This topic

Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

GG44 — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 13:58:01 GMT

I use ‘gmail’ to send messages. I have a mailing list of approximately 280 recipients who I message about once a week. On the 18th November 2023 I sent my usual email and all the messages to BT addresses were returned to with the message:

The response from the remote server was:

554 Message rejected for policy reasons (2.1.2.3) on 2023/11/18 10:03:05 GMT

The message was accepted by all other addresses and only rejected by the ‘bt internet’ addresses (about 60). I have been sending emails this way for years without any problems.

I have since tried several times to send to individual ‘bt internet’ addresses and they all come back with the same message.

I have spoken to BT twice and they both said it was a ‘google’ problem and not BT which I now understand is incorrect. I am nearly 80 so not too good with the technical stuff. Can anybody help?

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

Andy_N — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 14:22:14 GMT

Hi, welcome to the forums.

BT told you wrong. It is 100% a BT problem.

There really isn't much you can do I'm afraid. Though you can try individual ones and alter some of the email, like removed any links - send and see. Remove any attachments - send and see. Do this for other items including altering the Subject title - though no idea what you might like to leave out.

The fact that it's been fine for a long time, then suddenly it's failing is clearly a BT issue as no other addresses had the same fault (which you've not said, but effectively implied).

I assume you're sending using Bcc:, and are you putting your own email address in the To: field?

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

GG44 — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 14:33:16 GMT

Hi Distinguished Guru,

Yes I did send the email by BCC and put myself in the 'To' field.

The message to all other addresses was delivered correctly, only 'btinternet' affected.

GG44

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

JohnC2 — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 16:04:42 GMT

Hi @GG44, sorry you're having this issue.
Are you sending the email from webmail www.bt.com/email?
Or are you using an email client like Outlook? if so does the same thing happen on webmail?
Cheers

John

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

licquorice — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 16:18:51 GMT

The OP is using Gmail to send to BT recipients

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

JohnC2 — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 16:24:28 GMT

Hi @GG44, check out BT Email - best practices for postmasters and senders of email | BT Help and if you need further help contact the Postmaster via the link on that page.

@licquorice thanks for spotting that and letting me know. It's been a long day lol

Cheers

John

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

PG71 — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 16:52:53 GMT

Hi JohnC2,

To elaborate a little more (OP, GG44 is my Dad). I'm a software developer by day. I'm familiar with email protocols however the message 554 Message rejected for policy reasons (2.1.2.3) is terribly vague. I've not been able to find the definition of policy 2.1.2.3.

What I'm suspecting has happened is one or more of the BT recipients have marked one of the emails as spam, thus flagging him as a spammer. He's just using the standard Gmail browser client, using Bcc and his own address as mentioned.

Messages sent to the bt postmaster have gone unanswered. Attempting to send single simple emails to any one of the bt recipients of the mailing list get sent back with the same return message.

Thanks,

PG71

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

GG44 — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 17:11:15 GMT

Hi JohnC2,

Reading other threads it appears 'The postmaster' never replies to anyone!!!

GG44

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

PG71 — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 07:52:03 GMT

Hi @JohnC2

Thanks for pointing out the best practices page. I've had a read through it. The first part that talks about SPF, PTR and DKIM applies primarily to someone who manages their own domain name. I'm pretty sure google have got theirs setup correctly already. In @GG44's case it's just an email from a gmail address sent via gmail's web page.

Secondly, as already stated, postmaster@btinternet.com has been informed, but we've not had an answer yet.

All the emails are in standard gmail html text. There are no links or images. None of the text is even similar to a typical spam, they're just local rugby club newletters with dates/times of fixtures.

Even sending to 1 btinternet recipient is now getting returned.

Any help or contact from a btinternet representative would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,

PG71

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

Andy_N — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 11:28:34 GMT

@PG71wrote:
Hi @JohnC2
Thanks for pointing out the best practices page. I've had a read through it. The first part that talks about SPF, PTR and DKIM applies primarily to someone who manages their own domain name. I'm pretty sure google have got theirs setup correctly already. In @GG44's case it's just an email from a gmail address sent via gmail's web page.
Secondly, as already stated, postmaster@btinternet.com has been informed, but we've not had an answer yet.
All the emails are in standard gmail html text. There are no links or images. None of the text is even similar to a typical spam, they're just local rugby club newletters with dates/times of fixtures.
Even sending to 1 btinternet recipient is now getting returned.
Any help or contact from a btinternet representative would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks all,
PG71

I'm afraid there is very little you can do as you're not a BTinternet user as such. If one of the btinternet users marked the email as spam, then it's possible the sending email address has been effectively blocked. Can you try sending to one of the BTinternet addresses using a different Gmail address (or any other email address), explaining the issue.

I assume that all of the recipients actually want the emails, and have been added to a list with their consent. Also if anyone has requested not to receive anything, hopefully those requests have been actioned.

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

PG71 — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 17:07:03 GMT

Hi @Andy_N,
Technically @GG44 is a BTInternet broadband user, but has never used the bt internet email adress that I imagine is included by default. So, what I'm thinking he can do is
- Create or activate his bt internet email.
- Export the list of bt email recipients from gmail
- Import them in to bt internet email (or a SMTP client setup for btinternet email, like Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever.)
- Ensure his emails contain a note with how to unsubscribe (I'm afraid it's totally manual today)
- Send his newsletters to BT recipients using this account, ideally to small batches of recipients say 3 lots of 20.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Thanks,
PG71

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

licquorice — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 17:19:17 GMT

Not really.

There's 2 snags.

1. It is no longer possible to create new btinternet email addresses

2. You might still encounter the problem anyway

It would be simpler to create another Gmail address and see if he gets the same problem with that

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

PG71 — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 17:34:18 GMT

Ok thanks @licquorice I'll help him do that. I imagine he'd have to swap over to the new gmail account and send directly from there. Unless, perhaps the new gmail address could be setup to auto forward to the bt accounts.
Or maybe that risks triggering more blacklisting!

Crazy the hoops we have to jump through due to spammers 😕

I'll get reading...

Re: Error 554 btinternet emails blocked

gg30340 — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 19:18:23 GMT

It is unlikely that all the BT email recipients will have blocked your father's email address but this might be worth a try.

Can your father contact at least one of the BT email recipients that is not getting the gmail to add the gmail address to their "Safe Senders" list by logging onto their BTMail account using a browser, not an email client/app, and then click on their username at the right hand side.

Select "Settings" then go to the left hand side and select "Mail". Scroll down and click on "Safe Senders" and add your father's gmail address to that.

While there they could also check their "Blocked Senders" list to ensure that the gmail address has not been blocked and also that the gmail domain has not been blocked. If they have been they need to unblock them by scrolling down the list until they find them and select it then click on "delete".

After they have done the above your father should try sending a small email to that individual.

If it now gets through he should send an email via a different email address to all the affected BT email addresses and ask them to do the same.