Help please - cannot send email due to "abusive content"

RubyK

Hi there, can you please help.  Our email is an eir address, we use eir broadband but I use outlook 2013 for my emails.  In the past few days, I am unable to send any emails to one particular persons address, and I am also not receiving email from them, however these emails are showing up in the junk box on web mail (someone else uses the webmail version so can check these, but I want to continue using outlook 2013) 

When I try to send a mail I instantly get this message 


Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
 
      Subject:    FW: 
      Sent: 13/10/2016 14:10
 
The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:
 
      'xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx' on 13/10/2016 14:10
            552 5.2.0 ufoZb0JhmuxT7ufoZbRjme Abusive content detected in your email


I am pretty clueless when it comes to all this, and not technically minded! Can you please help :-(  

Alun

Looks like it's that person's email provider returning the email not eir's.

Some corporate email servers have overly sensitive filters built in, usually defaulting to an overly sensitive US set of 'naughty' words, to detect so-called abusive content. I had an email returned for the same reason once that mentioned Cock Mountain (it's up in the Mournes BTW)

RubyK

Hi Alun, many thanks for your reply.  The intended recipient asked their tech people, who said that the problem is at my end, not theirs.  My emails are the only ones they are not receiving.  

I have checked the messages, and there is definitely  nothing that could be abusive :-)   I did manage to send an email earlier this week, the recipient replied to it, but when I tried to reply in return, I got the abusive message info.  They recently put a new signature on their mails and an image.  Could this be anything to do with it?  

Alun

Possibly, try replying to that email again and remove the signature before replying and see what happens.

Where does the message telling you the mail hasn't been delivered come from? Is it a pop-up from Outlook, or is it an email response, and if so what is in the From: field?

P.S. I've also come across problems like this when the mail just contains email addresses from domains that some Spam blockers consider a problem, or even just URL's containing a domain that is considered a problem.

Eir: Pamela

Thanks for your help  Alun,


-Pamela 

RubyK

Alun wrote: »

Possibly, try replying to that email again and remove the signature before replying and see what happens.

Where does the message telling you the mail hasn't been delivered come from? Is it a pop-up from Outlook, or is it an email response, and if so what is in the From: field?

P.S. I've also come across problems like this when the mail just contains email addresses from domains that some Spam blockers consider a problem, or even just URL's containing a domain that is considered a problem.

Hi Alun, thanks for your help -  the message comes from the System Administrator, which I presume is my outlook 2013.  It's an instant message.  I have tried to reply to the message, and the only way it will send it is if I remove the recipients email address and company image at the bottom of the email.  My big worry is that I am not getting emails from them into outlook.  It's a business customer, so I can't afford to miss messages.

ED E

RubyK wrote: »

Alun wrote: »

Possibly, try replying to that email again and remove the signature before replying and see what happens.

Where does the message telling you the mail hasn't been delivered come from? Is it a pop-up from Outlook, or is it an email response, and if so what is in the From: field?

P.S. I've also come across problems like this when the mail just contains email addresses from domains that some Spam blockers consider a problem, or even just URL's containing a domain that is considered a problem.

Hi Alun, thanks for your help -  the message comes from the System Administrator, which I presume is my outlook 2013.  It's an instant message.  I have tried to reply to the message, and the only way it will send it is if I remove the recipients email address and company image at the bottom of the email.  My big worry is that I am not getting emails from them into outlook.  It's a business customer, so I can't afford to miss messages.

Their signature contains HTML data like a webpage (think of it like a small slice of a web page) and its causing the filter to trigger. This may mean they've included script tags or used a dodgy image host. Whatever the case, this will cause them issues further down the road. 

If you examine source you can find our which mailserver is rejecting it but I suspect its theirs and not eirs. Either way both would buy off the shelf products so if its being blocked here its liable to be blocked elsewhere. 

RubyK

ED E wrote: »

RubyK wrote: »

Alun wrote: »

Possibly, try replying to that email again and remove the signature before replying and see what happens.

Where does the message telling you the mail hasn't been delivered come from? Is it a pop-up from Outlook, or is it an email response, and if so what is in the From: field?

P.S. I've also come across problems like this when the mail just contains email addresses from domains that some Spam blockers consider a problem, or even just URL's containing a domain that is considered a problem.

Hi Alun, thanks for your help -  the message comes from the System Administrator, which I presume is my outlook 2013.  It's an instant message.  I have tried to reply to the message, and the only way it will send it is if I remove the recipients email address and company image at the bottom of the email.  My big worry is that I am not getting emails from them into outlook.  It's a business customer, so I can't afford to miss messages.

