DKIM, SPF and DMARC all Pass, IP not blacklisted but still ends up in spam!!

[BlueSteam]

I am at a complete loss for words here. I have sat troubleshooting this issue for the past 2 days straight and I am so frustrated with this.

I have a client that is complaining that some of his staffs emails are always ending up in Spam on the recipient side and he is losing business.

So I ran a few test emails and sent a mail from his own personal account to my GMAIL account and it lands in my inbox without any problems. I ran the same tests to a Microsoft account and it ended up in Spam. So GMAIL is fine but Microsoft is not??

So then, I created a completely BRAND NEW email account and sent a mail to my GMAIL and a Microsoft account from that account and it ended up in Spam with the reason from Google saying:

Why is this message in spam?
It is similar to messages that were identified as spam in the past.

The above reason is such bollocks because this is a new mailbox and the content simply sayd "This is a test" and that same content arrives in my inbox from the clients email account without issues and yet that same content is flagged as spam using the new mailbox! Go figure!!

So there is absolutely NO consistency in this at all.

DNS INFO ON DOMAIN:

intoDNS: skeets.co.za - check DNS server and mail server health

intoDNS: Checking health and configurtion of DNS server and mail server for domainskeets.co.za.

intodns.com

I proceeded to ensure that SPF, DKIM and DMARC all pass using dmarcian and mxtoolbox.

DMARC TEST:

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email

DNS and Network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools integrated into one sweet interface.

mxtoolbox.com

DKIM CHECK:

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email

DNS and Network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools integrated into one sweet interface.

mxtoolbox.com

SPF CHECK:

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email

DNS and Network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools integrated into one sweet interface.

mxtoolbox.com

DMARCIAN CHECK:

Free DMARC Domain Check | Is Your Domain Protected? - dmarcian

Curious if your Domain is DMARC - SPF or DKIM compliant? Use our Free Domain Checker and gain immediate Insights. dmarcian, #1 in DMARC.

dmarcian.com

BLACKLIST CHECK:

Blacklist Check - HetrixTools

Run a blacklist check for your IP address or domain name, against the most popular blacklists.

hetrixtools.com

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email

DNS and Network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools integrated into one sweet interface.

mxtoolbox.com

https://www.spamhaus.org/query/ip/91.232.125.160

MAIL-TESTER: Perfect Score!

Spam Test Result

You sent us an email? Check here if it passed our tests

www.mail-tester.com

I then submit some message headers from a test mail in to the Gsuite Message header analyser and it says everything is 100% fine and yet it ended up in Spam.

GOOGLE RAW MESSAGE OUTPUT RESULTS:

Screenshot

Captured with Lightshot

prnt.sc

GSUITE MESSAGE HEADER ANALYSER:

Screenshot

Captured with Lightshot

prnt.sc

So as you can see, there is really NOTHING AT ALL untoward here and yet it STILL ends up in spam...

I am at a complete loss here and hoping some Genius here can help...

 

[BlueSteam]

Ugh! 33 views and sadly not 1 reply :-( How can this be such a difficult thing to solve...

Im going to find a corner to cry in...

 

[keat63]

All I could add to this is that Google and MS are a law of their own.
I particularly dislike MS for things like this.
MS have no morals when it comes to blacklisting you, when you do finally get a support ticket with them, they are unable to tell you why you were blacklisted.

Do you have a dedicated IP, or on a shared IP.
It could just be something as simple as another account on the shared server has a bad reputation, and these SP's are tarring everyone with the same brush.

 

[BlueSteam]

All I could add to this is that Google and MS are a law of their own.
I particularly dislike MS for things like this.
MS have no morals when it comes to blacklisting you, when you do finally get a support ticket with them, they are unable to tell you why you were blacklisted.

Do you have a dedicated IP, or on a shared IP.
It could just be something as simple as another account on the shared server has a bad reputation, and these SP's are tarring everyone with the same brush.

Dedicated server. Only 3 cPanel accounts with a total of 7 or 8 domains across the entire server and all are owned by the same client :-(

 

[keat63]

How old is the domain/server, I'm aware that MS build a reputation score.
Maybe sending more test emails may have a negative effect on this.

The following might be worth a try,

New support request

support.microsoft.com

See if your request lands in the lap of someone at MS who:

1. Gives a care
2. Has an idea what he's doing
3. Has the ability to resolve the issue.

Good luck.
In the meantime, I'm sure someone will be along who may have a better understanding of what's going on.

 

[BlueSteam]

The server is about a year old.

We already opened a ticket with Microsoft and we got the same dribble that they always give telling us the following:

We have completed reviewing the IP(s) you submitted. The following table contains the results of our investigation.

Not qualified for mitigation
[redacted];
Our investigation has determined that the above IP(s) do not qualify for mitigation.

Please ensure your emails comply with the Outlook.com policies, practices and guidelines found here: Policies, Practices, and Guidelines.

To have Deliverability Support investigate further, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the problem you are having, including specific error messages, and an agent will contact you.

Regardless of the deliverability status, Outlook.com recommends that all senders join two free programs that provide visibility into the Outlook.com traffic on your sending IP(s), the sending IP reputation with Outlook.com and the Outlook.com user complaint rates.

Junk Email Reporting program (JMRP) When an Outlook.com user marks an email as "junk", senders enrolled in this program get a copy of the mail forwarded to the email address of their choice. It allows senders to see which mails are being marked as junk and to identify mail traffic you did not intend to send. To join, please visit http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?p...=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts.

Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS). This program allows you to monitor the ‘health’ and reputation of your registered IPs by providing data about traffic such as mail volume and complaint rates seen originating from your IPs. To register, please visit Smart Network Data Services.

There is no silver bullet to maintaining or improving good IP reputation, but these programs help you proactively manage your email eco-system to help better ensure deliverability to Outlook.com users.

Thank you,

Outlook.com Deliverability Support

 

[keat63]

To have Deliverability Support investigate further, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the problem you are having, including specific error messages, and an agent will contact you.

Did you reply ?


or

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/

By the way, this is no uncommon.

Our investigation has determined that the above IP(s) do not qualify for mitigation.

Why is it that only Microsoft/Outlook/Hotmail is blocking messages from an IP address when every other public blacklist shows the IP as being clean. Why does the IP address not qualify for mitigation?

answers.microsoft.com

 

[BlueSteam]

I am not sure if the client has replied or not. I will have to ask him.

I agree tha tthis is not uncommon but the problem still remains and there has to be SOME sort of solution. We can't just expect the clients to accept that they simply cannot send mails. They might as well close their doors and stop doing business :-(

 

[keat63]

And there is where the problem lies.
The MS monster is so big, that we've no chance of fighting it.

 

[SamuelM]

Hello @BlueSteam

The issue is in Microsoft's hands. Unfortunately major email providers such as Microsoft are very opaque in terms of why they reject mail. I would suggest continuing correspondence with Microsoft as outlined in the message they sent in order to obtain more information on the subject. Only they would be able to answer why the IP does not qualify for mitigation.