Verizon SPAM Filtering my Outgoing email - This is unbelievable!
DataArt
Enthusiast - Level 2

I pay verizon to provide access to internet access and an email address. I do not want nor did I ask for any spam filtering to be performed. HOW DARE YOU!!!!! If you spam filter my incoming .. .where are MY controls ... NOT yours!

Where do I see a listing of those emails that were filtered? You are obviously filtering my outgoing? What give you the right to do so?

I'm a sending 100's or thousands of emails a day ... NO!!!!

I sent 2 emails all day and you choose to filter them while I'm growing more and more **bleep** at the person I sent it to for not responding.

This can't be legal ... it is censorship .... I have been a loyal Verizon user since FIOS became available. I have internet, home phones, cells and TV service totaling over $400/month.

I am not going to looking into switching to AT&T and Cablevision.

I don't care if my contract is up or not ... go ahead and sue me .... I'll see you in court.

HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!!!

Robot Mad

22 Replies
somegirl
Champion - Level 3

If Verizon's outbound spam filter catches your outgoing message, you receive an immediate notification. You get an error message if you are using webmail or a bounceback if you are using a mail client. There is no mystery as to whether it was stopped or not.

You can find more information about how and why Verizon implements their outbound spam filtering at their Spam FAQ page, which is listed in the error you get if your message is actually blocked: http://www.verizon.net/spamfaq

If it is inbound spam filtering you are concerned with, you have the ability to turn it off on the My Account Tools page, or you can change it to save to the Spam Detector folder instead of deleting via the Mail settings section in your mailbox.

Also, this is a peer-to-peer forum. If you want to threaten/complain to Verizon, you need to do so directly. There are options on Verizon's Contact Us page.

DataArt
Enthusiast - Level 2

I use Entourage on a MAC ... there was an unnoticed tiny yellow indicator on the bottom of the page ... no bounce back or anything else that couldnt be missed ... when scrolling down to look at my Junk mail ... I noticed a message sitting in my outbox. I had to open the error log by clicking

The bigger question is why is Verizon filtering outgoing mail. That is censorship. I should not have to explain my email usage to anyone. SPAM email is sent by the thousands. If I was sending massive amounts of emails I would expect an issue. Not from my one email that was being sent.

This is BIG BROTHER being ridiculous.

somegirl
Champion - Level 3

As stated in the Spam FAQ page:

Why does Verizon scan E-mail messages I send?

Verizon Online has a zero-tolerance policy for spamming from the Verizon.net domain and is working to reduce unsolicited email messages and improve the overal customer e-mail experience.

Scanning is the process of comparing an email message to a known spam signature using a combination of proprietary anti-spam techniques and spam complaints sent from users across the Internet. Verizon will not read your email; we only compare the digital signature (not the email content) of a sent email against the digital signatures of known spam. Emails that match a spam signature will not be delivered.

Scanning outbound email is an accepted industry practice and is an effective method for reducing overall spam on the Internet and for our customers. It also benefits you by reducing the likelihood that an email message you send will be blocked by the receiving service provider.

So there's Verizon's reasoning for the outbound spam filtering. They do have a right and a responsibility to protect their domain's reputation. (Though their methods leave something to be desired.)

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DataArt
Enthusiast - Level 2

That entire explanation is hog wash. It's just an excuse for Big Brother to d othings it shouldn't be doing.

I say ... a YES to ensuring that someone can't send an email to hundreds or thousands of users or othe rbulk email.

But you can't explain how someone sending an email from a FIOS IP address which is an account that shows my name as the "client"  that matches the same clients email address can be spam.

That would mean that someone using my PC (my mac address) on my FIOS router (my ip address) located inside my house (physically secure) wireless set to not broadcast an SSID, encypted and password protected) logged onto my Verizion email account with my password and sent a single email to a single user and have it be flagged as spam.

It it absolutey CRAZY that, that can happen.

They can detect IP address spoofing... Why aren't their systems checking that a valid IP address with a valid user signed on, sent a properly formatted message ... What gives??? 

I sent that email to their 3rd party ... Do you know what there answer was??? Well neither do I ... I've never heard from them.

It's just a load of crap ... I get so much {word filter avoidance} inbound spam filling up my junk email bin ...  Why isn't Vz focused on that.

I've been doing IT for over 25 years ...

POLICY BE {word filter avoidance}... It is just plain {word filter avoidance} ... I love the fact that they wrote a policy and you can't discuss with a human... ... just send an email to a 3rd party and wait your whole life for a reply .... SHAME on VZ ....

