Email Blacklisting | checking / fixers *

https://www.benchmarkemail.com/blog/ip-gets-blacklisted/

No one wants to end up on the email blacklist.

If you’re struggling to reach people with your emails, there’s a small (but not insignificant) chance that you’ve somehow found your way onto a spam blacklist. These prevent your emails from ending up in your subscribers’ inboxes, which, as you might expect, is going to have a majorly negative impact on your ability to succeed with email marketing.

There are hundreds of spam blacklists, and unfortunately, they sometimes catch the good guys along with the bad. So how do you know if you’ve been blacklisted? We’ve put together this quick dive into blacklists for email marketers, including how to check if you’ve been blacklisted and what to do if you have.

What is Blacklisting, and Why is it Bad?

An email blacklist is a tool that servers use to decide which emails should be considered spam and which shouldn’t. You have blacklists to thank for why you’re not constantly clearing out fake promos and financial “opportunities” from foreign princes in your inbox. They’re also why you might be struggling to reach your audience.

Essentially, each blacklist serves as a filter that helps servers trap spam and keep it in the junk folder where it belongs, with various ways of parceling out the spam from the other emails being sent. This is why you might know blacklisting by its other common name: spam trapping.

For the most part, blacklists do an excellent job at their intended purpose. But the ways that they decide what’s spam and what’s not means that sometimes well-meaning email marketers can also end up getting (in)boxed out. When this happens, it’s usually due to one of three different specific traps that a marketer has fallen into:

1. 1. Typo traps. If there are lots of typos in the email addresses in your contact list (for example: name@gmial.com instead of name@gmail.com), spam traps are likely to assume that your list and your intentions aren’t so great. A few contact typos shouldn’t harm you, but it does become a concern if it’s happening in excess.
   2. Pristine traps. Another way blacklists trap unsuspecting spammers is by spreading email addresses and domains that don’t actually exist, with the understanding that if someone starts mailing those addresses, it’s because they bought or scraped them — both of which are common among spam accounts.
   3. Recycled spam traps. Beware of emailing dormant contacts. Email addresses that constantly bounce back are flagged as spam trap addresses, which could end up harming you if you’re not paying attention.
   4. Using spam trigger words. In email marketing, there are certain words that, when used, will be marked as spam. Overall, they’re mostly promotional by nature or associated with shady requests and promises. So, beware of the copy you use when putting your emails together.

Another way to end up getting blacklisted is for a lot of your contacts to flag you as spam. This shouldn’t be a concern, though, if you’re practicing proper list etiquette, like maintaining an opt-in-only email list and providing a clear place for people to unsubscribe.

How to Check if You’re Blacklisted

Worried that you might have accidentally gotten yourself on a blacklist?

Because there are more than a hundred blacklists out there, your best bet is to use an aggregate service like MXToolBox to find out if your email address has made its way onto the dark side. Other helpful tools that you might want to try include the Barracuda Reputation Block List, MultiRBL, and Sender Score.

If you’ve somehow found your way onto a blacklist, you’re not totally out of luck. Send the blacklist operator a request asking for your IP address to be removed, and try not to be too defensive, even if you don’t know how you ended up there. Some operators may remove you right away, while others will first ask you to do a few things, such as sending a re-permission request to all of your contacts.

If your domain name or IP Address is blacklisted at any ISP, you need to send them a request to be removed from their blacklist (de-listed).

Here are the basic steps that you should follow for the whitelisting/de-listing procedure at the ISP in question:

1. You should follow the URL links & apply for whitelisting/de-listing using their online form. And/or:
2. You should send an email to the mentioned email address.

Here are Some Common ISPs:

• Comcast:

  • Follow this URL: www.comcastsupport.com/rbl
  • Fill out the online form & submit.

• EarthLink:

  • Send an email to: blockedbyearthlink@abuse.earthlink.net

  • Use the subject line <Blocked ‘insert your email server’s IP’> (example: Blocked 255.255.255.2555)

  • More details are given on these pages:

    • https://earthlink.net/block
    • http://support.earthlink.net/articles/email/email-blocked-by-earthlink.php

• Gmail:

  • Read Gmail’s Bulk Senders Guidelines here: https://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html
  • Then follow this URL for the Bulk Sender Contact Form: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=bulk_send&hl=en
  • Fill out & submit.

