Re: Email error code 553

Rick83 · ‎16-09-2023

I send a weekly email with a news sheet attachment to a group of approx 50 people using bcc for confidentiality reasons. I have recently had great difficulty getting it away and receive an Error 553 message. Can anybody help? I'm tearing what little hair I have left! Thanks.

Andy_N · ‎16-09-2023

@Rick83wrote:
I send a weekly email with a news sheet attachment to a group of approx 50 people using bcc for confidentiality reasons. I have recently had great difficulty getting it away and receive an Error 553 message. Can anybody help? I'm tearing what little hair I have left! Thanks.

Hi, welcome to the forums.

A search in this forum for 553 shows that this is a very common error. Seriuosly, your best option is to use a Gmail account (it allows for more than 49 recipients - 100 I believe) and you won't get this error.

I say this every time - there must be a common problem, despite BT investigating each report as though it's new every time and saying each case is unique. This clearly is not the case with the amount of reports. It is a system issue.

Use Gmail.

Rick83 · ‎16-09-2023

Thanks Andy, I'll give that ago.

Rick83 · ‎01-10-2023

I seem to have solved the problem. Thought I would post it here as it might help somebody else and it will be to everybody's amusement.
I tried Andy's suggestion and used a gmail account and the email and attachments went out OK but it was rejected as spam from all 10 of the 60+ recipients who were using btinternet. BT have obviously got an overzealous spam filter. However I got a friend who was also on btinternet to send out the identical email and it went out no problem. The only difference was the senders email address. My surname is Ramsbottom. Yes you've guessed it!
I've tried it with a different address without my surname and again no problem.
So the BT system must be checking the senders email address for possible spam, which is unfortunate for us with names which can be misconstrued.

Andy_N · ‎06-10-2023

@Rick83wrote:
I seem to have solved the problem. Thought I would post it here as it might help somebody else and it will be to everybody's amusement.
I tried Andy's suggestion and used a gmail account and the email and attachments went out OK but it was rejected as spam from all 10 of the 60+ recipients who were using btinternet. BT have obviously got an overzealous spam filter. However I got a friend who was also on btinternet to send out the identical email and it went out no problem. The only difference was the senders email address. My surname is Ramsbottom. Yes you've guessed it!
I've tried it with a different address without my surname and again no problem.
So the BT system must be checking the senders email address for possible spam, which is unfortunate for us with names which can be misconstrued.

Interesting idea, however I would say that it's a coincidence. The other reports seem to have been cleared by "technicians" individually due to reasons unknown. Somehow it seems like random users are affected by a system not fit for purpose and blocks various items for that account only. It could be that the system sees a potential issue, maybe based on spammers using the address or similar "known" signatures.

It should simply not be based on words with possible hidden meanings. Of course, end users can easily set their own anti-spam measures by having a list of words not to be included in any received emails. That can have side affects.

Rick83 · ‎07-10-2023

I'm afraid I have great difficulty in believing it is a coincidence.

I have now got two gmail accounts. The address of one contains my surname the other doesn't. When I use the one without my surname I have no problem. When I use the email address with my surname and send the identical email with the identical attachments and to the same email addresses in bcc it is rejected by all recipients which are using btinternet (all 10 out of a total of 61).

I have repeated the exercise this morning - same thing. Surely no coincidence.