It's too darned bad ... I love their cell service and their TV service ... they even have a fast, reliable internet service.

In fact this is my only complaint with their service ... But this is a biggy they have WRONG and they should fix it.

tadfurtado
Enthusiast - Level 2

Dear Somegirl, I appreciate your tying to put a good spin on this and I would have more sympathy for that position if I wasn't now forced to use the Verizon outbound server.

I was just fine using my own server that I pay good money to rent through SMPTing on port 25, but as of today that option is no longer possible.  Verizon is making me use their outbound server and now they are putting volume and content limits on me.

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somegirl
Champion - Level 3

@tadfurtado wrote:

Dear Somegirl, I appreciate your tying to put a good spin on this and I would have more sympathy for that position if I wasn't now forced to use the Verizon outbound server.

I was just fine using my own server that I pay good money to rent through SMPTing on port 25, but as of today that option is no longer possible.  Verizon is making me use their outbound server and now they are putting volume and content limits on me.


You don't have to use Verizon's outgoing server. You can use whatever outgoing server you want, just not on port 25. (Most providers have an alternate port available. It's usuallly 587, but not always.)

If your particular server doesn't allow an alternate port and you really don't want to use Verizon's server, find a free one. I recommend Gmail, it's free and their SMTP server uses 465.

tadfurtado
Enthusiast - Level 2

@somegirl wrote:

@tadfurtado wrote:

Dear Somegirl, I appreciate your tying to put a good spin on this and I would have more sympathy for that position if I wasn't now forced to use the Verizon outbound server.

I was just fine using my own server that I pay good money to rent through SMPTing on port 25, but as of today that option is no longer possible.  Verizon is making me use their outbound server and now they are putting volume and content limits on me.


You don't have to use Verizon's outgoing server. You can use whatever outgoing server you want, just not on port 25. (Most providers have an alternate port available. It's usuallly 587, but not always.)

If your particular server doesn't allow an alternate port and you really don't want to use Verizon's server, find a free one. I recommend Gmail, it's free and their SMTP server uses 465.


As I have said on another thread, yes we do have to use the Verizon outgoing server since this change if our server companies - who didn't ask for and were not given any options about - this change can only handle port 25.

"You can use whatever outgoing server you want" =  you should all have ponies and unicorns.

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somegirl
Champion - Level 3

@tadfurtado wrote:

 As I have said on another thread, yes we do have to use the Verizon outgoing server since this change if our server companies - who didn't ask for and were not given any options about - this change can only handle port 25.

"You can use whatever outgoing server you want" =  you should all have ponies and unicorns.


Again:

If your particular server doesn't allow an alternate port and you really don't want to use Verizon's server, find a free one. I recommend Gmail, it's free and their SMTP server uses 465.

You can set it up the exact same way (with the exception of the port number) you have Verizon's outgoing server set up now, and you won't have to deal with Verizon's outbound spam filtering.

tadfurtado
Enthusiast - Level 2

It's now day 3 of the new regime and I've now had my 7th blocked message.  Out of maybe 50 emails sent.

This one was a reply to a paying client who wrote and asked me a question.  It seems that her ISP let such a dangerous and spasms message out somehow.

Of course, like I have done with all 6 other such messages, I sent an email off to 'spamdetector.update@verizon.net' to report it.  I certainly do not expect any answer, just like I don't expect any answer from my call yesterday where I was told that I would be called back by 3pm at the latest.

In fairness, he didn't say 3pm on June 3rd of 2010.

Awesome.

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lilhighway
Enthusiast - Level 3

How many years has verizon been trying to control inbound and outbound traffic?laughing the bottom line is the spammers are real smart.for example all a spammer has to do is change the domain and verizon has a new issue

what i don't get is in verizon web mail (worthless)how can a spammer end up in your inbox you right click choose reply to sender and you get the spam faq.poor verizon got a bullseye on there forehead laughing.

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SMCREY
Newbie

I AGREE 100% i am so outraged that they would stop my mail. This is my business and my income depends on it. TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE. (and heck, there is generally only ONE recipient in my outgoing mail, so what in the world determines it's SPAM for crying out loud)

I am so mad and the only answer from what i hear from Verizon is to stop using them entirely.

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lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

Hmmm ... blocking out yours and your recipient's email (and any private message content), can you maybe give us a sense of the exact "spam" error message -- actual message headers useful too -- you're getting back from Verizon's server?  Curious as to if Verizon (or the remote end) is bouncing the message or if it's saying something which you're interpreting as a SPAM rejection based on "content" which is actually some more rudimentary that we can tweak a mail configuration setting to fix.

