Still having problems with some incoming emails

[#1]

An update to what has happened to that ticket:-

When I opened the ticket on 26 March 2018, I told PlusNet that I had tried setting the Spam Filter to marking any spam by putting -SPAM- in the email title, also then putting the supposed spam email into the In Tray so that they were obvious to me, but those emails aren't spam.

There have been several PlusNet support staff involved in solving this problem, but they haven't found a solution yet. They all seem to have job titles that begin "CSC", such as "CSC Analyst". What does the CSC stand for? When I saw the CSC, my heart sank. Before I retired, I worked for a company that used another company called CSC as their computer system support people. To call them "bloody useless", would be to praise them, so I wasn't too confident. Are PlusNet using the same company?

Well, here we are in June, and they haven't solved the problem yet. They have tried at least once (a month ago) to use the same thing I had done - put the spam email into the In Tray. It doesn't solve the actual problem - identifying a good email as spam - and the latest solution may just be doing exactly the same thing.

I have given them a supposed spam email to test their security software against, but I am still getting emails identified by PlusNet as spam, in spite of them now claiming they have fixed the problem. I suspect the same solution - putting the spam email in the In Tray. Why bother? At least I seem to have stopped having the problem of emails being rejected - as far as I know - so possibly one good result

[#2]

The CSC acronym you've seen in tickets means Customer Support Centre. These people are Plusnet staff with no connection whatsoever with the IT outsourcing company with this name which you mentioned.

I'm sorry to hear that analysis work on your spam misidentification ticket is still ongoing. Have you had any feedback from Plusnet about results from the example you attached to your ticket apart from "they think the problem is now fixed"? Have you checked your spam settings in Manage My Mail to see if the settings match what you are assuming?

[#3]

Hello spraxt. Yes I have checked my spam settings in Manage My Mail, and they are set to (1) Add -SPAM- to the email title, and (2) Put the spam email into the In Box.

PlusNet haven't given me any feedback apart the following:-

"Thank you for your query.

Our internal networks team have advised that your issue with spam has been resolved and have asked that you try again

Please do not hesitate to get back in touch online at http://contactus.plus.net or by phone on 0800 028 0282 or 0300 123 4433 if we can be of further assistance"

... but then at one stage a few weeks back they phoned me and they said they were going to do something (they didn't say what) and I got the following message back on this ticket:-

"As discussed i have now changed a setting on your emails which show allow the emails you wanted to come through to your inbox instead of the junk mail box"

"As discussed"? They never said what they were doing, they just said they were doing something. There was no discussion.

For the last 6 months I have been getting more so-called spam emails in a week than I got in a year before that. It is very rare that any of these so-called spam emails are actually spam so it looks like the PlusNet security software is being over-zealous. This probably dates back to November last year at which point lots of people started complaining on this forum about problems with their email. Perhaps the experts should look at what changes they made then to see if that could be causing problems.

[#4]

Hi there.

I'm sorry to see you're experiencing problems still.

I've raised the task back to the appropriate team to re-investigate this, and I've also reached out to our products team to look into this from their side of things too.

[#5]

Hello Gandalf. I am grateful for any help, believe me I am, but when it looks like every time the problem goes back to Customer Support, it gets the same 'solution' which is not a solution, just a get around, then frustration builds.

Thankyou

[#6]

No worries. Whilst CS advisers have been keeping you updated this problem isn't solely with customer support.

There's a task raised with our back-end e-mails team investigating this.

[#7]

We've reset the spam filter and this should be resolved now.

Can you check things your side?

[#8]

Hello Gandalf.

When you write "Can you check things your side?", did you mean look at my settings in my Spam Filter? If that is what you meant, I have taken a look, and I can see no change, i. e. it is still set to put -SPAM- in the email title, and put any spam emails in the In Tray.

My wife and I don't appear to have received any emails from anyone in the last couple of hours. The real test of success here is for my wife to receive some emails from Beales that do not get identified as spam. The latest Beales email arrived yesterday so will have been missed by the filter reset.

I will let you know what happens.

Thanks for your help

[#9]

I don't think any e-mails you have currently will change, but any new e-mails shouldn't be flagged as spam now.

Keep us posted.

[#10]

Hello Gandalf,

Things have been much better - no emails, not even those Beales ones, identified as spam - until today, when one from 'George at Asda' arrived. Normally these get through as good emails, so maybe there is still a bit to do. I have copied the source file for that email onto the ticket, just in case.

However, compared to what went before, this is a major improvement, for which, my thanks.

[#11]

Have you had any emails from Asda which were processed correctly since the spam filter reset? If this instance is now an oddball I would be inclined to move it to the Spam folder (if necessary) then try reporting it as "not spam" from webmail.

What X-IPAS spam level was the message assigned?

[#12]

I'm pretty certain that when I reported the Asda email yesterday, there was another that had got through, but having gone back to Webmail, it appears to be the only one of its kind. However, I now have a Beales email which has also been reported as spam.

I have managed to move both to the Junk Folder, then report them as not spam.

As for the X-IPAS spam level, I have never heard of that. How would I find the answer to your question?

[#13]

X-IPAS is one of the email headers which would have been included in the source you added to the ticket.

X-BV-Spam-Flag: Yes
X-IPAS: Level1
X-CM-Score: 100.00

Spam levels go from 1 to 5; the example above shows Level 1 which is the most severe. Level 5 shows (significant) spam likelihood. I think X-CM-Score would be 100% in either case.

In Manage My Mail (MMM) you have an "aggressiveness" setting which ranges from Level 1 to 5. If you had that set to 2 (say) and X-IPAS was 3, 4 or 5 the message would still be [-SPAM-] tagged but placed in INBOX rather than the Spam folder (if the MMM Spam settings  request the latter). Retaining tagging in this situation might seem odd, but it acts as a warning to be careful with the message.

[#14]

The X-IPAS was Level 3, and the X-CM was 98.00. I couldn't find anything that started X-BV-.

My Spam Filter Aggressiveness setting is 1, and the Spam Filter is set to mark all spam with -SPAM- in the title, and to then put the spam in the In Tray. That way I still see the email, but I am warned to be careful.

[#15]

In the spam email I quoted from those three header lines appear together in the order shown. I don't know what BV stands for and what, if anything is implied by the presence or absence of the X-BV header. I only have the one spam message to refer to.

I think X-IPAS is Ironport AntiSpam, an antispam system used some years ago which reported using those levels. Plusnet probably mimicked the level reporting when the current Cloudmark appliances were introduced to fit in with downstream processing which depending on it.

I think the X-CM header is the result from the Cloudmark Process that does the spam assessment. This header can be understood by humans unlike the codes in the X-CNFS Analysis header which follows which is intended for robots.

Since your email reports Level 3 it suggests the process has slight doubts. Reporting as "not spam" might help improve this.