helpful.

I found that my original e-mail address had been black listed because some overzealous spam filter thought that academic attachments (readings, solutions, etc.) or invitations to results presentations etc. were spam.

42326[/snapback]

...Please let us know how you reached this conclusion.

...SpamCop does not do what you assert has been done, so it must have been done by some other facility. SpamCop only provides a list of IP addresses (a way of identifying a computer) of servers that have been reported for sending a number of spam above a certain threshhold. SpamCop itself blocks nothing. Please see FAQ entry Why Am I Blocked? for more information.

So I eventually created a new account with google mail.  Now today the following was received WHEN I REPLIED TO AN E-MAIL!

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME.  WHAT DO I DO?

42326[/snapback]

...Google has big problems -- a search through these forums should give you an idea of what the e-mail community is up against in terms of getting Google to fix their systems so that the e-mail they send stops getting their servers flagged as spam sources.

And don't tell me that robocop here or any oher spam blockers sites are helpful - they want something called a server URL from me - what is that?  How do I find it?

42326[/snapback]

...SpamCop does not deal with server URLs, at all. It deals only with IP addresses of spam sources. Nothing in your post shows the Google server IP address that would be necessary for us here to proceed with further research, either (not your fault, assuming you didn't leave it out of your post -- the fault of the admins of the e-mail system for fnbcorporate.co.za for not including it in the rejection message you received).

Why don't they just let me tyupr in my e-mail address and tell me if I am blacklisted

42326[/snapback]

...SpamCop doesn't deal with e-mail addresses -- they are too easily forged.

and how I get out of that predicament?

<snip>

42326[/snapback]

...First, I would suggest you complain to the admin of fnbcorporate.co.za (if you need help finding contact information, please post a note here and someone here will almost surely try to help) and let them know you don't appreciate such a worthless rejection notice -- they need to include the IP address of the server that's on the blacklist they are using and they need to include the exact blacklist that IP address is on, not "host IP listed in SpamCop / SpamHaus." Second, have a look through the FAQ entries, especially the one above labeled "Why am I Blocked?"

...Please post back here if you have any questions after reading the information to which I have referred you.

...Good luck!

...Final note: the forum to which you posted, "How to use ...." is not for these types of inquries, so I have moved this thread to the "SpamCop Blocklist Help" forum.

[Farelf]

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 550 Message rejected - host IP listed in SpamCop / SpamHaus

42326[/snapback]

Hi Doug, as Steve T says, this is a singularly unhelpful rejection message. The "host IP" address is the very detail needed - and the indifference to which listings it might be, the several SpamHaus or the SpamCop one, is delightfully off-hand of them (leading to the suspicion it might be neither).

So far as I can see, both your own and your addressee's email addresses are functioning ok, as expected - http://www.dnsstuff.com/ - the last tool in the centre column.

With the IP addresses of "sending" servers from the above and http://www.senderbase.org/search?searchString=64.233.183.27 (to plug in one of them), I can see no IP address in any way associated with your service which is currently blocked (though noting another, 64.233.183.27, has no rDNS "reverse address" which is enough in itself for it to be rejected by some receiving services).

First National Bank has some minor server issues too - http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=fnb.co.za

Something must explain how IANA.ORG blackholes got into the act (IP addresses 10.48.80.12 and 10.49.65.4). I'm afraid we need someone with a lot more technical knowledge than I have to sort it out. But unless I'm very much mistaken it is looking a little more complicated than a simple listing in the SpamCop block list. Following Steve T's advice is about your only course of action at this stage.

[Farelf]

Whoa - stumbled across a SpamCop listed Google IP address in the right grouping. http://www.spamcop.net/w3m?action=checkblock&ip=216.239.45.4 - just about delisting as I write. Too much to expect it might be "the" one I suppose. If it were, note that "it" has been sending to spamtraps.

Anyway Doug, you should be aware that SpamCop listing is temporary - when the spam stops it starts counting down to removal from the list. Even so, FNB should not be using the SCBL for rejections (if they are), that is not the recommended purpose.

But, you could keep trying to get through in the event it actually is a SpamCop listing causing your blocking. Just make very sure it is nothing on your own bulk distribution lists which is causing that listing in the first place.