I think a hacker has blocked certain of my emails to reach their destination.
OK, maybe it is not a hacker, maybe it is my same server.
Let me tell you the story in as few words as possible. The history goes
back some that both myself and my wife would send emails be they to the
USA, Mexico or wherever in the world.
We send to different servers i.e. hotmail, aol, prodigy, integrity, etc. That
does not seem to be the hangup.
Certain (not sure the reasons and that is this question) why they did
not arrive. We knew they did not arrive from phone calls. Also,
certain emails from other did not reach us. Again this was confirmed
by phone calls.
We have tried our local tech and he is about to pull his hairs.
I think I am on to something.
I do talks about the creation and against evolution. I do these in Spanish.
Therefore our emails have these words: creación, evolución, materiales
creacionistas and my web site www.creacionistas.com in the text.
We are preparing an emailing to our contacts with new info, offers,
freebies, etc in SPANISH. I sent a test to myself and it did not arrive.
Granted, the
subject line had some of the above mentioned Spanish words in it.
So I forward the same to myself (my email) but put the subject line in
English but kept the same Spanish text in the body of th message--
NOTHING.
I reactivated my Hotmail account (my normal email account is with
PRODIGY.NET.MX here in Mexico.
I sent to my Hotmail and Prodigy accounts just now emails with and
without the Spanish creationist text and they arrived or didnot arrive
accordingly. The title had nothing to do with it. Let me explain.
1--- That mails go out of my Prodigy account, they are registered as Sent.
2--- My Prodigy account and my Hotmail accounts ONLY (so it seems)
receive emails from Prodigy if:
a) The text of the message DOES NOT CONTAIN the words: creación,
evolución, materiales creacionistas, www.creacionistas.com
b) Other emails with Spanish text BUT without the above words go out
and are received.
c) I just did two more tests. The Spanish words by themselves, one at a
time are sent and received.
d) An email with just the web site is sent but neither receive it.
e) I did another email of my original text, removed all of the web site links
and sent that. Not received by either.
Well this is serious business for me and I cannot afford to change servers
as too many have my email address and all that good stuff.
So I hope some one can help. Bear in mind that my wife's that treat
different topics in both English and Spanish, but we will get mine first.
God bless you and give you wisdom and discernment!
John Pendleton
PS-- Feel free to ask me to do any kind of tests and emails that you
like. I really want to get this solved and keep it solved! |
Request for Question Clarification by
theta-ga
on
16 Aug 2005 00:43 PDT
Hi pendleton-ga,
The most likely reason for your problem seems to be that your
emails are being blocked by the spam filters running on the various
mail servers you send your mails to.
Spam filters nowadays determine whether or not an email is spam by
evaluating a combination of words that appear in the email. This would
support the effects you are seeing, in which only mails with a certain
combinations of words are blocked.
The simplest way to get around this problem is by adding your
sending email address to the safe list.
The other option would be to reword your email so that the spam
filter is not triggered. However, the spam filters are continually
evolving and and trying to get past them this way might be a losing
proposition.
Please make the following checks and get back to me:
- Send an email from your prodigy account to your hotmail account
(make this email format the same as that which is usually blocked).
Now, as per expectations , this mail should not arrive in your Hotmail
Inbox. Please verify whether this mail is lying in your Hotmail Junk
Mail folder or not. If the Hotmail spam filter is blocking your mails,
your mail should be lying in the Junk folder.
- Now add the address from which you send your mails (the prodigy
one) to the Hotmail Safe User List. You can get to it by Clicking
'Options' on the main Hotmail page, then clicking on the 'Junk E-Mail
Protection' link and then the 'Safe List' link.
Once you have the sender added to the safe list, then send
another mail (in the same format that is blocked) to your Hotmail
account. Does this mail now arrive in your Hotmail Inbox? Or, is it
sent to your Junk Mail folder?
The results of the above tests should help us move in the right direction.
Also, another thing you can do is check out the following link:
- Are Your Email Newsletters Being Blocked by Spam Filters?
(http://www.gravitymail.com/spamscore.php)
It advertizes a free service, wherein the site checks the content
of your email against the various criterions used by SpamAssassin (a
popular spam filter) and determines possible word combinations and
usages that could cause your email to be classified as spam.
Hope this helps.
I will be waiting for the results of the above mentioned tests.