I have many clients who use Verizon's outbound mail servers and use their own domain names (as well as Verizon's domain name) to send messages and they've all been working just fine -- except for one Comcast "blip" and that turned out to be Comcast's fault and they quickly found the issue and corrected it.

It'll help if you can give us some more detail.

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dkw197
Contributor - Level 1

I too have been having problems with my email returned as SPAM--3 times in two days. I called tech support and they said that they had instituted a new policy to locate and eliminate SPAM and I should use something else (like gmail, hotmail, etc.) if I thought it was too aggressive. The SPAM email in question contained the word "Sweepstakes" in the subject line and the email contained two lines, including a link. It was sent to one person. I know she likes to enter sweepstakes and it was a cute one for her kids. That was it. According to the Tech, "Sweepstakes" is one of many words that they view as constituting Spam. It is really ridiculous.

Here's my problem with Verizon's new policy. It is so aggressive that, according to the Tech I spoke to, it only takes one word, like "Sweepstakes" to set it off. The fact that it was only to one person and I have no history of sending Spam doesn't even enter into the equation. This is just the beginning and according to him, they have no intention of changing it. When you forward the offending email to the address provided in your Spam notice from Verizon, he says that they look at it and determine if it is Spam or not. If they determine it was not Spam they will allow it to go through. However, he said they were very backed up and it could take quite a long time and you won't get a reply from them letting you know thier determination. Really? What about if my email is timely? This is truly a mess. My hope is that they refine it so that it has more sensitivity in the scanning process, but the question is how to get Verizon to change it.

I think Verizon is trying to do the right thing, but has gone way overboard and is now risking losing customers if this doesn't get corrected pretty quickly. People want to get what they are paying for and generally resent getting personal emails returned by overzealous Spam detection. Anyone know the best way to get the message to them? I generally like Verizon and would hate to switch, but I'm going to be forced to consider that if I keep getting my email returned.

lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

I just tried what you said bounced as spam .... a very brief message with the subject of "Sweepstakes" and two short lines of text "Hey check this out ..."  and a link to  website.   It went thru without any issues.

What verizon mail interface / experience are you using?   My verizon account is set for the "Yahoo" experience (as opposed to the Verizon--used to MSN? or AOL versions).

Again it would help to see the exact message which came back (blotting out the email addresses but leaving the rest intact) in order to perhaps figure out what might be going on.

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dkw197
Contributor - Level 1

It was pretty much what I said--just a line of text like: "I saw this ade thought you might want to check it out. It is so cute." and the link to the sweepstakes. Pretty simple message with no threat. Only line in subject was Sweepstakes. I use Outlook and have set the port as instructed by Verizon.  

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Justin46
Legend

@dkw197 wrote:

It was pretty much what I said--just a line of text like: "I saw this ade thought you might want to check it out. It is so cute." and the link to the sweepstakes. Pretty simple message with no threat. Only line in subject was Sweepstakes. I use Outlook and have set the port as instructed by Verizon.  


Don't know that it will help any, but I just sent an email with "Sweepstakes" in the Subject and a copy of your text from above and a link in the body and it went through just fine. I use Windows Live Mail and a standard Verizon email account.

I have had FiOS internet for 5 years + and I experienced my first ever spam rejection a few weeks ago. It was a simple email to one person, who I have sent many emails to before. It contained a simple subject, two short text paragraphs, my standard signature block, and an attachment, a PDF of a Word 2007 document (formatted text only, no graphics) that I created using Word's built-in PDF publishing feature. After experimenting I found that it was the attachment that the spam filter did not like; when I re-created the PDF attachment by just printing to a PDF printer using PDFCreator instead of using the built-in Word PDF feature, all was well (and I made no changes to the actual document). Strange.....

Maybe Verizon is using different spam tools in different areas of the country? Or it takes into account your IP address range? Or? Or? Or? But it does appear the tool they are using is over aggressive.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7.1, Build 09.97
Keller, TX 76248

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dkw197
Contributor - Level 1

Same with me. I've had FIOS for a number of years (as soon as it became available to my area) and have never had a SPAM notice. I've sent many messages that contained sweepstakes information to my friend and also email with PDF files like you sent and have never been flagged. Now--3 flags in one week. The tech did tell me that you can change the level of Spam filtering or delete it altogether, but I don't know how to do that from my settings. Have you heard anything along those lines? Other than using gmail, yahoo, etc. is there any way to address this with Verizon? I agree with you--it is way too aggresive if it's stopping so many regular emails from their customers with no profile for spamming. How can we get Verizon's attention about this so they will address it? The tech said that it was their new policy, but I think Verizon may try to be responsive if so many customers are complaining about it.

