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Email address blacklisted

Stanl
Dialled in

Today I tried to send an email but it wouldn’t leave my Outbox.
Having had a similar experience several years ago I guessed my email had been blacklisted. 

I used SpamHaus which said my email was not blacklisted.

I then used DNS checker which said I was blacklisted on dnsbl.spfbl.net whatever that is.

I have changed the password on the email account in question, but I don’t really know what to do now.

How do I get delisted as I don’t do spam and I have a massive list of blocked emails in my blocked recipients list because they just seem to get through VM email filter system with incredible ease.

Help getting delisted would be appreciated 

27 REPLIES 27

用心棒
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

It would be helpful to see what, if any, error code is returned by the SMTP server in this situation. From a desktop or laptop device open a Command Shell in Window or otherwise a Terminal. and enter the following where username:password is replaced with your email address and password, i.e. richard.branson@virginmedia.com:Y54kpX5g:

curl -v smtps://smtp.virginmedia.com -u username:password

Do not post the resulting output here but instead review it for possible reported causes and then post just the redacted part here or the VM error code; choosing to ignore this advice and posting the output here unredacted or incorrectly redacted may reveal your email address, password and / or public IP Address.

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coenoby
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Stanl wrote:

I used SpamHaus which said my email was not blacklisted.

I then used DNS checker which said I was blacklisted on dnsbl.spfbl.net whatever that is.


 

When you ran that DNS check did you get this message or something-else?:

  • "This IP has been flagged because it is dynamic or by suspect to be domestic use only.
  • If you are running an email service on this IP, ask ISP to change the rDNS."

The thing is that all domestic Virgin Media broadband customers would most likely come up with that result. My IP address certainly does.

If that is the result you saw, it means the reason that your IP address is on that list, is not because it is suspected of sending spam. As it says, it is listed there because that IP address should not host an email server and be running an email service.

So, I cannot see why VM would be blocking your VM emails simply because your IP is on that blocklist,

The only time it would be a problem is if you are hosting an email server on your VM domestic network. All VM domestic IP addresses are Dynamic and if you host your own email server you should be using a Static IP address using VM's business service.

If you are simply using an email service such as VM's own email, Gmail, Outlook.com etc, (either via an online webmail service or using an email app or client) then the fact that your IP address is on that blocklist will have no impact on you at all.

It will be interesting to see what VMnnn error code you find when you run the check that @用心棒 suggests.

Coenoby

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Molly_T
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi Stanl, 👋 welcome back to the community! Thank you for posting and bringing this issue with your email to our attention - sorry this has happened!

Would you be able to let us know if the email is stuck in your outbox whilst using our webmail service 👉 https://virg.in/webmail or a Clientmail service? (Eg Outblook, Applemail etc)

If you can also please let us know if you were able to try the checks requested by other members of the community, as this will help us isolate the issue. Thank you for your patience whilst we investigate! 
All the best 🌞

Molly

I hope I redacted everything correctly and this is the response I got.

C:\*********>curl -v smtps://smtp.virginmedia.com -u

*   Trying ***********

* Connected to smtp.virginmedia.comport 465 (#0)

* schannel: disabled automatic use of client certificate

< 220 csmtp3.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net cmsmtp ESMTP server ready

> EHLO LAPTOP

< 250-csmtp3.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net hello [**.**.**.**], pleased to meet you

< 250-HELP

< 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN

< 250-SIZE 52000000

< 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES

< 250-PIPELINING

< 250-8BITMIME

< 250 OK

> AUTH PLAIN

< 334

[MOD EDIT:PERSONAL INFORMATION REMOVED]

< 525 5.7.13 Authentication Denied (VM305)

* Closing connection 0

* schannel: shutting down SSL/TLS connection with smtp.virginmedia.com port 465

curl: (67) Login denied

[MOD EDIT: Personal and private information has been removed from this post. Please do not post personal or private information in your public posts. Please review the Forum Guidelines]

The email sends without any problem in the webmail.

MS Outlook will not send any email it is just sitting in the outbox.

I deleted the account from Outlook and it now won't let me set it up again on my laptop, presumably because my email is blacklisted.

It is now appearing on 2 lists dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net and dnsbl.sorbs.net I don't understand why this is or how to fix it.

用心棒
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Stanl wrote:

I hope I redacted everything correctly and this is the response I got.

C:\*********>curl -v smtps://smtp.virginmedia.com -u

*   Trying ***********

* schannel: shutting down SSL/TLS connection with smtp.virginmedia.com port 465

curl: (67) Login denied


It is regrettable the earlier advice not to post the resulting curl output here was ignored because it has resulted in your email address and password being revealed ― your original post has been edited to remove line revealing this information. As a matter of urgency change the password by:

  • signing into Login to My Virgin Media | Virgin Media
  • select Account settings > Account details > Edit (located adjacent to Password)
  • follow the instructions and Save changes
  • update the password in other email clients that access the account
  • if the password is reused elsewhere amended it there to something else

用心棒
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Stanl wrote:

The email sends without any problem in the webmail.

MS Outlook will not send any email it is just sitting in the outbox.

I deleted the account from Outlook and it now won't let me set it up again on my laptop, presumably because my email is blacklisted.

It is now appearing on 2 lists dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net and dnsbl.sorbs.net I don't understand why this is or how to fix it.


The VM305 error shown in the resulting curl output indicates your network's public IP Address appears on Spamhaus's lists, to confirm this perform the following steps from the device that cannot send:

  1. browse to https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ip&ia=answer and note the Your IP address is value
  2. go to https://www.spamhaus.org/lookup/
  3. enter the Your IP address is value (from step 1) in the Search single IP, domain or hash field and select Lookup
  4. follow the advice offered

NB be aware that if the network is not your home Virgin Media broadband then the public IP Address for that network maybe shared between its users, for example when using a mobile network. In these cases you are unlikely to be responsible for the Spamhaus listing and therefore there is nothing you can do to resolve the issue — the workaround is to (a) use webmail to send emails; (b) connect via another network

Most email clients, like  Outlook, validate a new account's authentication credentials by trying to sign into the server. Unfortunately due to the VM305 error the validation will fail. Resolving the VM305 should resolve the Outlook issue also.

I am not a master in the gobbledygook that gets spat out so had no idea that curl would give details of my email address.

 

SpamHaus reported no issues found.