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bobdowdeswell's avatar
bobdowdeswell
Just browsing
23 days ago
Solved

Intermittent failure when sending emails

I regularly see a failure when trying to send an email message. I have not kept a detailed diary but my recollection is that this only started since I moved to Windows 11. My email client is Outlook. The failure does not occur on all messages, perhaps 20% and, if I persist, I can eventually send the message. There is always the same techy failure description. Here is one example:

SmtpSubmissionPermanent5XXException: Smtp submission failed. Server 'smtp.virginmedia.com' Port '465'. --> Unexpected SMTP server response. Expected: 235, actual: 525, whole response: 525 5.7.13 Authentication Denied (VM321)

Failure code: dcfa

Can some smart techy person please tell me how to address this. 

  • bobdowdeswell​  "Authentication Denied (VM321)"

    VM321 is a very specific VM error code.

    It means that there have been too many invalid authorisation attempts to access your email account and send email in the last hour. As a result VM have put a temporary block on your account to protect it from being misused, by a hacker, for example.

    By "invalid attempts" they mean attempts to access the VM email account that VM have rejected for some reason, such as using the wrong password for example. 

    That explains what the error message means but not why there should be periods when someone or something is causing the invalid attempts to send emails.

    Coenoby

     

     

10 Replies

  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    Very Insightful Person

    bobdowdeswell​  "Authentication Denied (VM321)"

    VM321 is a very specific VM error code.

    It means that there have been too many invalid authorisation attempts to access your email account and send email in the last hour. As a result VM have put a temporary block on your account to protect it from being misused, by a hacker, for example.

    By "invalid attempts" they mean attempts to access the VM email account that VM have rejected for some reason, such as using the wrong password for example. 

    That explains what the error message means but not why there should be periods when someone or something is causing the invalid attempts to send emails.

    Coenoby

     

     

    • bobdowdeswell's avatar
      bobdowdeswell
      Just browsing

      I initially tried to reply to Gareth via private email but was blocked by the issue I was trying to resolve. I will do as you suggest with regard to passwords

    • bobdowdeswell's avatar
      bobdowdeswell
      Just browsing

      Thanks for your private email. I will do as you suggest. When I log onto my webmail, I see nothing untoward. Where do I find any rules?

    • bobdowdeswell's avatar
      bobdowdeswell
      Just browsing

      Coenoby

      I have just sent this message below to Gareth from the Forum Team.

      I am having multiple interlocking problems here, perhaps largely of my own making. Foolishly I posted a reply to your last message requesting some security information, on the VM support community website. I was unable to reply using Outlook and did not realise that the secure channel I am now using was available.Coenoby advised me to change all passwords but, in order to do this, I needed to gain full access to myvirginmedia account but I am blocked in passing any security check, probably by the hacker.
      My attempts to respond to the email asking me for confirmation of my identity fail to work. I did find myself in the path where I was asked for an answer to my security question but this was not accepted as correct. (It is not something I would have forgotten!) I could not answer a question about my last virgin media bill because I cannot access my account and I do not hold any paper records.
      It looks like a need a Virgin technician to call me to sort out these issues.
      I am presently running a full system scan with Bitdefender to see it this identifies the malware and I will attempt to communicate with friends to ask them to use my gmail account until further notice. I do not know whether you can do anything useful where you sit but hope that you can give my problem some attention soon.
      I will also to contact virgin support by phone.

  • Hello bobdowdeswell.

    Thanks for your first post and welcome to our community.
    Sorry to hear you're having an issue sending emails. 

    coenoby was correct with the VM321 error code. It is too many attempts to send emails within an hour's time frame 

    I'd like to investigate this for you and see if we can get your email unlocked.
    If you don't mind, I'll need to send you a private message to pass security. 
    If you can check the envelope at the top right of your screen, that would be great. 
    Gareth_L
     

     

    • bobdowdeswell's avatar
      bobdowdeswell
      Just browsing

      Coenoby tells me it was a mistake to provide the information you requested because it will help scammers. What is your view on this? Are you a scammer

  • Gareth,

    My email had been hacked. Thanks to the good people at [removed], it is now, I believe, sorted. I think you can mark my problem as solved.

    [Mod - name removed for security]