Form submission emails being flagged as spam
 

I've put together a few smallish sites for clients which include online
forms. Their day-to-day email is managed away from the web server (usually
by email forwarding at the domain host) and the php scripts process the
forms as usual and squirt out emails to relevant form owners and visitors
alike.

Now, here's the problem - a lot of these emails are being flagged as spam,
presumably because the spam guards are doing a reverse DNS lookup on the
domain name and discovering that the MX records are located elsewhere.

Is there anything I can do about this? I'm hesitant to create another MX
record for the web server, as this seems to be the wrong way to go about
solving the problem (indeed, it could create even more). I have a vague
recollection, however, of a setting in the DNS that might address the
issue - registering a web server as a valid mail sender while at the same
time not identifying it as an MX host.


Any thoughts/advice gratefully received!

Re: Form submission emails being flagged as spam
 

On 3/7/2011 18:37, Bob wrote:
> I've put together a few smallish sites for clients which include online
> forms. Their day-to-day email is managed away from the web server
> (usually by email forwarding at the domain host) and the php scripts
> process the forms as usual and squirt out emails to relevant form owners
> and visitors alike.
>
> Now, here's the problem - a lot of these emails are being flagged as
> spam, presumably because the spam guards are doing a reverse DNS lookup
> on the
> domain name and discovering that the MX records are located elsewhere.
>
> Is there anything I can do about this? I'm hesitant to create another MX
> record for the web server, as this seems to be the wrong way to go about
> solving the problem (indeed, it could create even more). I have a vague
> recollection, however, of a setting in the DNS that might address the
> issue - registering a web server as a valid mail sender while at the
> same time not identifying it as an MX host.
>
>
> Any thoughts/advice gratefully received!
Post this question to news.admin.net-abuse.email

--
***************************************
* This is the Spammish Inquisition *
* Not Lumber Cartel Unit 75 [TINLC] *
* I am not SPEWS.ORG *
***************************************

Re: Form submission emails being flagged as spam
 

On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:42:45 -0800, Evan Platt wrote:

> On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 02:37:48 -0000, "Bob" <bob@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>>I've put together a few smallish sites for clients which include online
>>forms. Their day-to-day email is managed away from the web server (usually
>>by email forwarding at the domain host) and the php scripts process the
>>forms as usual and squirt out emails to relevant form owners and visitors
>>alike.
>>
>>Now, here's the problem - a lot of these emails are being flagged as spam,
>>presumably because the spam guards are doing a reverse DNS lookup on the
>>domain name and discovering that the MX records are located elsewhere.
>>
>>Is there anything I can do about this? I'm hesitant to create another MX
>>record for the web server, as this seems to be the wrong way to go about
>>solving the problem (indeed, it could create even more). I have a vague
>>recollection, however, of a setting in the DNS that might address the
>>issue - registering a web server as a valid mail sender while at the same
>>time not identifying it as an MX host.
>>
>>
>>Any thoughts/advice gratefully received!
>
> You need to give more detail than "It's being flagged as spam".
>
> What is flagging it as spam? SpamAssassin?
>
> If SA is, it'll give a score, and a reason for each 'point' it gives.
> See what causes it to think it's spam. Could be as simple as HTML, or
> maybe as simple as "From and To Match".

Right. This, coming from a guy who can't even link things right.
When clicking on "photo gallery" one gets met with a "mailto"?
Gee evan, explain please what happens when "from" matches "to".
duhhhhhhhh.

Re: Form submission emails being flagged as spam
 

On Mon, 7 Mar 2011 22:48:54 -0700, richard <member@newsguy.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:42:45 -0800, Evan Platt wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 02:37:48 -0000, "Bob" <bob@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>>I've put together a few smallish sites for clients which include online
>>>forms. Their day-to-day email is managed away from the web server (usually
>>>by email forwarding at the domain host) and the php scripts process the
>>>forms as usual and squirt out emails to relevant form owners and visitors
>>>alike.
>>>
>>>Now, here's the problem - a lot of these emails are being flagged as spam,
>>>presumably because the spam guards are doing a reverse DNS lookup on the
>>>domain name and discovering that the MX records are located elsewhere.
>>>
>>>Is there anything I can do about this? I'm hesitant to create another MX
>>>record for the web server, as this seems to be the wrong way to go about
>>>solving the problem (indeed, it could create even more). I have a vague
>>>recollection, however, of a setting in the DNS that might address the
>>>issue - registering a web server as a valid mail sender while at the same
>>>time not identifying it as an MX host.
>>>
>>>
>>>Any thoughts/advice gratefully received!
>>
>> You need to give more detail than "It's being flagged as spam".
>>
>> What is flagging it as spam? SpamAssassin?
>>
>> If SA is, it'll give a score, and a reason for each 'point' it gives.
>> See what causes it to think it's spam. Could be as simple as HTML, or
>> maybe as simple as "From and To Match".
>
>Right. This, coming from a guy who can't even link things right.
>When clicking on "photo gallery" one gets met with a "mailto"?
>Gee evan, explain please what happens when "from" matches "to".
>duhhhhhhhh.

I think he wanted to say: "From" matched the real "From"
Because the initiator is always the real initiator, but the "From"
part of the mail header can be set differently.
Howaver -> May be the program who initiate the mail can set the header
part "From" identical with the header part "To:"

Re: Form submission emails being flagged as spam
 

On Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:41:11 -0800, Evan Platt wrote:

> On Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:26 GMT, Raymond.Schmit@pircarre.be (Raymond
> Schmit) wrote:
>
>>I think he wanted to say: "From" matched the real "From"
>>Because the initiator is always the real initiator, but the "From"
>>part of the mail header can be set differently.
>>Howaver -> May be the program who initiate the mail can set the header
>>part "From" identical with the header part "To:"
>
> No, From matches to.
>
> Say I'm e-mailing you at joe@example.com.
>
> I send to joe@example.com and set my from and reply to as
> joe@example.com . SpamAssassin sees this as a potential spam flag, and
> adds a few points for good measure.

As it should. Now kindly read the ICANN rules about proper use of email
addy's.
The only time you are allowed to do such a thing is when the source email
addy and recipient is YOU. Doing that from a third party is considered
spam.

While you're educating yourself, lookup the historic spam lawsuit that was
known as the "flowers" case. In which the original owner of flowers.com was
ltierally shut down because some asshole used their addy in the return
path.

Re: Form submission emails being flagged as spam
 

On Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:41:11 -0800, Evan Platt
<evan@*******************************> wrote:

>On Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:26 GMT, Raymond.Schmit@pircarre.be (Raymond
>Schmit) wrote:
>
>>I think he wanted to say: "From" matched the real "From"
>>Because the initiator is always the real initiator, but the "From"
>>part of the mail header can be set differently.
>>Howaver -> May be the program who initiate the mail can set the header
>>part "From" identical with the header part "To:"
>
>No, From matches to.
>
>Say I'm e-mailing you at joe@example.com.
>
>I send to joe@example.com and set my from and reply to as
>joe@example.com . SpamAssassin sees this as a potential spam flag, and
>adds a few points for good measure.

If you sent to joe@example.com. you may not set From:
joe@example.com. Because this is not true joe@example.com. is not the
real initiator of the mail. So it's suspicious and can be viewed as a
spam?