• Hotmail:

  • Follow this URL: https://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsmsbl&ct=eformts
  • Click “Contact Us.”

• Verizon:

  • Follow this URL: https://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Blocked-IP-Address-Whitelist-Request/td-p/820064
  • Fill out the online form & submit.

• Yahoo:

  • If you have been blacklisted, visit Yahoo Postmaster
  • Click “Problems Delivering Email”

• Mail.ru:

  • Follow this URL for the Google page translator tool: https://translate.google.com
  • Check “Translate from Russian” and “Translate to English”
  • Enter this link in the form: mail.ru/notspam/ Then and hit Enter or Return.
  • Read and follow the directions on the newly translated page.

• AOL.com:

  • If you have been blacklisted, visit AOL Postmaster
  • Click “Problems Delivering Email”

Blacklist Lists [RBL/DNSBL]:

• Lashback:

  • Follow this URL to find whether your IP is blacklisted: https://blacklist.lashback.com/
  • Input your IP address to request to be delisted.

• BarracudaCentral:

  • Follow this URL to find whether your IP is blacklisted: https://www.barracudacentral.org/lookups
  • Then follow this URL: https://www.barracudacentral.org/rbl/removal-request Fill out the online form & submit

• Spamhaus:

  • Follow this URL to find whether your IP is blacklisted: https://www.spamhaus.org/lookup.lasso
  • Fill out the online form, submit and follow appropriate links.

• Invaluement.com:

  • Follow this URL to find whether your IP is blacklisted: https://dnsbl.invaluement.com/lookup/
  • Fill out the online form & submit.

• Uribl:

  • Follow this URL to find whether your IP is blacklisted: https://lookup.uribl.com/

• Hostkarma blacklist:

  • https://ipadmin.junkemailfilter.com/remove.php
  • Fill out the online form & submit.

• Spamcop:

  • For network and server administers: https://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/298.html
  • For bounce message recipients and end-users: https://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/405.html

• Blacklist IP look-up: https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml

How to Avoid Getting Blacklisted

It’s much easier to stay off of blacklists than to get your address removed once it’s been flagged. Aside from making sure that you don’t fall into spam traps, here are a few other ways to prevent your IP from being blacklisted:

• • Maintain an opt-in list. Never email someone without their permission. An opt-in list may take more time to grow, but it’s much higher quality — and much less likely to get flagged.
  • Remove addresses that bounce. If you get a notice that an email has bounced and/or otherwise been noted as undeliverable, remove it from your list. The more you message these types of addresses, the more likely it becomes that you’ll get blacklisted.
  • Check your contact list for typos. Set aside some time to scroll through your contact list and make sure that everything is input correctly. It could take a while, but it’s worth it for assurance that you’re not sending out dud messages.

• Perform routine maintenance. Prune your email list regularly to ensure no spam accounts, bounced emails, or incorrect emails have made it on there.

• Don’t buy emails. At Benchmark Email, we always preach the importance of building your email list over buying it. When you focus on building it, you use tactics that are safer and yield quality. When you buy, you don’t really know what you’re getting. Oh, also, it’s a violation of GDPR guidelines.
• Verify email addresses. Marc Schenker from The Glorious Company, a copywriting and content marketing agency, uses email verification tools to ensure the emails they’re sending to are legit. Tools he uses include ZeroBounce and Kickbox.

Want to take the guesswork out of staying off of blacklists? Use an email automation tool, like Benchmark Email. Our software integrates with various deliverability tools, which can help you ensure your lists stay clean, your emails make it to the inbox, and overall, you’re doing all you can to avoid getting blacklisted.

https://glockapps.com/blog/remove-ip-address-gmail-blacklist/

One of the common reasons the emails do not reach the target Gmail recipients is the blocking of the email sender by Google. If you are not able to deliver emails to your Gmail subscribers, then this article will surely help you.

Why Google Can Block You

Though Gmail does not disclose their email filtering rules, below are some common reasons why Gmail may reject email coming from your server or send your emails to the spam folder.

If you are doing any of the below things, then you appear to be sending spam. As a result, Gmail may block your server’s IP address.

