Emails received as spam - Spark Customer only

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bonkas

231 posts

Master Geek
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Topic # 239616 26-Jul-2018 14:49

Hey Guys,

I am having an issue where a friend of mine who owns his own business is sending out invoices and statement at the end of each month, the customers who are with spark (@xtra.co.nz email address) are not receiving this and a message is being bounced back to the sender advising the message was blocked due to spam content.

These emails are generated automatically from his invoicing software and are in plain text with a PDF attachment of their statement/invoice.

The message body and subject is similar to the below:

"Please see attached Invoice/Statement INVXXXXX"

Any ideas how to prevent this? Spark helpdesk have been no help. I have suggested he contact the technical support for the invoicing software to see if the format of the messages can be changed (We could not find any useful options in it's settings) but they have been refusing to help also and charge $85 per 15min for the privilege.

As far as we know this problem has only started in the last month or two.

The Invoicing software is called Synergy.

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99 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 12

Reply # 2062996 26-Jul-2018 14:54

Can he try sending through a different SMTP service?

What sort of SPAM analysis does something like mailtrap give the emails?

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
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Reply # 2063002 26-Jul-2018 14:59

0800 287 463 explain this with the folks there, they will be able to work through things.

There is a process, it's pretty simple.

it's todo with the content and so on... i try to avoid being on the know for this stuff now days.....

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

bonkas

231 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 2063003 26-Jul-2018 15:02

I will have to give another smtp service a go, smtp2go is free for a certain number of emails a month.

I'm not 100% sure it will resolve the issue as the bounce back does say it was blocked do to the message content.

I will try get hold of a bounce back to post here also.

xpd

Chief Trash Bandit
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Reply # 2063020 26-Jul-2018 15:29

Spark use SMX I believe, and Im having the exact same problem, even with TradeMe emails being marked as spam. Tried getting it sorted via Twitter with @SparkNZ and got told "get them to add you to a whitelist" - for a single email ?

Ive changed my auto-email on TM to advise users that if they contact me via a Spark account, they wont hear back from me.

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

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bonkas

231 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 2063025 26-Jul-2018 15:44

This is the message being bounced back:

bonkas

231 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 2063040 26-Jul-2018 16:16

Just got off the phone with Spark.

Not much luck there im afraid. They are wanting us to sign up with a business domain account to resolve the issue although the issues are at the receivers end, the mail is sending out fine. I have a vague recollection we also tried to send through gmail with the same issue (Spark customers getting bounced back).

Anything else we can try before I give Spark another call, might get someone else who is able to help.

ArcticSilver

673 posts

Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 2063043 26-Jul-2018 16:29

It’s hard to know the full story without doing further tests but on face value it seems like SMX are misclasifying your emails as spam incorrectly on behalf of Spark, which in tern is on behalf of your client.

If this is the case then what you need to do is notify your client that they have a problem with their email and give them the relevant information for them to pursue a resolution.

Willingly or not your client has employed spam filtering through a third party that is incorrectly blocking legitimate mail. This is a issue and it’s not your one.

You need to push this back to your client as Spark have no relationship with you.

SATTV

693 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 188

Reply # 2063045 26-Jul-2018 16:33

I had a call from my Father in law last night, same issue, he is trying to send invoices ( via Slingshot ) and he gets bounce backs saying they are possible spam.

I suspect it is because it has the word invoice in it, there are so many invoice scams these days,

We have sent samples to SMX as a false positive so hopefully it will be resolved today so he can send out his invoices.

It is only his clients that use Xtra that are affected no others.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

Oblivian

2730 posts

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Reply # 2063047 26-Jul-2018 16:36

Given the previous SPAM issue threads, I'd say their filtering that appears to be working better is quite strict.

I can see a number of points that would trigger it

Attachment: yes

PDF: yes

Subject contains "invoice" + "statement"

Body contains "invoice" + "statement"

No further true business details

Options, customise the invoice and potentially even ZIP it personalised to the company name. Don't mention invoice etc :) The reason they will want you to be on business is extra ability to whitelist domain emails as valid/not bad to lower the score.

hio77

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Reply # 2063054 26-Jul-2018 16:43

bonkas:
Just got off the phone with Spark.

Not much luck there im afraid. They are wanting us to sign up with a business domain account to resolve the issue although the issues are at the receivers end, the mail is sending out fine. I have a vague recollection we also tried to send through gmail with the same issue (Spark customers getting bounced back).

Anything else we can try before I give Spark another call, might get someone else who is able to help.

dm me details of call please.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

chevrolux

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Reply # 2063071 26-Jul-2018 17:17

Sparks spam filtering is out of control. I guess it's easy for SMX to claim 99.9% (or whatever it is) when they just drop everything.

We had the same issue with invoicing. Only fix was changing the whole system to a download link (which did give lots of other benefits to be fair).

bonkas

231 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 2063074 26-Jul-2018 17:25

hio77:
bonkas:

Just got off the phone with Spark.

Not much luck there im afraid. They are wanting us to sign up with a business domain account to resolve the issue although the issues are at the receivers end, the mail is sending out fine. I have a vague recollection we also tried to send through gmail with the same issue (Spark customers getting bounced back).

Anything else we can try before I give Spark another call, might get someone else who is able to help.

dm me details of call please.

I missed Spark's call back after they went off to speak with the account holder, have tried to call back but the number does not exist.

Will send you a dm, hopefully I can provide enough info for you.

SATTV

693 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 188

Reply # 2063155 26-Jul-2018 19:18

SATTV:

I had a call from my Father in law last night, same issue, he is trying to send invoices ( via Slingshot ) and he gets bounce backs saying they are possible spam.

I suspect it is because it has the word invoice in it, there are so many invoice scams these days,

We have sent samples to SMX as a false positive so hopefully it will be resolved today so he can send out his invoices.

It is only his clients that use Xtra that are affected no others.

John

SMX got back to my father in law and said to contact spark.

I thought that SMX hosted Xtra mail these days.

If they do it sounds like they are are just passing the buck.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

Oblivian

2730 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 286

Reply # 2063157 26-Jul-2018 19:20

SATTV:

SATTV:

I had a call from my Father in law last night, same issue, he is trying to send invoices ( via Slingshot ) and he gets bounce backs saying they are possible spam.

I suspect it is because it has the word invoice in it, there are so many invoice scams these days,

We have sent samples to SMX as a false positive so hopefully it will be resolved today so he can send out his invoices.

It is only his clients that use Xtra that are affected no others.

John

SMX got back to my father in law and said to contact spark.

I thought that SMX hosted Xtra mail these days.

If they do it sounds like they are are just passing the buck.

John

They provide a wholesale service TO spark. Not the end customers.

Same reason you don't call Enable or Chorus direct to log an internet fault.

Lias

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Reply # 2063212 26-Jul-2018 23:09

One person supports this post

Are SPF and DKIM setup correctly?

Information wants to be free. The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

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