Their signature contains HTML data like a webpage (think of it like a small slice of a web page) and its causing the filter to trigger. This may mean they've included script tags or used a dodgy image host. Whatever the case, this will cause them issues further down the road. 

If you examine source you can find our which mailserver is rejecting it but I suspect its theirs and not eirs. Either way both would buy off the shelf products so if its being blocked here its liable to be blocked elsewhere. 

Hi ED E, many thanks for your reply!  I did a test - I got sent a message to someone else in their company who doesn't have this image on their email.  The message sent, they replied, but when I tried to reply to them, I got the abusive content message again.  I removed their email address from the message, and then it let me send it.  They recently changed their email address, and this seems to be issue for me - does this make sense??

Alun

A way to determine where the rejection is taking place would be to forward the message, including signature, to another eir email address. If you don't have one, you can easily create a temporary second one. There's a link to do this on the webmail login page.

If it's still blocked, it's either eir or something in your mail configuration doing it, if not then it's the recipient's email provider.

Another question, since you're using Outlook, are you sending these emails directly via eir's mail servers, or is there another layer involved, e.g. a company mail server at your end?

RubyK

Alun wrote: »

A way to determine where the rejection is taking place would be to forward the message, including signature, to another eir email address. If you don't have one, you can easily create a temporary second one. There's a link to do this on the webmail login page.

If it's still blocked, it's either eir or something in your mail configuration doing it, if not then it's the recipient's email provider.

Another question, since you're using Outlook, are you sending these emails directly via eir's mail servers, or is there another layer involved, e.g. a company mail server at your end?

Thank you Alun - I'll try the test message.  Yes, these mails are being sent via eir's mail server.  Thanks again :-) 

RubyK

Hi Alan,

I tried the test message with a new eircom address - i copied a message from the customer but the new eircom account wouldn't let me send it.  When I removed the customers website address and email address from the message, it sent.  

RubyK wrote: »

Alun wrote: »

A way to determine where the rejection is taking place would be to forward the message, including signature, to another eir email address. If you don't have one, you can easily create a temporary second one. There's a link to do this on the webmail login page.

If it's still blocked, it's either eir or something in your mail configuration doing it, if not then it's the recipient's email provider.

Another question, since you're using Outlook, are you sending these emails directly via eir's mail servers, or is there another layer involved, e.g. a company mail server at your end?

Thank you Alun - I'll try the test message.  Yes, these mails are being sent via eir's mail server.  Thanks again :-) 

Alun

RubyK wrote: »

Hi Alan,

I tried the test message with a new eircom address - i copied a message from the customer but the new eircom account wouldn't let me send it. When I removed the customers website address and email address from the message, it sent.

RubyK wrote: »

Alun wrote: »

A way to determine where the rejection is taking place would be to forward the message, including signature, to another eir email address. If you don't have one, you can easily create a temporary second one. There's a link to do this on the webmail login page.

If it's still blocked, it's either eir or something in your mail configuration doing it, if not then it's the recipient's email provider.

Another question, since you're using Outlook, are you sending these emails directly via eir's mail servers, or is there another layer involved, e.g. a company mail server at your end?

Thank you Alun - I'll try the test message. Yes, these mails are being sent via eir's mail server. Thanks again :-)

This, plus your reply to ED E's post, means it's a) eir's mail server doing this, and b) it's the email address or website address, or even just the domain name, in the signature that's triggering it, not the image.

I'd hazard a guess that the domain of the people you're communicating with has landed on a SPAM blacklist somewhere. Although it would be a bit daft to block an email that contains the domain name as a piece of text, and yet happily send emails to it otherwise, but who know what logic is being employed here.

Try entering the domain name (the bit after the @) here ..

http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

and see what it says.

RubyK

Thank you for the link Alun - I checked the address and got this response - Listed 0 times with 0 timeouts


 

Alun

Hmmm, I'm a bit stumped then. A quick Google indicates it's not the first time this has been reported though ...

https://www.google.ie/#newwindow=1&q=eircom+abusive+content

RubyK

Alun wrote: »

Hmmm, I'm a bit stumped then. A quick Google indicates it's not the first time this has been reported though ...

https://www.google.ie/#newwindow=1&q=eircom+abusive+content

I'm at a loss really :-(  I'll have a read of that, thanks for all your help Alun, appreciate it.

Eir: Pamela

Hi RubyK,

I have responded to your PM,

Thanks,
Pamela 

Alun

Did you get it sorted out in the end, RubyK?

RubyK

Hi Alun,

Well yes and no :-)  Had to get an IT guy into the office to try and help.  After checking our system and settings, he spoke with EIR who said the email address I've been trying to send messages to is listed as Spam on their system, and they can't clear it.  It was easier all round to just change our email address.  Thanks for your time and help :-)