Recently, a LowEndTalk member ticketed in complaining of a problem they were having with NameCrane, a shared hosting (and now email hosting) provider.
His complaint was that NameCrane blocks some emails. In fact, you can read the entire ticket thread because he posted it on LowEndTalk.
Needless to say, the LowEndTalk/LowEndBox support desk is not the place for this issue. We are not a court that resolves issues between users and providers.
But the resolution of the issue is interesting. Long story short:
- User signs up for NameCrane
- User tests out service by sending emails
- Some emails bounce
- User rages and demands a refund
The interesting thing is why the emails bounced.
NameCrane had created a custom anti-spam rule that said “if the subject is ‘SMTP Test’, mark it as spam”. Why? Per the ticket:
“Users get their emails compromised and then they’re abused for SPAM. 99% of the time, the spammers send an email with the subject as ‘SMTP Test’ or a handful of others…”
Fascinating. So because spammers are lazy and uncreative, it’s easy to spot their initial probes.
If I was a provider running an email service, I’d look into creating similar rules.
I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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Actually the string “SMTP Test” in an email subject is almost always just an SMTP test. Some examples of common ones:
“Vaultwarden SMTP Test”
“Mailspring SMTP Test Email”
“Postman SMTP Test”