Virginmedia blocking suspected spam which is actually genuine email

[kevinh]

VM delays or blocks some email before it gets to webmail. That means I have no way of receiving what I know is genuine email. Users can't whitelist domain names to bypass this either, unlike with most email providers. Delayed email gets through, but possibly too late if it's a timed verification link. Blocked email simply never appears.

Yesterday I had to reset an online account password, but I never received the emailed reset link despite repeated attempts. The account support team can't do anything about this and now I can't access my account. Why does VM behave in this way towards it's customers? Clearly they use strong email filtering but it isn't perfect and it should be in the customers control to switch it off in an attempt to receive suspected spam email that they know is not spam.

[kevinh]

This has happened again just now from another password verification link, totally unconnected to yesterday's occurrence. Have VM tightened up spam detection algorithms? If so life is going to get very awkward if email verification links stop working.

[ALF28]

The virgin media email does block some domains, I cannot send an email to myself from mail.com, it does not block gmail, I have tested that and many spammers now use gmail as they are not blocked.

I have myself posted on this issue of email blocking, but there were no answers from the community/forum

By doing my own tests, it proved virgin email does block some domains and a message that the email not delivered due to spam listings of the ip address range used by the mail client. (spamhause)

Virgin should not be blocking any personal emails, they should let all emails through that are not blacklisted in settings.

It means that genuine emails may not get through, but spam does get through, the opposite of what should happen.

I suggest you do few tests and would be wise to have alternative emails and switch to them to ensure things like account recovery emails will always work.

I find any of the free emails are good, gmail.com, outlook.com, yahoo.com etc and they are more secure having 2 factor  authentication but need to be kept active as some will close if not used for a period usually 12 months but some are 90 days like virgin email.

I no longer use virgin email for my accounts but still use it for junk, just newsletters etc. as a throw-away email.

I was getting 50 spams a month so am now filtering them to discard which works well.

The auto forward on virgin email can also fail on occasion, if it does not like the email for some reason, the auto forward does not work on all emails.

Best to look for alternatives to virgin email is my advice, I have done that 4 years ago, and it means you are not tied to a particular isp provider, and with account recovery use both email and mobile sms text  so if one fails the other may work, some accounts allow 2 recovery emails and more that one mobile number.

alf28

[kevinh]

That isn't really a solution. I've posted here before about this and got help to resolve a specific issue previously. I hope someone from support will reply again.

[ALF28]

Normal email sent to virgin mail is taking 30 seconds, I did a test this morning.

My mail.com  (gmx) email is still blocked by virgin mail, the Ip address of mail.com is listed in spamhause

This IP address has been observed to be involved in at least one of the following activities; sending spam, snowshoe spamming, or hosting botnet command and controllers (C&Cs). It may also be hijacked IP space, or associated with bulletproof hosting.

As a result, this IP address is listed in the Spamhaus Blocklist (SBL)

Removal process

Due to this listing’s technical nature, Spamhaus will only accept delisting requests directly from your ISP. If you require removal from this list, please contact your ISP directly, and ask their abuse team to contact the Spamhaus SBL team.

Removal from additional blocklists

Unfortunately, we cannot remove your IP from any other blocklists until your ISP has removed it from the SBL.

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also see-

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-check-why-an-email-was-delayed

https://askinglot.com/why-are-my-emails-delayed#:~:text=Why%20are%20my%20emails%20delayed%3F%20Most%...

https://1-grid.com/knowledge/outlook-why-am-i-experiencing-email-delays/

If you check the headers in mxtoolbox header analyser, it should identify the delay to pinpoint the ...

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The blacklisting and blocking of email may be due to the IP address of the mail sender being listed in spam blacklistings

The mxtoolbox header anaylser can pinpoint any delays if you copy and paste the headers of a delayed email into the analyser.

Perhaps a forum member can assist?

SMTP error from remote server for GREETING command, host: mx.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net (212.54.56.11) reason: 550 mx2.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net mx2.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net MXIN102 Your( ip address removed) link to spamhause)

alf28

[Hayley_S]

Hello @kevinh,

Welcome back, thanks for posting.

I am sorry for any issues with your email.

Can you tell me what type of errors the sender is getting back? Please do not post any personal information.

Many thanks,

[kevinh]

Hi Hayley,

The sender didn't say anything about errors returned and I doubt they could tell me. It's an automated email with a link to reset a password that is blocked, I don't suppose it's a monitored inbox. I receive their normal email (offers and suchlike) but the reset emails are all blocked. I assume all the email is from the same domain but possibly not from the same server.

Kevin

[ALF28]

 If so life is going to get very awkward if email verification links stop working.

Virgin do block some incoming emails if the IP address of the sender is listed on spamhause.I currently have mail.com blocked and have posted on that.

Delays can happen sometimes with recovery code being sent, but just keep trying again as the servers could be busy at either end.

You may need to contact the companies directly by phone etc to recover your accounts that you need to recover, some have a recovery process which can be done online and requires extra secuity details.

I suggest you ensure the accounts you are trying to recover are sending to the correct email address, if hacked somone could have changed the contact address. Also check there are no auto-forward set upon your virgin email in case that has been hacked.

I once had an issue with facebook (may have been hacked) and could not recover my account , they closed it permanenty, so I contacted them and it took several weeks, many emails and proof of identity before they re-opened my account, it can be a nightmare if you can not recover an account and may need direct contact with the company to do security checks by phone/email.

Try giving an alternative email for recovery if the virgin is not receiving recovery codes.

Without more information it is impossible to know what is happening, or do some testing to see if your virgin email is working OK in regard to sending and receiving of email by using another email to test if it is receiving OK.

It is also possible accounts can be locked out for unknown reasons, I have had that with some online shops and took ages to resolve and get my account recovered.

The recovery process and use of two factor authentication which banks etc use is designed to be secure, but sometimes goes wrong or could be hackers at work or lost passwords, so always record your passwords old and new and ensure that recovery emails/mobile number are up to date in accounts and any memorable data, security questions  etc.

alf28

[Hayley_S]

Thanks for coming back to me @kevinh.

Please do try the advice given by @ALF28, then let us know how you get on.

Many thanks,

[kevinh]

Hi Hayley,

The advice from @ALF28 doesn't help me, as I'm already aware of the problems and effects of VirginMedia's very tight anti-spam system. The email address the password reset link comes from isn't on the Spamhaus list and I don't want to ditch my Virgin email and use an alternative address. The last time I reported this problem in this forum VM Support eventually took action and the problem was resolved. I was hoping the same could happen again.

The email address in question is customerservice@heathrowrewards.com . Since I noticed this problem last week I have barely received any suspect emails in my spam folder so something has clearly been tightened up and it looks like it has gone too far. Who knows what else I'm not receiving. It's my personal mail, VM should not be rejecting it.

Long term VM needs to provide email customers with the ability to switch off all spam rejection on their account in order to receive email they know is genuine. In this case I only need to do this temporarily to receive the reset link. Other mail from Heathrow Rewards comes from a different address and is not even marked as spam, let alone rejected. I know that would mean more spam in my spam folder but I think people would rather see that than have email go missing. At the moment there is a setting "switch off all spam filtering" but this only seems to switch off some filtering and it isn't preventing spam rejection by the server.

Kevin