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lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

The level of filtering would be an "inbound" thing, not an outbound one.   I just looked in the MyAccount settings and there's nothing there -- but then I have the "Yahoo" experience from Verizon and not their default mail (I also don't use Verizon for my regular mail using instead my own domain name hosted by GoogleApps).

Evidently Verizon has three "mail" experiences included in their Internet offering  ... their basic Webmail, Yahoo!, and AOL.   All three send/receive mail with the familiar @verizon.net format email address -- but each has a different front-end interface and from the looks of it uses each respective platform's mail engine to sending / receiving mail.

That may be why some are experiencing the issues and some aren't.  If Verizon's mail platform is using a different engine for Spam than Yahoo!, you would experience different results. 

While I'm not going to suggest to everyone that they go out and switch their mail experience (selectable on the Verizon Central My Account page), for some it might be worth checking out.     I did note that it appears that not all flavors are available in all areas that Verizon serves -- not sure how that all works behind the scenes.    My only caution here is that you choose carefully because once you select an experience, it doesn't appear that you can come back to the Verizon-only experience -- hmmm.    Changing experiences for mail also changes the POP/SMTP settings you need to use if you're using a full mail client instead of a web interface -- so make sure you read and understand those as well before you make a selection.

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dkw197
Contributor - Level 1

That makes sense and thanks for the help, but I sure would like to know how to relax the Verizon Spam controls using Outlook. It's really frustrating.

lilhighway
Enthusiast - Level 3

The Verizon Online Anti-Spam Policy strictly prohibits the use of the Verizon network to send or facilitate spam. Verizon takes preventive measures to reduce the amount of unsolicited email our customers receive and discourage spammers from using our network for spam-related activities. One such measure involves scanning incoming and outgoing email messages. The FAQs below provide information about how and why Verizon uses this technique to reduce spam.

Why does Verizon scan Email messages?
Scanning effectively reduces the amount of inbound spam our customers receive and limits the number of unsolicited messages that may otherwise originate from the Verizon network.

Scanning of both outbound and inbound email is an accepted industry practice that helps reduce overall spam on the Internet and the likelihood that messages sent from the Verizon.net domain will be blocked by other Internet Service Providers.

How does scanning work?
Scanning is an automated filtering process that compares the digital signatures of inbound and outbound email messages against the digital signatures of known spam messages. When a match is found, our filters block the message from being delivered to the intended recipient(s). Other than an automated scan against the spam signatures, the scanning process does not involve reading or accessing the content of any inbound or outbound email messages.

Will Verizon notify me if an email I’ve sent is identified as spam?
Yes. If you send an email that matches the digital signature of a known spam message, Verizon will block the message from being delivered and send you the following notice:

"The message you attempted to send was determined to be spam. Please visit http://www.verizon.net/spamfaq for more information."



What should I do if I receive such a notice from Verizon?
If you believe we erred in identifying one of your outgoing emails as spam, you can send the original message to us at spamdetector.update@verizon.net. (Please be sure that the above email address is the sole recipient. Do not add other recipients in the "To", "CC" or "BCC" fields, or we will not receive your message. Do not alter the original message by adding or removing comments, text, or attachments.) Within an hour of receiving your report, we will reevaluate the digital signature and, if the message is believed to be legitimate, adjust our spam filters as appropriate. Please note that Verizon won’t notify you about the outcome of our review. Rather, you should try resending the message 30 – 60 minutes after submitting your report to Verizon.

Does Verizon restrict the number of emails I can send?
Yes. Please see Verizon’s Email Policy for information about limitations on sending email from Verizon.net accounts.

Can I opt out of email scanning?
No. Verizon scans the digital signatures of all inbound and outbound email messages to reduce the overall volume of spam on our network

What else can I do to protect my email account from spammers?
Always maintain your computer with the latest anti-virus software. Check your Verizon account periodically for any unauthorized sub-accounts, by logging into My Verizon, click on “Account”, then “Account Overview”. Scroll to the “Internet” section, and click on “Manage Sub-accounts”. If you don't recognize a sub-account that is listed, immediately delete it, and change your account and portal password and account secret question.

To change your account password and secret question, from the “Internet” section listed above, click “Change Internet Password".

To change your portal password and secret question, click the “Account Profile” button above your account number, and click “Edit” below both “Change Password” and “Change Secret Question”.

 

this is industry standard ohhh it's verizon's industry standard hahahahahaha,i guess verizon knows all it's customers contact list lol

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