Removing Your Email From Spam Blacklists
The Problem With Spam
Spam is a major issue that users around the world suffer from. Some of us literally receive hundreds of unwanted and potentially damaging emails on a daily basis making email accounts virtually unserviceable. Furthermore, a large amount of spam can bring down entire email servers and even company IT infrastructures if it is left unchecked and untethered in the wild. As such, the prevention of spam has become big business for many Internet Service Providers, email providers, and other organizations. Many ISPs, as well as online security companies, keep and manage a database of known spammers. If your IP address (not your email address) appears on this list then you will find some of your emails being blocked.
Checking Your Email For Spam
The first step to being removed from a blacklist is to ensure that your IP really has been blocked. It is actually possible that you may have sent a single email that appears as though it is spam and it is just this one email that has been blocked. Remember that anti spam services and anti spam software typically uses automated filters that are not entirely infallible. Those that use keyword scanning are at highest risk of preventing genuine email from being delivered to the recipient.
Common Spam Topics
There are certain topics that are widely considered to be a high risk of being spam. Adult orientated content, sexual enhancement products, online medication, and ink cartridges are just a small sample of these categories. If you have sent an email regarding any of these topics and it has been blocked then there is a good chance that it is merely the individual email that has been blocked. In this case you should attempt to resend the email without using common keywords attributed to these topics. Sometimes this can prove difficult.
Other Factors That May Flag Your Email As Spam
Even less stringent and broader anti spam software uses automated filters. Many will consider a number of factors concerning the individual email and your email address and then give it a likelihood of being spam. If the likelihood is high then your email will probably be blocked. Again, this is a mistake on the part of the anti spam software but, on the grand scale of things, this technique works to prevent a large amount of spam emails and only incorrectly stops a very small number of legitimate emails from being delivered. It really is a case of the lesser of two evils.
As well as emails that are based on spam topics as mentioned above there are a number of other important factors to consider with your email. If you use a different reply address to the from address in your email then in the eyes of anti spam software this increases the likelihood of your email containing spam. Marketing buzzwords and popular terms such as “free offer” and “money back guarantee” will also lead to your email being considered more likely to be spam. Even composing an email in HTML increases the likelihood of having your email blocked, as does writing blocks of text in all capitals.
Have You Been Blacklisted?
If your emails are consistently bounced back or you receive a failed message stating that your email has been blacklisted then the likelihood is that your IP address has been reported on several occasions as sending spam. Note that it is your IP address rather than your email address that becomes blocked. The problem with this is that you are not the only person using the same IP address. A number of people using the same ISP or email provider will usually share the same IP address because they share similar servers. This could mean that, unless the ISP is stringent in their dealing with spammers, you could find yourself blacklisted without having sent a single spam email.
Following Emailed Instructions
Typically you should receive an email informing you that your IP address has been added to a database and will hopefully provide instructions of where to visit and what can be done to remove your IP. Alternatively you should contact your ISP. They are the ones responsible for ensuring that nobody on your IP address (yourself included) spams and, if one of their IP addresses does become blacklisted it is also their responsibility to find a way of removing it from the blacklist.
Changing Service Provider
Unfortunately, if your ISP is of no or little use then there are very few options left except to change provider. If this turns out to be the case then do some research online before proceeding with a new ISP. Look to see if any other users have reported problems with being blacklisted on IP addresses belonging to your proposed new provider before you commence. There are no fail safe ways of ensuring that your IP address will be clear but by conducting some quick research it is often possible to prevent any major issues.
Getting Your IP Address Removed From Spam Blacklists
Spam is a major problem and one that many different companies and organizations are attempting to help combat. Unfortunately, this can mean over zealous spam filters being applied to email servers. On the other hand, the IP address you use is usually shared by a lot of people and this means that you could be blacklisted for something that you didn't do. Getting your IP address removed from the blacklist is not always a simple process and, if you have an unresponsive or unhelpful ISP, then the best option may be to change company.