e-mails to btinternet addresses

[Allan Lupton]

This may be a little local difficulty but I've had trouble getting e-mails to some correspondents who have btinternet addresses.
I sent an e-mail to two addresses and the bounce message (with addresses replaced by [] ) was:
[] SMTP error from remote server for TEXT command, host: mx.bt.lon5.cpcloud.co.uk (65.20.0.49) reason: 554 Message rejected: Policy (1.7.1.1) message looks like SPAM. Guide for bulk senders []

Two addresses isn't "bulk" in my view, but I tried each on its own and got

The following message to [] was undeliverable.The reason for the problem: 554 Message rejected: Policy (1.7.1.1) message looks like SPAM. Guide for bulk senders []Am I being thick or have I stumbled on a known problem?
Oh, I use Thunderbird under Windoze XP and talktalk is the ISP concerned.

[dazdaz1]

Best I can do is give you the free phone number 'BT internet help'
0800 1114567

[Wodrick]

This is common and random, if you play you will find that you can have a rejection, immediately resend and it will pass through. Another ploy is to send with gmail, that always gets through, although, like the OP my preference is Thunderbird.
W10 & thunderbird. ISP is BT!

[Allan Lupton]

Thanks for replies!
I have tried re-sending without success. A friend suggested my subject line may have looked like spam to btinternet (it was a five-letter abbreviation in caps.) so I tried expanding the subject line into a couple of words and (so far after 21 mins.) no bounce message.

[jimtherev]

As Wodders says, this is completely random. I regularly send out rostering group emails and have discovered that btinternet sometimes bounces them - notifying me hours or days later - and sometimes doesn't. Didn't like me email address - or rather doesn't like the organisation hosting my domain. Have abandoned that host and signed up with another - now goes smoothly....




so far.

[Guest 112233]

I deliberately EM'd my self just to check.

All seems OK is it possible that one of your recipients IP Addresses has been flagged as a SPAM relay ?

I have had this happen in the past to me.

CAT III

[Wodrick]

One of my 'regulars' is my brother the other is a community newsletter that is delivered to my g-mail address which is then forwarded to my BT address and rejected. Obviously BT are no help as ever.

[crablab]

Isn't @btinternet a Yahoo account?

[Guest 112233]

BT split off their E Mail servicing from YAHoo but I would need to confirm if BT were still using Yahoo during the great theft of customer Data.

CATIII - One for BT to answer.

[Allan Lupton]

Thanks for replies!
I have tried re-sending without success. A friend suggested my subject line may have looked like spam to btinternet (it was a five-letter abbreviation in caps.) so I tried expanding the subject line into a couple of words and (so far after 21 mins.) no bounce message.
18 hours later and no bounce messages from either addressee and a reply from one, so that seems to have fixed it!
Not sure that the yahoos (or the Houyhnhnms for that matter) have anything to do with it!

[EGTE]

The vast majority of btinternet.com email addresses are - and always have been - with Yahoo. Some, however, are with another email provider. The transfer from Yahoo to the other provider did not go well so further transfers were stopped at least 2, possibly 3, years ago.

Anyone logging into their BT Yahoo mail via the bt.com website recently will have seen warnings to change their passwords and other security information. Emails were sent to all BT Yahoo customers when the Yahoo breach was disclosed several months ago. I bet the majority of recipients ignored the advice though!

The problem with some email providers rejecting email as spam is usually caused by "SPF" (Sender Policy Framework).
SPF uses the "reputation" of the sender's email provider's IP address to determine whether or not an email is spam. As thousands of email users will share the same IP address it only takes one email user who sends out spam to tarnish the IP address reputation. Thus, for a short while, emails might be rejected as spam during the period that the IP address is blacklisted. Lots about it on the web if you want to search for it.