Emails rejected as spam by Plusnet server

[#1]

Morning all. 

I have my own domain name and I am sending emails to a Plusnet account and the emails are rejected for spam. I happen to be a Plusnet user too. The details are below.

I can't find an email address to send the details to so it can be taken off the spam list.

Can anyone help.

Thanks

Philip

From: MAILER-DAEMON@mailchannels.net (Mail Delivery System)
Date: 8 August 2019 at 20:51:58 BST
To: *************
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender

This is the mail system at host relay.mailchannels.net.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                  The mail system

<*********@john-lewis.com>: host mx.avasin.plus.net[212.159.9.200] said: 552 Spam
   Message Rejected  (in reply to end of DATA command)

Reporting-MTA: dns; relay.mailchannels.net
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: D4C3514242C
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; *****************
Arrival-Date: Thu,  8 Aug 2019 19:51:46 +0000 (UTC)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; ********@john-lewis.com
Original-Recipient: rfc822;*********@john-lewis.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
Remote-MTA: dns; mx.avasin.plus.net
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 552 Spam Message Rejected

[#2]

Hi @pn0705 

Did the email that was rejected contain any links in the signature? 

Thanks, 

MoR

[#3]

Hi MoR

There were no links in the signature. I've copied what I received apart from an attachment with the original mail message. 

I've emailed mailchannels.net who replied that they could see emails being blocked but they have no control over recipient rejection.

I'm not sure where they fit in the system as in whether they are filtering for Plusnet or for the Recipient? If not for the recipient (as they suggest) then why are they sending a rejection message?

Thanks

Philip

[#4]

As an update from my domain provider, they have seen this with emails to Plusnet, BT and Talk Talk who use Cloudmark for their spam filtering and  recent change has made it over zealous. They have sorted it by sending from one ip rather than rotating ips. They also said that I could contact Plusnet but ultimately Cloudmark need to fix their spam filter. They've chased to get this resolved but nobody seems very interested.

Philip

[#5]

Hi Philip,

Thanks for getting back to us, I appreciate your comments.

Although I can't comment about Cloudmark it sounds like you've found the answer you need so I hope the issue gets resolved for you. If we were to investigate this for you we would need to know your email provider, and also whether the person you were sending the email to has you accepted in their whitelist. If the issue persists you can update us here to see whether we can advise further.

Let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks - LF

[#6]

If you can provide the IP's that your mail provider believe have been blacklisted, then I might be able to help here. Failing that, point your mailhost towards the remediation page here where they can request the blacklist is lifted.

[#7]

So an update! My domain name provider has changed things around from a revolving ip address to ensure that emails get through but I'm getting a different error (below). It looks as if it because the address isn't valid but it works fine when sending mails from other email addresses.

Any ideas please?:)

The error is:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Date: 2019-08-11 21:22
From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@gemini.**************.com>
To: ***********************

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

*********@john-lewis.com
   retry timeout exceeded

Reporting-MTA: dns; gemini.thewebhostserver.com

Action: failed
Final-Recipient: rfc822;**********l@john-lewis.com
Status: 5.0.0

[#8]

Hey @pn075,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Have you tried @bobpullen's link and provided the info requested?

Thanks.

[#9]

Thanks Mads. I've tried that now but now it says that it holds no information about that domain. 

I'm wondering if its a spam filter on recipients email system rather than a server.

Any other ideas as I'm stumped but I can't give up just sending emails to this person!

[#10]

I'm wondering if its a spam filter on recipients email system rather than a server.

@pn0705 i think that could be a good shout - are you able to ask about this at all? 

Thanks, 

MoR

[#11]

I'm wondering if its a spam filter on recipients email system rather than a server.

@pn0705 

If by the above, it is meant that the recipient's email client is responsible for the rejection than that could only be a consideration AFTER the JLP email service ahs accepted delivery … which does not appear to be the case.

Can you do a nslookup on your domain name to see what TXT records are present - particularly are there any SPF records?  It is possible that there are and that the rotating IPS are not in the permitted SPF server list.

@bobpullen @Kelly @JW 

Are we seeing here a case of a sending domain having a very bad spam generation reputation, giving rise to ultra caution (very sensible) over delivery acceptance in the absence of the sender applying SPF (and the rest) sender identification verifications?  In short, is this a simple black listing issue (requiring the sending domain owners to get a clean-up act in place) or is this looking something similar to the Gmail issue of the receiving environment being over zealous in the absence of SPF et al?

[#12]

Townman - thanks for your rely. I agree that the JL server has accepted delivery.

My domain provider has changed my system so it works on a single ip now rather than rotating ips which, they say, generally solves the problem. 

I've attached a file showing domain reputation which is neutral. Baracuda also showed not blacklisted.

I've also attached a nslookup with TXT records. SOA records were just out of screenshot range but I can provide these if you need them.

[#13]

Other screenshot attached here for domain reputation.

[#14]

I've dropped a note for Jon to have a look at this once he's back on from his hols late next week

[#15]

That looks like an issue with the originating server talking to the destination server, so before it's been accepted on the Plusnet side rather than after. Though as that's the final non-delivery message, there's not really sufficient information to go on to work out why it's happening. Normally, that kind of NDR would happen after the originating server has tried a number of times over a number of days and had a soft failure each time, as any kind of hard 'this looks like spam' should generate one straight away, as per the original 552 rejection.