Spam Resource: All Things Deliverability

Based on page views, here's what was most popular on Spam Resource throughout 2015. (I'm sensing a theme...) Ask Al: My email address is being used in spam! Email address forgery is still a big deal, as measured by the number of people finding their way to my blog b…

SendGrid's Kirill Popov left a most helpful and timely comment on my previous DMARC record-related post . He writes: "Even if you're *reasonably* sure that you have done all the diligence above and do not expect a lot of rejects, make sure your RUF and RUA addresse…

RRVS (the Require-Recipient-Valid-Since Header Field) as documented in RFC 7293 seems like a neat idea. It was designed by Yahoo and Facebook folks with the best of intentions. But as an identify theft prevention measure, I am worried that it really falls short. Here's th…

Auto-forwarding mail today is kind of a pain in the butt. If a domain has a p=reject DMARC policy, mail from somebody at that domain likely gets blocked if you try to forward it on to, say, a Gmail account. Even if a domain doesn't have a p=reject DMARC policy, your "…

The French ISP Orange  is shutting down email service on the domain voila.fr . Service is expected to end on January 15, 2016. At some point after this date, expect any email to voila.fr addresses to be rejected. The online shutdown  FAQ  explains (in French) that users have an…

Chairman and CEO Matt Blumberg just announced that Return Path is now sixteen years old ! Congrats to everyone over at Return Path. That's a long time in the email game. Lots of other companies have come and gone in the email and reputation space since then and Return Path&…

I've had a few folks ask recently: "Are the domains yahoo.com.cn and yahoo.cn truly retired?" After all, XNND Domain Intelligence shows them as valid for accepting mail, meaning they have proper MX records configured and there seems to be servers configured to a…

Here's a common question that I get asked somewhat regularly: "I don't really want to receive or deal with replies to my email messages. Can't I just use a fake email address?" You should never, ever use a fake email address (or an email address with a fak…

Not for long, you're not. Looks like Yahoo is testing code on Yahoo! Mail that would disallow AdBlock users from accessing their webmail platform. Read more over at the Consumerist .

Oracle Marketing Cloud's Kevin Senne reports that Verizon is telling subscribers that verizon.net email addresses unaccessed for 180 days will be deleted. This is yet another reminder that you (senders) can't sit on email addresses for years and still expect them to be…

In November, Google indicated that they're working on a warning indicator to be shown inside of Gmail, indicating when an email message was transmitted over an unencrypted connection. What does it mean when an email message was sent without using an encrypted connection? I…

The one thing, the absolute most important thing to keep in mind when setting up a DMARC p=reject policy is: You have to know all of the sources of all legitimate, desired mail that uses your domain name, before you proceed. If you don't, here's what happens: You turn o…

Various folks have been asking lately if their DKIM key might be "insecure." At least one ISP out there is failing working keys with "verification failed; insecure key" as the error. A number of small, second or third tier ISPs note that the DKIM validation …

First Yahoo. Then AOL. Recently, additional Yahoo domains. Next up? Gmail. DMARC.org announced today that Gmail will move to publish a more restrictive DMARC policy in 2016. Read more over on Word to the Wise . (H/T WTTW)

Want to access your AOL or Outlook.com mail via Yahoo! Mail? Yahoo's got you covered . The deliverability consultant in me wonders exactly how this is accomplished. It might be that only the inbox folders come across and you probably don't get a chance to see anything i…

You may recall that Yahoo implemented a "p=reject" DMARC policy in April, 2014  for their primary yahoo.com domain name. (And AOL did the same for aol.com shortly after.) This changed the email landscape significantly. Among other things, email forwarding, discussion…

I'm not going to lie; I think it's a bit silly. But, I get asked about this pretty darn regularly: How can I put symbols in my subject line? Well, it's kind of  easy. First, you have to know what symbol you want to use, then you just need to know what the right bit …

Over on the Official Gmail Blog, Google's Sri Harsha Somanchi lets us know that Gmail now offers the ability to "block" unwanted senders . Sri explains that after you block someone, any further mail from them will go to the spam folder. He also explains that the n…

Spam filtering still happens, but are blacklists where its at? Yet another one dies today , making for 25+ reports of DNSBL death since 2007 logged over on my sister site, DNSBL Resource .

