FormMail forwarded to Gmail and Yahoo always goes to Spam folder

[thymus]

Just upgraded from NMS FormMail to Tectite 8.23 and was an easy change and works well. Good product.

However both Gmail and Yahoo trap all FormMail forwarded from host site to client email address as Spam.

This includes all the below combinations. Note: From is always realname + email fields from the form.

Have tried not setting "Sender" (f option =false) so comes up as hosting provider nobody@dwhs211.dwhs.net.

Have tried setting "Sender" to "From" (fixed sender="" and "SET_SENDER_FROM_EMAIL",true) so both are the same as the form submission.

Have tried setting "Sender" (FIXED_SENDER="webmaster@mydomain.com). In this case I white listed webmaster@mydomain.com in Gmail and Yahoo but still they treat it as Spam.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[russellr]

Hi,

My experience with GMail is that it doesn't usually send form submissions to spam.

However, I guess they are updating their spam filters all the time.

Having "nobody" as the From or Sender, or having the From and To the same can often be spam filter triggers.

But, my guess, is the sending hosting provider has been flagged as a spam source.

I recommend you ask GMail support why these are considered spam.

If you get an answer that indicates we can improve something, then let us know.

[thymus]

Thanks for the reply Russell.

Gmail simply advises to create a filter so that the messages are never sent to spam. This works - simply by filtering any message addressed to the "recipients" of the form. ie contactus@mydomain.com. Yahoo also offers the same solution.

A blacklist check of our domains IP address at www.whatismyipaddress.com shows only one spam database (www.uceprotect.net) who has red flagged our IP address and reports

"You are not responsible for the listing!. Your IP 66.249.137.211 was NOT involved in a spamrun, but has a spammy neighborhood. Other customers within this range did not care about their security and got hacked and started spamming, while your provider has possibly not even noticed that there is a serious problem. We are sorry for you, but you have chosen an provider not acting fast enough on spammers."

Perhaps our so called spammy neighbourhood was the cause. Not sure, but luckily email "filters" solves the issue.

[thymus]

As a suggestion to possibly improve Tectite FormMail, I note that NMS FormMail identifies itself (NMS FormMail 3.14c1) in the message header of emails as the source of the email.

Perhaps if Tectite FormMail did this it would help Gmail and Yahoo in the future to identify a trusted FormMail solution.

Also it would help put your name out there.

[thymus]

I can now confirm that the red flag on one spam database, is not the cause of both Gmail and Yahoo trapping as Spam all FormMail forwarded mail from host site to client email address.

I simply reinstalled the NMS FormMail and deactivated the Gmail filter. The email it sent went straight to the inbox. Then I tried Tectite FormMail again with no Gmail filter and it went straight to the Spam folder.

Therefore the problem is not the hosting provider being flagged as a Spam source.

Russell, if you wish, I can send you both test emails for you to look at the headers, but of course this is not necessary, as any paying customers with the problem in the future, can use the filter workaround.

Have an excellent day everyone.

[russellr]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I was going to suggest a GMail filter too.

Yes, please send the two emails complete with headers to supportstaff AT tectite DOT com.

There must be something else different about the two emails. I don't think a header line identifying NMS FormMail would make the difference between spam and not spam (I could be wrong, of course).

I'll be very interested to analyze the two emails and try to figure out what's the trigger.

Tectite FormMail does identify itself in the MIME-Version header. But, of course, that's only included for MIME emails (HTML or with attachments).

[russellr]

Hi,

Thanks for sending through the two example emails.

I think I've found the significant difference between the two.

From NMS:

Delivered-To: YourAddress@gmail.com
Return-Path: <YourAddress@gmail.com>

From Tectite FormMail:

Delivered-To: YourAddress@gmail.com
Return-Path: <test@test123456.com>

So, in the first case, GMail can see that you're sending email to yourself.

In the second case, it's someone else's address that's sending to you. That combined with the fact it's about "escorts", probably makes it spam.

To get the same header effect with Tectite FormMail, you need:

define("SENDMAIL_F_OPTION",true);
$FIXED_SENDER = "YourAddress@gmail.com"