Viewing Thread:
"Microsoft Hotmail/Outlook displaying error for Freeola emails"

A Freeola user mentioned to me recently that Microsoft (Hotmail/Outlook/Live) email users see a warning when people write from a Freeola domain.

I've just recreated this by writing to a MS Outlook account from one of my Freeola domain accounts.

When viewing the email via MS webmail it shows:

This sender failed our fraud detection checks and may not be who they appear to be.

Looking around it looks like this might be due to SPF checks?
A report on a Freeola domain shows: "The DNS record type 99 (SPF) has been deprecated".

EDIT: I only see the 'fraud detection' error when using standard email, EmailPro comes through clean.
The 'deprecated' comment is still there so that might be a red-herring.

There's a previous related email tech talk here.

Can anything be done to improve this?

I thought I would start a forum thread rather than use a Support Ticket as others are seeing this so being able to read about the issue may help.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

A Freeola user mentioned to me recently that Microsoft (Hotmail/Outlook/Live) email users see a warning when people write from a Freeola domain.

I've just recreated this by writing to a MS Outlook account from one of my Freeola domain accounts.

When viewing the email via MS webmail it shows:

This sender failed our fraud detection checks and may not be who they appear to be.

Looking around it looks like this might be due to SPF checks?
A report on a Freeola domain shows: "The DNS record type 99 (SPF) has been deprecated".

EDIT: I only see the 'fraud detection' error when using standard email, EmailPro comes through clean.
The 'deprecated' comment is still there so that might be a red-herring.

There's a previous related email tech talk here.

Can anything be done to improve this?

I thought I would start a forum thread rather than use a Support Ticket as others are seeing this so being able to read about the issue may help.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Comparing EmailPro SPF records with standard email I see there is a difference.

EmailPro:
v=spf1 a:emailpro.xxxxxxxx.com include:spf.freeolamail.net ~all

Standard email:
v=spf1 ~all

The Freeola comments mention:
All Freeola domain names will already have SPF records set up for our SMTP servers (smtp.freeola.net and smtp-auth.freeola.net).
v=spf1 a:smtp-auth.freeola.net ~all


I'm out of my depth here, but obviously there are some differences. Can Freeola update all standard email SPF records en-mass to improve things or do customers need to update their own individual records?

Thanks.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Passed this to the systems team, and they're taking a look now.

This appears to be a legacy issue whereby us withdrawing the use of SPF record types in zone records (deprecated) back in 2014 has left some still hanging around if no changes to the domain have been made for ages. I'll update them all shortly.

Thanks for the replies.

Please let me know when this has been done and I'll check the Microsoft warning has gone.

As you mention, it looks like this might be for older domains. I've just run an SPF report on a domain registered in the last few weeks and that looks much healthier.

Thanks.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Give it couple of hours from now for the DNS to propagate and it should then be done.

Looks good...

I'm no longer seeing: This sender failed our fraud detection checks and may not be who they appear to be. - when reading Freeola email via Microsoft webmail.

This can only be a good thing!
[s]Hmmm...[/s]


UPDATE:

Looking at Gmail before and after the SPF records were updated I can see that they are also 'passing authentication' now.

Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
spf=softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning [email protected] does not designate '*Freeola IP*' as permitted sender) [email protected]

This now shows as:
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates '*Freeola IP*' as permitted sender) [email protected]

More good news!

Thanks for the feedback Hmmm.... Extra points for you!

:¬)

We all know what points make! If you're old enough #Brucie
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Green Shield Stamps on Freeola? ;¬)