… This morning all my outgoing messages came back to me. My Norton virus checker results stated that all is clean. The message:

“Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 554. The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content (state 18).”

Can you help?

While it is odd that all of your messages bounced back to you, it is good that your virus checker had nothing to report. With a message of this type, one that has been generated by the intended recipient of the emails, the problem is clearly seen as one that belongs to that email server. In other words, the problem is not on your end or with your Gmail account.

By the nature of the comment that is included with the rejection, “The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content,” the indication here is that the other mail server has an issue with some of the content in your email. Most email servers/providers maintain applications to prohibit the sending or receipt of spam.

In particular, URLs that originate from certain websites that have been blocked by the email server are classified as “undeliverable” due to the nature of their content. Emails sent with this type or URL included in either the body or signature of the email will not go through and will get bounced back to the originator or sender of the email.

Questionable attachments are also a quick trip to the “this isn’t getting delivered” bounce back dump. Today’s technology is very sophisticated and yet it has been designed and implemented by humans. Therefore, even content and URLs that have nothing to do with spam or viruses are often mistakenly flagged as belonging to this category of undesirables.

Without knowing whether your outgoing messages are similar in content or whether they are all going through the same mail server, it is difficult to get specific. However, it is more than likely that some word, link, or attachment in your emails is being recognized by the other email server as some type of signal that the emails contain spam content.

In some cases, the problem is in the subject line of the emails. Certain words have been associated as red flags that indicate that the email being issued with it is more likely than not some type of spam. A few examples of common subject lines used with spam are: re, alert, undelivered mail, and policy violation. Subject lines for spam change on a regular basis and might include bits and pieces from current headlines as well.

It is also possible that the email servers for the intended recipients of your emails have anti-spam software installed and set at a high level. In fact, this is almost a definite circumstance. This application would reject the emails and refuse to deliver any that resembled spam.

I suggest calling tech support at the other email server and asking for a clear explanation.

Susan Keenan | August 25th, 2008
Tags: bounced emails, google email error, Spam
Categories: Spam

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