Store emails are getting blocked by spam filters

We've started getting a lot of store-generated emails (welcome, order confirmations, etc.) bouncing lately. I contacted my host and he replied:

This is most probably the result of a new spam software called 'Spam Blocker'. It just terminates the SMTP connection causing a time out.
If you send emails straight from your store mailing list tools or any other php script sending from the server , 'spam blocker' will most probably detect those emails as spam.
There has been an increase in spam for the last few months and as the result filters are being upgraded all over the place , making it difficult to send pretty much any types of emails do some locations.
We are also about to upgrade spam filtering ourself soon. If you send those emails from your email software, they would have more chance to make it through i think.

Is anyone else encountering this problem?

Example bounce message (with some contact details removed):

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

EMAIL ADDRESS
SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection:
host mail2.stericycle.com [12.144.107.210]: 554 5.7.1 corpfw01.stericycle.com Connection not authorized

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <EMAIL ADDRESS>
Received: from apache by zserver.domaindirect.com.au with local (Exim 4.24)
id 1Fpnct-0000HY-Vk
for EMAIL ADDRESS; Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:42:47 +1000
To: "CUSTOMER NAME" < EMAIL ADDRESS>
Subject: Order Confirmation No: NUMBER
From: "The Wilderdom Store" < EMAIL ADDRESS>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Zen Cart Mailer
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-Id: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:42:47 +1000

Order Confirmation from The Wilderdom Store

Joan Hansen

Thanks for shopping with us today!
The following are the details of your order.

Order Number: NUMBER
Date Ordered: Tuesday 13 June, 2006

Good Day,

This is an educated guess (as opposed to the SWAG);

dig mx stericycle.com shows:

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;stericycle.com. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
stericycle.com. 23841 IN MX 5 imail.stericycle.com.
stericycle.com. 23841 IN MX 7 mail.stericycle.com.
stericycle.com. 23841 IN MX 9 mail2.stericycle.com.
stericycle.com. 23841 IN MX 13 mail3.stericycle.com.
stericycle.com. 23841 IN MX 15 mail4.stericycle.com.
stericycle.com. 23841 IN MX 17 mail5.stericycle.com.

Any (repeat ANY) attempt to deliver mail to mail2.stericycle.com results in '554 5.7.1 corpfw01.stericycle.com Connection not authorized' message'. Mail delivery is attempted to this server when servers w/ lower MX preference numbers are not available. Attempt to deliver to imail.stericycle.com results in a more 'friendly' greeting.

For this isolated domain, my assessment is mail delivery refused as result of bad timeing; the primary server (imail) was busy or off line.

You did well to post the SMTP dialog.

Technically this message not blocked because of SPAM filter - the server to which message was directed is not interested in talking to anyone.

Feel free to post additional reject messages and we see about making more guesses.

M

Change your Subject line on these emails ... many sites do now block things that look like:

Subject: Order Confirmation No: NUMBER

I forget off the top of my head the nuances of the Spamm controls but this is something you can look into or should be able to ask your hosting site about ...

Hi Ajeh,

I was just wondering how I would remove the order number from the email subject (even if I am asking 3 years later!)

You would need to customize the orders class in:
/includes/classes/orders.php

there are several places where the emails are sent, the one to the customer is:

    zen_mail($this->customer['firstname'] . ' ' . $this->customer['lastname'], $this->customer['email_address'], EMAIL_TEXT_SUBJECT . EMAIL_ORDER_NUMBER_SUBJECT . $zf_insert_id, $email_order, STORE_NAME, EMAIL_FROM, $html_msg, 'checkout', $this->attachArray);

You would need to change the subject portion to read as you want to see it ...

Thanks Ajeh, I really appreciate your help!! :clap:

You are most welcome ... glad that this could help you in customizing the subject of the orders emails ... :smile:

Ajeh,

After changing the subject for store emails unfortunately they were still triggering spam filters. I have sent a few emails through to myself and changed a few things around and think I can solve this issue by removing the detailed invoice link within the emails

'Detailed Invoice:
http://mywebsite/zen/index.php?main_page=account_history_info&order_id=****'

Do you know where I can edit/remove this part of the email??

Thankyou :smile:

That is built in the same file ...

Do a search in the Tools ... Developers Tool Kit ... for:
Detailed Invoice:

That will show you the CONSTANT used in the language file:
EMAIL_TEXT_INVOICE_URL

Now search for that in the Developers Tool Kit and it will show you where that is used ...

Again, you will see it in the orders.php class for both the admin and catalog ...

Customize that as you need it ...