Regards,
Theta-ga
:)
|
Request for Question Clarification by
theta-ga
on
20 Aug 2005 02:07 PDT
Hi pendleton-ga,
Have you tried out the suggestions I listed in the previous post? If
you could post the results here, then we can take this forward.
Regards,
Theta-ga
:)
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
20 Aug 2005 08:51 PDT
Hello Theta-ga
Thank you for writing and I am so sorry to not have answered sooner. I
have finally be able to do 2 tests.
1-- I sent an email that I think is often blocked. I sent it a bit
over an hour ago.It is in my sent box. I sent it to my own email
address plus my Hotmail address. It was a 44K document with a color
cartoon.
It has not arrived to either email.
2-- After about 45 mins I sent an email to both addressses that just
said "what's up?" and they both received it.
3-- Then I resent the "not-received email" but with just the same
Subject title and NOTHING in the text area. Both received that one.
4-- BTW, I did not receive an Answers.google email notifying me that
someone (you) had posted anything. How about that?
Well, I used to think it was my computer itself that was messing up.
Maybe it (they are-- I have 3 I use for the same email account) is.
LMK
Blessings.
John
|
Request for Question Clarification by
theta-ga
on
20 Aug 2005 11:04 PDT
Hi pendleton-ga,
The tests you ran have established the fact that the fact that the
emails are blocked somewhere depends on both the subject and the body
text taken together.
However, in order to determine whether the cause of the error is
your system or the spam filters of the mail accounts, I need you to
run the tests I mentioned in my first post.
Specifically, I need you to add the email sending address to your
Hotmail account's safe list, and then send the 'not received mail' to
your hotmail account again. If your Hotmail account receives the mail
now, then this will vindicate your computer system, and lay the blame
squarely on the spam filter.
Also I would like you to try this with another mail account of
yours. For example, if you have an AOL mail account, thn try adding
the sending mail address to it's safe list, and then try sending the
troublesome e-mail to this account.
You can find the instructions for whitelisting an email address in
the various mail accounts here:
- Safelist
(http://www.cathygoodwin.com/safelist.html)
Please try this out with two or more of your receiving mail account
and post the results here.
Regards,
Theta-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
22 Aug 2005 17:39 PDT
Hi Theta-ga,
1---- I am not convinced that depends BOTH on the subject and body content.
The tests you ran have established the fact that the fact that the
emails are blocked somewhere depends on both the subject and the body
text taken together.
2 ---- I though I ran the tests you told me. I will re-read carefully
that again. However, in order to determine whether the cause of the
error is
your system or the spam filters of the mail accounts, I need you to
run the tests I mentioned in my first post.
3--- Now "the email" sent from Hotmail to Prodigy ARRIVED! I sent it
from Prodidgy back to HOTMAIL and it ARRIVED!!
Specifically, I need you to add the email sending address to your
Hotmail account's safe list, and then send the 'not received mail' to
your hotmail account again. If your Hotmail account receives the mail
now, then this will vindicate your computer system, and lay the blame
squarely on the spam filter.
Also I would like you to try this with another mail account of
yours. For example, if you have an AOL mail account, thn try adding
the sending mail address to it's safe list, and then try sending the
troublesome e-mail to this account.
4-- I have no other accounts.AOL ran out.
You can find the instructions for whitelisting an email address in
the various mail accounts here:
- Safelist
(http://www.cathygoodwin.com/safelist.html)
Please try this out with two or more of your receiving mail account
and post the results here.
5--- I went to the above web site but did not find my Outlook Express.
I signed up for the ezine, but I could not go any further.
Blessings.
John
Regards,
Theta-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
22 Aug 2005 17:40 PDT
Hello Theta-ga
I have gotten email from Answers.Google that you posted comments.
I have the services of ccnow.com for on-line customer purchases with
credit card and I used but now I don't get email notices of placed
orders, like on
August 8th.
John
|
Request for Question Clarification by
theta-ga
on
26 Aug 2005 02:48 PDT
Hi pendleton-ga,
Let me quickly sum up the current state of affairs as I understand it.
- You have an email[with specific subject and body contents] that
does not arrive at the destination email addresses.
- When you modify either the body or the subject line of this
email, the email does arrive at it's destination.
This would indicate that the email is blocked based on the
contents of the subject and body line taken together.
