Messages go directly in junk folder. Caused by return-path?

  • Resolved Guido

    (@guido07111975)


    8 years, 11 months ago

    Hi,

    Because messages send from my contactform often directly go to the junk folder I Googled this and found out this might be caused by the ‘return-path’ (domain) not being the same as email (domain) from sender.

    The return path is part of phpmailer, and gets the website/server domain.

    So I created this hook (source) to turn the return-path into email from sender.

    function my_phpmailer_example( $phpmailer ) {
	$phpmailer->Sender = $phpmailer->From;
}
add_action( 'phpmailer_init', 'my_phpmailer_example' );

    It does change the return-path (same as email from sender) but I would like to now if this really does the trick? Any thoughts?

    Guido

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • adiant

    (@adiant)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    There are so many different pieces of software that are in use today to “tag” e-mail as Spam, that you will never find a solution that guarantees that a given piece of e-mail won’t end up in a Junk Folder or otherwise get labelled as Spam. The best that you can do is try and reduce the chances.

    Yes, I can see it being worth your while to make the return-path and sender match, as that is a common spammer’s trick: use one of the addresses on the e-mail list as the sender’s e-mail for the spam.

    Plus, the normal advice: exactly one address in the To: field and none in the BCC: or CC: fields.

    Here in Canada, with last year’s anti-spam law coming into effect, some spam filters have begun to look for Unsubscribe links in the message body that meet the law’s requirement.

    Finally, there is the mail server itself. Some web hosts are not very careful and end up with a “bad reputation” in the spam databases used by ISPs. Messages you send in that situation often get bounced by the ISP without the end customer even being aware of the fact.

    Bottom line advice: do what you can, realizing that nothing is guaranteed to work (what works today may not work tomorrow), and monitor your mail logs for any evidence of non-delivery (remembering that some ISP mail servers do not bounceback, but just fail silently).

    Thread Starter Guido

    (@guido07111975)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Hi,

    Thanks for your extensive response. I guess I have to wait for user experience on this.. Did update my plugin last week.

    Off topic:
    I notice you’re a big radio fan. When I visited Ontario back in 2012 I went to Hammond Museum of Radio in Guelph. Nice!

    Guido

    adiant

    (@adiant)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Sorry for the delay. My father-in-law ended up in the hospital, but is home now and seemingly doing better.

    Radio museums are few and far between, at least decent ones in my part of the world. Glad that you had a chance to enjoy it. I’m currently working on a WordPress-based site, still under wraps, to finally get some historically accurate broadcast history for Western Canada. Really time-consuming to do, but I’m using contemporary newspaper accounts, rather than broadcast directories, and getting some pretty amazing results: finding mistakes in 75% of the current accounts of broadcast events!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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