From Brian Krebs comes the story of the fall and rise of internet hosting firm HostWinds . Founder Peter Holden explains how they came to get enticed into hosting spammers, which seemed very profitable in the short term, but turned out to not be so tenable for the long haul. In…

As reported on Slashdot: "[After recent spam filter changes at Gmail, Linux inventor Linus] Torvalds said his own experience [is] that around 30 per cent of the mail in his spam box turned out not to be spam." I see lots of false positives in my own mailboxes as well,…

I registered the domain spamresource.com on December 31, 2000 and in the year 2001 first used it as a platform to publish my thoughts and opinions on spam-related topics (hand coding the HTML all along the way). Throughout 2004 and 2005, I also used the domain name to house an…

Electronic Frontier Foundation's Jeremy Malcolm and Mitch Stoltz published an article yesterday quite reasonably expressing concern over a proposal in front of ICANN that would limit use of "domains by proxy"-style WHOIS privacy for domain registration services. …

It's been a little over a year since Yahoo and AOL implemented restrictive "p=reject" DMARC policies, saying you essentially aren't allowed to use their domains outside of their infrastructure. Death to mailing lists was predicted; but what seems to have act…

Return Path's Tom Sather explains when it's OK to use a shared IP address . Basically, when your volume is very low. He suggests that the cutoff be 50,000 messages a month -- below that level, you should be on a shared IP address. Above that, a dedicated IP address is r…

Over on her Word to the Wise blog, Laura Atkins shares a wonderful list of links to almost every email service provider's policy prohibiting use of bought lists or purchased email addresses. It's funny, working in this business.  A prospective client might say, "w…

According to France-based Deliverability monitoring company DeliverNow, French ISPs Orange, SFR, and Laposte.net have deployed a new spam filtering mechanism powered by Vade Retro . This new filtering will dynamically block senders who have an elevated spam complaint rate. (I …

Josh over at Word to the Wise explains that as Microsoft brings live IPv6 support for its Office365/Exchange Online Protection email platforms, they're mandating that all mail sent over IPv6 must authenticate with either Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DomainKeys Identifie…

If you're trying to send mail to subscribers at clear.net or clearwire.net today, you'll notice that all delivery attempts are being rejected, because wireless data provider Clearwire has retired all email services as of April 15, 2015. Once upon a time, Sprint was …

On March 10th, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) published a new version of the Senders BCP (Best Common Practices) document -- a solid overview and set of recommendations on how to not be a spammer. They're not particularly rough or tough…

In 2014, Yahoo and AOL both implemented strict "p=reject" DMARC policies on their primary domains. This presented challenges to both AOL/Yahoo users and various service providers. Yahoo implemented this new DMARC policy in February. AOL implemented the sample policy …

Ken Magill has the story on initial filings regarding the lawsuit brought by Craig Ames and Robert McGee against Spamhaus in the United Kingdom.

Read all about it over at The Hill. My question is, does this thing have a chance of going anywhere, based on the current gridlock in Congress? I'm doubtful, but we will see.

According to multiple sources , Amazon is starting up a cloud-hosted email service. Called WorkMail, it looks as though it'll be price competitive to similar offerings from Microsoft and Google . Looking into my crystal ball, I assume they'll get some adoption in 201…

What is a list-unsusbcribe header, you might ask? It's an email header, typically hidden from the end user, that includes information that allows the MUA (mail user agent; meaning your email client, email reader, or webmail platform) to submit an unsubscribe request on your…

Mickey writes, "I'm being blocked by AHBL. I own a tax and accounting firm. We send out two newsletters per year to our existing clients using an ESP. We give our clients every opportunity to be removed from the list if they so choose. We do not and have not spammed ev…

As reported on TechCrunch and elsewhere, Yahoo's Chinese email service is no more. Warned all the way back in April, current users of the Chinese version of Yahoo! Mail were given the opportunity to transition their accounts to Alibaba's email service, Alimail . As of J…