This topic

Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

Fonant — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:09:27 GMT

I am finding it impossible to send normal one-off email messages to @btinternet.com email addresses, which is causing my business problems.

"Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM"

"(reason: 554 Message rejected on 2021/09/17 16:24:29 BST, policy (3.2.1.1)"

My servers do not send bulk email, and they are not on any public blocklists. I can send mail to any email address apart from @btinternet .com ones. NOT GOOD 😡

Have emailed postmaster@btinternet.com, forwarding the bounce messages, several times. No response at all.

Do I need to ask my customers to stop using BT for their email?

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

gg30340 — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:15:13 GMT

Have a look through this link

BT Email - best practices for postmasters and senders of email | BT Help

Keep emailing the BT postmaster and they should eventually respond, if they don't post back to see if other help can be given.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

Fonant — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:20:59 GMT

Believe me, I've emailed postmaster@bt.com on and off for some months now. Both for bounced emails I've sent and on behalf of customers of mine who have had the same bounce problems.

FWIW, I've run mail servers for over a decade, so I know a little bit about this sort of thing.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

gg30340 — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:28:15 GMT

@Fonant wrote:

FWIW, I've run mail servers for over a decade, so I know a little bit about this sort of thing.

So does that mean you have done all that is mentioned in the link and sub-links?

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

Fonant — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 21:41:58 GMT

Yes.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

gg30340 — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 21:56:42 GMT

In view of the fact you have stated you have been trying to contact the BT Postmaster without success and that you have said that your email system complies with what has been suggested in the link I have notified the moderators of the forum about your problem.

Once they have read this they may be able to help. They are very busy at present so it can take up to 48 hours for them to contact you. They will do this by posting on this thread.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

DavidM — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 07:20:22 GMT

Hi @Fonant and welcome.

Thanks for posting about your email, I'm sorry you're having problems. Can you tell me is this a business account? Which email are you sending from? Is it a btinternet account?

Cheers

David

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

Fonant — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 08:44:07 GMT

I am trying to send email to a customer who has a @btinternet.com email address. The message is unique, not bulk, and is a short message with an invoice PDF attachment. I am not a BT internet customer.

I am sending from my own company mailserver, which is configured with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and which is not listed on any public blocklists.

I have forwarded bounce message to postmaster@btinternet.com several times, but there has been no response. There is no way I can find out why my emails are being classed as SPAM when they are quite obviously not.

If it helps, the bounce details included the message ID:

(reason: 554 Message rejected on 2021/09/17 16:24:29 BST, policy (3.2.1.1) ID (60C2AA5B10FA47CC) - Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM)

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

Fonant — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 09:56:19 GMT

OK, I've now tried sending my customers with BT email address their invoices using my Zen Internet email address and Zen Internet's mail servers.

Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

So perhaps it's the fact that my message has a PDF attachment that's the problem?

EDIT: Renaming the PDF doesn't help.

EDIT: I can send a message that's exactly the same but without the attachment.

EDIT: I do seem to be able to send the same message, with PDF attachment, from my Gmail account.

EDIT: This problem only happens with customers with @btinternet or @btopenworld email addresses. All my many other customers are fine.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

stoem — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 10:42:17 GMT

Has this ever been resolved?

I too run a business and we are having the EXACT same problem. Emails to BTInternet addresses get rejected with 'Looked Like Spam' messages even though they are not spam but either invoice emails or other communications which the customer WANTS to receive.

Did the OP manage to resolve this? I feel like one quick call to a senior BT engineer who can whitelist us as a sender would resolve this. We send using a dedicated IP that is clean, not in any blocklists and has the highest sender reputation possible.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

gg30340 — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 13:44:39 GMT

@stoem wrote:

Has this ever been resolved?

I too run a business and we are having the EXACT same problem. Emails to BTInternet addresses get rejected with 'Looked Like Spam' messages even though they are not spam but either invoice emails or other communications which the customer WANTS to receive.

Did the OP manage to resolve this? I feel like one quick call to a senior BT engineer who can whitelist us as a sender would resolve this. We send using a dedicated IP that is clean, not in any blocklists and has the highest sender reputation possible.

Have you check that you are complying with the information in the link in Message 2 and have you contacted the BT postmaster. If not I suggest that you do that.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

stoem — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 15:08:44 GMT

Yes we have covered all that, use a static IP, have an excellent sender reputation and deliver 99.7% of emails successfully. The last 0.3% of failed messages are almost exclusively hard bounces (misspellings) or BTInternet addresses...
0.3% does not sound much much it is hundreds every week.

I've emailed the BT Postmaster address for advice and possible whitelisting.

As a background, we send messages from our system to (mainly) dance schools students in the UK. It is the dance school themselves that send these messages, usually invoice emails, payment receipts, timetables and general messages. We have no issues with any specific ISP, provider or domain apart from BTInternet.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

PlymouthExpat — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 17:01:43 GMT

This thread seems to have petered out with no real answer to the problem caused by BT’s policy 3.2.1.1. Like every other operator complaining of the issue, I represent an organisation using a private server - with fixed IPv4 and IPv6 addresses - with a requirement to send occasional news messages to our 320+ members, 50 of whom use talk21.com, btinternet.com or btopenworld.com email addresses. I have tried several times to contact postmaster@bt.com but have received no reply. Our server complies with every requirement of the BT guidance linked earlier in this thread. The server has SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly configured. Nevertheless, every email to one of the affected addresses from my SerialMailer app is rejected … although the same message sent from my Mail.app using exactly the same criteria and server is accepted for delivery.

What has BT got against small operators that need to communicate with individuals with BT-hosted addresses?

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

gg30340 — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 18:29:47 GMT

The BT Postmaster is particularly bad at responding to emails timeously so you should keep emailing the BT Postmaster until you do get a reply and they will eventually white list your server if it complies with their criteria.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

PlymouthExpat — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 08:26:43 GMT

Previous posters' experiences that have been elucidated in this thread do not bode well for any improvement in the speed of response from the BT Postmaster! Do you, @gg30340, have any influence within the company? I shall take your advice and continue to send a series of emails on a daily basis, in the hope that someone might actually exist at the end of that email address!

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

gg30340 — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 08:27:15 GMT

I am not employed nor have I ever been employed by BT and I have no influence in any way with the BT company.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

stoem — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:08:15 GMT

@PlymouthExpat I've sent you a PM.

Re: Your message looks like SPAM or has been reported as SPAM (policy 3.2.1.1)

PlymouthExpat — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:28:17 GMT

Yes, @stoem, I noticed that you sent a PM. I now have all the solutions I need, thank you, so shall not be taking you up on your offer. Anything else you wish to add, please add it in this thread.

The BT postmaster team has dealt with the issue and my server is now whitelisted.