The most common reasons are:

• Large volumes of emails sent from a new IP address.
• Sudden changes in email volume.
• High bounce rate.
• Spam reports from Gmail users.
• Incorrect DNS Settings.
• Low Sender Score.
• IP listings in public blacklists.

Google may use signals from these public blacklists, so you can start by checking if your IP is on any of them:

pbl.spamhaus.org – includes dynamic and non mail server IP ranges.

sbl.spamhaus.org – includes emails that Spamhaus has identified as spam.

xbl.spamhaus.org – includes bots and exploit agents.

cbl.abuseat.org – includes emails sent to spam traps or reported by their users as spam.

You can use the GlockApps IP Blacklist Checker to run your IPs against these and other blacklists.

Read more: Email Marketer’s Guide: What You Need to Know about Gmail

Your Gmail Blacklist Investigation Process

To identify whether or not your inability to deliver emails to your Gmail users is related to blocking issues, follow the steps below:

• Check your SMTP server logs for 500 errors.
• Check logs for blocks to other ESPs and public blacklists.
• Run an IP blacklist check.
• Use an email spam checker to see your server’s sending reputation.
• Check for user’s bulk forwarding email to Gmail.com and related domains.
• Check for any newsletters or newsgroups that originate from the server.
• Identify any bulk marketing campaigns that may be on the server.
• Verify that authentication records (PTR, DKIM, SPF) are correct.
• Find out if the email volume to Gmail has increased.

If you are blocked by Gmail, your email will be rejected with a 421 or 550 SMTP error.

421 errors indicate temporary blocks and mail servers attempt to resend the emails. If you correct the issue, then these blocks can be resolved automatically. On the other hand, if the issue is left unaddressed, Google may decide to block your email entirely.

Example of a 421 error:

421 4.7.0 [167.89.55.59 15] Our system has detected that this message is suspicious
due to the nature of the content and/or the links within. To best protect our users from spam,
the message has been blocked. Please visit https://support.google.com/mail/answer/188131
for more information. u22si16671234pfl.244 - gsmtp

550 errors are permanent failures. You will have to take some action before Gmail removes your server IP address from their blacklist.

Example of a 550 error:

SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [173.194.71.26]:
550-5.7.1 [194.XXX.XXX.181] Our system has detected an unusual rate of
550-5.7.1 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect our
550-5.7.1 users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been blocked.
550-5.7.1 Please visit http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html to review
550 5.7.1 our Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. k8si8849879lbl.62

Here’s the full list of Gmail error codes:

