From Newsgroup: uk.telecom.broadband
TL;DR backstory: skip to after the ##### line for the meat.
Backstory: I like to forward phishing and similar emails (such as a plausible-sounding "survey" request that purported to come from M&S,
which I'd not used for years - complete with "you might win something"
of course) to
report@phishing.gov.uk and
reportphishing@apwg.org;
whether it does any good I don't know, but I can't see it doing any harm
and makes me feel good.
Lately, some of such forwardings have been bounced by a greenby server
because they contain something dodgy; quite, that's why I was forwarding
them!
So I asked Greenby (raised a ticket), basically, saying I know what
you're trying to do, but could you please consider not doing it when the recipient is
report@phishing.gov.uk and similar? (Basically, just
expecting the answer "no, it'd be too much effort" or similar.)
But, of course, initially, they completely ignored what I said, and gave
me the standard reply to people complaining about receiving spam
messages - i. e. "here's how to tighten your incoming settings" and
similar. (Mostly irrelevant even if that's what I wanted to do, since it assumed I was using webmail or IMAP.)
Eventually, after far more exchanges than should have been necessary
(some from me saying "NO AI" or "HUMAN PLEASE"), they got that it was
_sending_ such messages that was the problem - though they asked for a screenshot of my SMTP settings, which was not the correct thing to do -
since I've sent hundreds if not thousands of emails with no problem, it
is only ones being forwarded to
report@phishing.gov.uk and containing
dodgy content that are giving any problems.
So I thought I'd try, again, sending the two emails that weee stuck in
my Drafts folder, having been bounced before whenever I tried to send
them, so I could send them a screenshot of the error message.
But this time they went (no bounce); I can only assume that someone at
Greenby has fixed the problem. Whether it's a case of the left hand not
knowing what the right hand is doing, or a fix having been applied but a reluctance to admit there ever having been a problem (I've encountered
this attitude with assorted companies in the past), I don't know - I
suspect the latter.
I, foolishly, send them a screenshot of my SMTP settings anyway, and
received the following reply:
#####
"I can see that you are using no authentication with the server, and the outgoing server is relay.plus.net, which has a poor reputation."
1. When Greenby took over PlusNet's email handling, we were assured that
we need do nothing (which has already been proved wrong - we now need
one level of authentication, though one below the one they mention
above; they presumably assumed everyone was already doing so - most
were, but some weren't. Those using Turnpike, for example, now have to
invoke stunnel. [Those using Thunderbird didn't have to do anything as
it already has that stage of authentication.])
2. If they "took over", presumably they took over the servers too - so
should have been able to fix any that had "a poor reputation" - at least
if they were going to claim that the transition wold be seamless.
"We will be using mail.enmail.co as the outgoing server." In Colombia?
(OK, I know it isn't really, but still ...)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
My friend David had his ID stolen - now he's just Dav
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