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Author Topic: SPAM question and message for stammsp
Christine
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I'm having a problem. Last week, stammsp sent me a chapter for critique. I have completed the critique but when I try to send it, I'm getting a failure to deliver notice. I've tried 3 times now. Charter seems to think I'm sending SPAM...or at least that's what the error reads. I'm not sure what to do about this as I've never had this problem before. Does anyone know how to get around this problem?

stammsp: I'm trying to get your critique to you! If you have any idea how I could do this, let me know.


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Bent Tree
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Try injecting Hatrack into your subject line. He might have it set to recieve such.
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Tiergan
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1) Try messing with the wording of the subject.
2) This happened to me once, in the message part, I had talked about a dead girl made of stone. I couldnt get it to send, until I reworded that portion. For some reason it took my email as spam as well.

Hope that helps


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WouldBe
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This can be a fairly complicated situation. Charter may not think that you personally are a spammer, but may receive a lot of spam from your ISP. (I laugh. A large majority of spam I get is from Charter.) For example, Verizon is currently in the top-ten list of worst spammers at spamhaus.org, who provides a database of spam sources to ISPs for spam-filtering purposes. No, Verizon does not send spam; their subscribers do and Verizon does not have policies to prevent it, apparently.

So, if that is your situation, you might have to beat on your ISP about this situation so that they'll work to get themselves off the spam lists of the various services like Openhaus. In the interim, you could get a temporary free email acct somewhere (gmail, Lycos, e.g.), or send your crit indirectly through someone else.

You might want to run an up-to-date virus check on your computer...just in case you *are* sending a lot a spam, unknowingly....

[This message has been edited by WouldBe (edited July 15, 2008).]


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TaleSpinner
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Spam filters try to read messages and detect which ones are spam, with varying degrees of success. They don't like messages that carry lots of words typical of spam. Nor do they like e-mail subject lines like "Hi", or that are blank. Some will reject e-mails with .doc attachments because Word documents can carry viruses. As has been said, some will look at your e-mail address and reject it (because they've been told to, erroneously), others will look at your domain and reject the entire domain (my e-mail domain is yahoo.com for example).

I'd suggest sending a simple e-mail to stammsp that has a title like "This is a test e-mail from Christine about your crit" but without the crit, without any attached documents. If that's bounced, then something about your e-mail address is causing the problem. If that is the case, you can't fix it. stammsp's spam filters are bouncing everything you send, and your only way to get back into contact is to hope stammsp reads this thread and tells the spam filters about you.

BTW I'm surprised it's sending you an error message back. They usually don't bother because they know the return address will almost certainly be incorrect and that in any case spammers ignore replies. Is something in your own firewall or that of your ISP stopping you from sending?

Hope this helps,
Pat

[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited July 16, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited July 16, 2008).]


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Robert Nowall
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You could send something asking for a mailing address, and if you get one, you could send the comments through the mail in the traditional way.
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Zero
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Try changing the file extension. For example if it's a word document try saving it as an .rtf file instead. Also, for free online you can convert any kind of document into a .pdf. An attached pdf shouldn't be read as a virus. (if that's contributing to the problem.)

Also vary the subject heading, and have him check his spam folder for your message. And if all else fails try sending the e-mail from another address.


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Christine
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I changed the file to a .rtf and resent it. I did not get an immediate failure notice (it came back within seconds before) so maybe it worked. Thanks for the help!
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Elan
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Changing it to a PDF will not work. I have Charter service, and I tried to send an invoice out to a client last week that was in the form of a PDF and got the "spam" notice myself. It was the first time it's happened to me. Don't know what caused this, as it was a regular client whom I've billed online before, but for whatever reason I had to snail mail the invoice.

I was able to send an email without an attachment to the same client, so I think it had something to do with the attachment.


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Zero
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That's interesting. I attach and e-mail .pdf's all the time.
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stammsp
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Have I mentioned I hate Windows Vista?

Christine got it through, thankfully. I'm going to have to throw my computer a nice thick slice of steak so it will play nice with others. Either that, or figure out what is wrong with the Outlook Express.

I'd hate to think people were not sending me their theings to critique because of frustration with the email!!!!

(We bought a new tower two weeks ago and have been fighting with it since.)

Gina
stammsp


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Christine
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Vista is what finally convinced me to let my husband install Linux on my computer. We have been a fully windows-free household for two weeks now and honestly, I don't miss it one bit. I use Open Office, which can save things as word documents if someone needs it that way. It's also free, unlike some overprice Microsoft software packages I could name...
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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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Oh, Gina, you have my sympathy.
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Robert Nowall
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Oh, computers are just one problem after another. Tuesday, I put some updated security software onto my machine...only to find my old software blocked popups and other ads and annoyances of online life...only to learn, on querying, that they eliminated this protection. (I might not have bought the stuff if I'd known.)
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