Now, the emails can be blocked by any service provides in two ways:
- By blacklisting the IP address or email address
In this case, *all* emails origination from the blacklisted IP
address are blocked. This is not what's happening in your case, so IP
blacklisting is not something you have to worry about.
- By identifying the email as spam based on its contents
This is what seems to be happening to your emails. Emails with
specific word combinations in the subject and body are blocked.
--------------
Now if you are being blocked by a spam filter (as you seem to be),
there are two methods you can use to safegaurd your mail:
- Safe Lists
Have the recepients of your email add your sending address to
their email account's safe list. This will ensure that your email
always gets to them.
- Modify email contents
The other option is to change the contents of your email such
that the spam filter will no longer catch it. However, this can only
be done by a tedious trial and error method, and since the spam
filters automatically update themselves, you will be fighting a losing
battle.
Based on the above analysis, I recommend that you go for the Safe
List solution.
----------------
In my previous post I had asked you to try out the Safe List method,
and see if it solves your problem. From your response, I gather that
it worked for you. The emails that you were previously not receiving,
have now started appearing once you added the sending address to your
safe list.
So what you need to do is ask all the people you regularly send you
mails to, to add you to their mail client's safe list. This will
ensure that they keep receiving your mails.
Clients like Outlook Express, and older versions of MS Outlook do not
block emails themselves. So they do not have a safe list you can add
emails to. In this case, you have to use the safelist of the account
you access through Outlook Express.
For example, if you use Outlook Express to read mail from your
Hotmail and Prodigy account, you have to add the sending address to
the safelists provided by Prodigy and hotmail.
The following Prodigy help documentation indicates how you can
prevent your Prodigy account from blocking certain mails;
- Prodigy Help
(http://help.prodigy.net/help/email/spam/spamshieldfaqs.html#6)
Essentially you have to add all the emaila addresses you suspect
that you account is blocking, to the safe list.
------------------
Hope this helps.
Please indicate if the above has helped solve your problem. If it has,
I will go ahead and post this as the answer.
Regards,
Theta-ga
:)
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
26 Aug 2005 15:48 PDT
Hello Theta-ga.
I am sorry for not getting to you sooner. Again, I DO NOT GET EMAILS
FROM ANSWERS.GOOGLE letting me know that you or anyone has posted
something.
That is a failure in itself!!!
2--- I can send emails with the same "Subject" and just put one of the
suspected "bad words" and the email DOES ARRIVE.
3--- I sent the whole "bad" email with a cartoon, everything from
Hotmail to Prodigy and it ARRIVED.
4--- I sent the whole "bad" email with a cartoon, everything from
Prodigy to Hotmail and it NEVER ARRIVED.
I think I know NOTHING!
I just sent the "bad" email to Hotmail and Prodigy and neither received it.
I sent to myself (from one Pc of my network, same email) an URL
address I needed. NEVER ARRIVED.
The other day I did get an order email from my CCNOW.com account.
My VOIP telephone with VONAGE.COM used to send me emails when someone
left a voicemail. I still can hear voicemails, but I DO NOT GET THE
EMAILS telling me that someone call from xxx-xxx-xxxx telephone.
In fact, I hardly get any email, even SPAM.
Am I making any sense?
John Pendleton
ps-- I don't think I am any nearer a solution to my email problems.
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
28 Aug 2005 01:45 PDT
Hello Theta-ga
I think I am learning something. Your last post is beginning to sink
in with me. I just added the special (2) answers.google emails to my
address book to see if I get a notice of activity.
I am not in anyway clear yet on the why's and wherefore's, but I am
seeing some light.
BTW-- if my Prodigy system has me "labelled" as a Spammer, would it be
just easier to get a new username and email with them?
I will keep you posted.
John P.
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
31 Aug 2005 20:47 PDT
Hello Theta-ga
I am muffed!!
I just resent an email that has my speaking engagements in it to
myself and to my Hotmail account. Neither received it.
I have been working with a Prodigy tech and they have not solved my problem.
I think I will print out all that has been written and go over it again.
Prodigy says that there are no "black lists"!.
John
|
Clarification of Question by
pendleton-ga
on
05 Sep 2005 20:59 PDT
Theta-ga or whoever.
I think I have a new lead. If I send myself a test email using prodigy.net.mx
it will not come to my Outlook Inbox.
However, if I access my account with Prodigy via the Internet, THERE IT IS.
So why does it not come into Outlook?
John P.
|