421, “4.4.5”, Server busy, try again later.
421, “4.7.0”, IP not in whitelist for RCPT domain, closing connection.
421, “4.7.0”, Our system has detected an unusual rate of unsolicited mail originating from your IP address.
421, “4.7.0”, Temporary System Problem. Try again later.
421, “4.7.0”, TLS required for RCPT domain, closing connection.
421, “4.7.0”, Try again later, closing connection.
450, “4.2.1” The user you are trying to contact is receiving mail too quickly.
450, “4.2.1”, The user you are trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that prevents additional messages from being delivered. Please resend your message at a later time. If the user is able to receive mail at that time, your message will be delivered.
451, “4.3.0”, Mail server temporarily rejected message.
451, “4.3.0”, Multiple destination domains per transaction is unsupported. Please try again.
451, “4.4.2”, Timeout – closing connection.
451, “4.5.0”, SMTP protocol violation, see RFC 2821.
452, “4.2.2”, The email account that you tried to reach is over quota.452, “4.5.3”, Domain policy size per transaction exceeded, please try this recipient in a separate transaction.
452, “4.5.3”, Your message has too many recipients.
454, “4.5.0”, SMTP protocol violation, no commands allowed to pipeline after STARTTLS, see RFC 3207.
454, “4.7.0”, Cannot authenticate due to temporary system problem.
454, “5.5.1”, STARTTLS may not be repeated.
501, “5.5.2”, Cannot Decode response.
502, “5.5.1”, Too many unrecognized commands, goodbye.
502, “5.5.1”, Unimplemented command.
502, “5.5.1”, Unrecognized command.
503, “5.5.1”, “EHLO/HELO first.
503, “5.5.1”, MAIL first.
503, “5.5.1”, RCPT first.
503, “5.7.0”, No identity changes permitted.
504, “5.7.4”, Unrecognized Authentication Type.
530, “5.5.1”, Authentication Required.
530, “5.7.0”, Must issue a STARTTLS command first.
535, “5.5.4”, Optional Argument not permitted for that AUTH mode.
535, “5.7.1”, Application-specific password required.
535, “5.7.1”, Please log in with your web browser and then try again.
535, “5.7.1”, Username and Password not accepted.
550, “5.1.1”, The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient’s email address for typos or unnecessary spaces.
550, “5.2.1”, The email account that you tried to reach is disabled.
550, “5.2.1”, The user you are trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that prevents additional messages from being delivered.
550, “5.4.5”, Daily sending quota exceeded.
550, “5.7.0”, Mail relay denied.
550, “5.7.0”, Mail Sending denied.
550, “5.7.1”, Email quota exceeded.
550, “5.7.1”, Invalid credentials for relay.
550, “5.7.1”, Our system has detected an unusual rate of unsolicited mail originating from your IP address.
550, “5.7.1”, Our system has detected that this message is likely unsolicited mail. To reduce the amount of spam sent to Gmail, this message has been blocked.
550, “5.7.1”, The IP you’re using to send mail is not authorized to send email directly to our servers. Please use the SMTP relay at your service provider instead.
550, “5.7.1”, The user or domain that you are sending to (or from) has a policy that prohibited the mail that you sent. Please contact your domain administrator for further details.
550, “5.7.1”, Unauthenticated email is not accepted from this domain.
552, “5.2.2”, The email account that you tried to reach is over quota.
552, “5.2.3”, Your message exceeded Google’s message size limits.
553, “5.1.2”, We weren’t able to find the recipient domain. Please check for any spelling errors, and make sure you didn’t enter any spaces, periods, or other punctuation after the recipient’s email address.
554, “5.6.0”, Mail message is malformed. Not accepted.
554, “5.6.0”, Message exceeded 50 hops, this may indicate a mail loop.
554, “5.7.0”, Too Many Unauthenticated commands.
555, “5.5.2”, Syntax error.

See the full list of the Gmail’s SMTP error codes here

How to Request Removal from Gmail’s Blacklist

If you send legitimate bulk emails and get bounces with the 400 error code, you need to go through Google’s Bulk Sender Guidelines and then complete the Bulk Sender Contact Form

Going through Bulk Sender Guidelines pay attention to these sections:

• Authentication;
• Subscription and unsubscribing;
• Proper email formatting;
• Third-party senders and affiliate marketing programs.

After you made sure you are following all the best practices, you can proceed to fill out a Bulk Sender Contact Form.

In a Bulk Sender Contact Form, you will have to follow these steps:

1. Fill out your name, email address, and the reason: message incorrectly classified as spam, SMTP temp-fails or rejects, or other (there is a field to specify what exactly).
2. Press ‘Next’ to see the second screen. Here you will have to write two versions of your problem – a short one and a detailed one.
3. It is also required to add headers from messages you sent to a Gmail or Google app user and that was marked as spam/phishing. The fresher the message the better, but it can’t be older than 12 days. Now you can submit your form.

Note, that usually Gmail does not reply to the submission so don’t worry, they process the submitted form, although it may take up to 15 days.

Also, it is recommended that you sign up for a Google postmaster account and check your sending domain reputation with Google. You will get access to several dashboards: Spam Rate Dashboard, Domain and IP Reputation Dashboard, Feedback Loop Dashboard (only for senders who implemented the Gmail Spam Feedback Loop), Authentication Dashboard, Delivery Errors Dashboard.

Want to know about a blacklisting problem the moment it occurs? I recommend using the IP Reputation Monitoring at GlockApps. This way you’ll receive instant notifications when an issue appears and start delisting before it turns into a serious problem.

With GlockApps Uptime Monitor free trial, you get:

• 15 Monitors;
• 1-minute monitoring intervals;
• HTTP/TCP/TLS Monitors;
• SPF/DKIM/DMARC Monitors;
• IP Reputation Monitor;
• Instant notifications.