Single address being treated as spam even though filtered

[Bryan24]

All emails I receive from a certain single address 'name@sky.com' (I've not used the actual 'name') go into the webmail spam and, therefore, not to my Outlook mail client.

I've set a rule to send all spam to my inbox, which it does, except for that particular address which still goes into spam.

I've also set a rule that says 'From, Condition (that email address), Action (File into Inbox) which also does not solve the problem.

If I mark the message as 'Not Spam' it seems to temporarily go to the Inbox but finds it's way back to spam!!!

Any ideas please. Thanks

[Graham_A]

The colour flag will only be attached if the filter has moved the post from the Inbox. Messages put directly into the spam folder by the VM mail system will not be flagged by the filter. 

[Bryan24]

Hi Graham

I agree. In fact it was suggested to me to arrange the colour marker to prove that the messages were not going into the Inbox and then being transferred. So that's proved the messages are going direct to Spam, even though I've made a Spam filter for ALL Spam messages to go to my Inbox.

We cannot work out why only these particular messages from the one address are insisting to go direct to Spam. This has been happening for some months. That person's address seems to have been singled out to do that which is very annoying as they are important to me.

I've just looked again in my Outlook client settings and in that Spam folder and with the last of these messages received I've found an option to 'never block the sender' and also to 'never block messages from @sky.com'. I've chosen these options and asked the sender to send me a couple of test messages to see if that will resolve it. Having said that it still wouldn't explain why this sender or address is continually being treated as Spam.

I'll report back with the result.

[用心棒]

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@Graham_A wrote:

The colour flag will only be attached if the filter has moved the post from the Inbox. Messages put directly into the spam folder by the VM mail system will not be flagged by the filter. 

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That is correct and in this case a combination of:

• ☰ > Settings > ▸ Email > Spam Settings > Turn off all SPAM filtering being set
• filter rule having a single action of Set colour flag 

should have resulted in the email remaining in the Inbox folder unless:

1. Other filter rules are being matched:
   ▷ Do you have more that one active rule listed?
   ▷ Could these other rules account for the email being moved to the Spam folder?
2. Other email clients are filtered the emails to the Spam folder

The forum team (@ModTeam) need to further investigate those emails that were delivered directly to the Spam folder, i.e. colour flag remained unset — either the bug not honouring the Spam Setting needs to be fixed or the false positive detection of the email as Spam needs to be corrected.

[Bryan24]

I don't think that there are other rules causing a conflict.

However, I'm now waiting for the sender to send me test messages, having chosen new options in my Outlook client as mentioned in my last reply.

Thanks as ever for your help.

[coenoby]

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@用心棒 wrote:

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@Graham_A

The forum team (@ModTeam) need to further investigate those emails that were delivered directly to the Spam folder, i.e. colour flag remained unset — either the bug not honouring the Spam Setting needs to be fixed or the false positive detection of the email as Spam needs to be corrected.

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@ModTeam  @Bryan24 

Just to add for completeness that there is one situation where the Spam Setting is always over-ridden. It is documented here https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-mail-email-spam-settings

Down towards the bottom of that page VM say:

Additional Sender checks

• As well as the SPAM filters, we also check the email has come from the sender that is shown in the email. This is done using sender records in use by most email providers.
• If we believe the email may not be from the sender shown, we’ll place the message into the SPAM folder.
• Sender checks are done even when you’ve added a sender to your contacts, or when you’ve turned SPAM filtering off completely.

So my understanding is that if an incoming email fails VM's SPF authentication checks it will be flagged as spam and go into the spam folder even if spam filtering has been turned off for that VM email account.

It may not be the explanation in this case unless VM are sending all sky.com emails to spam! Or possibly there is something odd about the way this sky.com sender has their email client set up which results in their emails being sent but  which makes VM think they are suspicious?

Coenoby

[ALF28]

spam settings in web mail

The advice  to deliver spam to the inbox should work in the web mail settings, or turn of spam tagging. The cause may be by using an email client office 365 this may be detecting spam content and over-riding the virgin email spam setting.

When I used an email client I also had that type of thing happen, as the email client has it's own server and software so clashes can occur between the two systems. I actually removed my email client and use web mail only and all spam goes to my inbox without any problem.

If you de-activate the email client by removing the password and try web mail only to see if the sky.com email still goes to the spam folder.

If an email goes to spam then spam content has been detected for some reason, unusual that a sky.com email would be spam unless it was a spoofed version and not a genuine sky.com email.

One way to test this is to forward the email to another provider such as gmail.com or outlook.com and see if this is still going to spam in another provider.

I suggest you look at the spam settings in the office 365 email account.

I always choose tag as spam and deliver to the inbox, so I do not get mistakes going to the spam folder, but spam is identified as  <spam> which appears in the subject line. To avoid conflict you may have to tweak or turn off spam detection in office 365.

see- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/configure-your-spam-filt...

Another solution would be to switch your contact email with sky.com to another provider such as outlook.com, as you have office 365 you may have a microsoft account email outlook.com that can be used rather than using virgin email, and sky will have their own email I presume which may be yahoo.

alf28

[Bryan24]

Many thanks coenoby

I can understand the point being made but is there any way to get around it.

Going back to basics and putting custom filters aside it comes down to why, when I've asked all spam to go to me Inbox does this particular one become the exception.

At the moment I'm waiting for the sender to email with a couple of test messages after having tweaked something within Outlook client.

There's nothing that I can see as being sinister in either the Subject or the text of the messages as they're about dates when we're meeting to play music.

Is there anyone within VM who can look into the source code of these messages if I were to give the full address of the sender.

Bryan24

[Bryan24]

Hi alf28

Many thanks for your message.

I have tweaked Outlook yesterday with an option I found in the Spam folder and am waiting for the sender to give me a couple of test messages.

In VM, as I've previously said, I have filtered for all Spam to go to my Inbox, which it does and is identified as such in the subject line, except for messages from this particular sender. Her husband, using his address in the ...@sky.com account sent me a message which went straight to my Inbox. Bizarrely my reply to that went to his Spam folder!!

As I've just said to coenoby is there someone in VM who can have a look at the source code in one of these messages to see if that provides a clue. I'll also try forwarding to another account provider.

I don't know how much time I can give to this today.

Bryan24

[Bryan24]

Hi again

I've forwarded a message to my gmail account and also to my VM account.

It has arrived in the Inbox of both!

Bryan24

[coenoby]

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@Bryan24 wrote:
Her husband, using his address in the ...@sky.com account sent me a message which went straight to my Inbox.

It would be interesting to know which route they used to send these emails. Was it:

 a) from an email client or app such as Outlook, or

 b) using the Sky / Yahoo webmail service  from the Sky website https://skyid.sky.com/signin/email ?

If your contact is using a) but his wife sent the test message from b)  there is a big clue right there.

Bizarrely my reply to that went to his Spam folder!!

That seems to be a long standing ongoing VM issue with Yahoo (which is the email service Sky uses) and AOL where all emails from VM are apparently being flagged as spam.

is there someone in VM who can have a look at the source code in one of these messages to see if that provides a clue.

Feel free to post the source records for a Sky email that was sent to spam along with the source from one of the test emails sent using the same sky address but which went to your inbox. Just make sure that you edit out the name part of any email addresses (the part before the @ symbol) and any text before posting.

I'll also try forwarding to another account provider.

Unless you send it to an aol or yahoo address I would expect that will appear in the inbox as well.😉

Coenoby

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