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Blocking emails - can email providers do this?

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  • 17-09-2021 8:16am
    #1
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭


    Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes...

    Is it possible for an email provider such as Gmail or Yahoo to block/spam/junk certain incoming emails on behalf of a user without them knowing it?

    I'm asking because emails from me to an elderly friend, who has a Yahoo address, go straight to her junk or spam folder. (I'm not sure which one.)

    She wouldn't know how to set this up on her own, so I'm wondering if it's a Yahoo automated process?

    The only thing about my emails that's a possible cause is that I have my website address in my email signature. But, this problem occurs with none of my business contacts.

    Thanks.


    D.



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    #2
    28064212
    Registered Users Posts: 10,460 ✭✭✭✭28064212


    Yes, most providers would operate that way. Otherwise inboxes would be flooded with loan offers, viagra ads, and nigerian price scams all the time. No system is going to be perfect, so false positives are occasionally going to occur.

    Depending on the provider, your friend can indicate that emails from you aren't spam by a number of methods: add you to their email contacts, mark your emails as "not spam", or set up an explicit filter to ensure emails from your address always go to inbox

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    #3
    HildaOgdenx
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,449 Mod ✭✭✭✭HildaOgdenx


    Emails occasionally go into spam on my gmail address. Some are not spam, and once I mark them as 'not spam' (that comes up as an option on gmail) they come through fine next time around.

    A very occasional one is actually spam, so it's handy in that respect.



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    #4
    AnCatDubh
    Registered Users Posts: 6,392 ✭✭✭AnCatDubh


    You could assist your friend to whitelist your email address on their Yahoo mail. In the following guide, all mail from an email address always gets delivered to the inbox.

    https://downtimemonkey.com/blog/how-to-whitelist-an-email-address-in-yahoo-mail.php



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    #5
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Years ago I worked for a web and email hosting provider. They had their own proprietary spam filter(which if memory serves was mostly written in Perl) which occasionally identified a legitimate email as being spam occasionally because it contained offensive language. We had a client ring up one day who said emails from one particular client were constantly being flagged as containing offensive language. I offered to whitelist the address but the client wanted to get to the bottom of it. After extensive analysis I discovered, the email that kept being flagged had a signature, and in the signature was a small image. When you send an email with an image in it, your email client converts the image into base 64. Base64 uses uppercase and lower case letters A-Z, numbers 0-9 and + or /. When the small image in the signature was converted to Base 64, it spelt out SEX, which was on the black list for offensive language. I'm not saying thats whats happening here, but it could be a similar bug or feature.



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