DNS Blacklisted by uceprotect.bad Meaning?

[Tom_Kerlin2]

Hello,

After checking a client's activity details (and pulling a smart list), I'm noticing that there are a sizable portion of people that have been email suspended with the following error message: 554 5.7.1 DNS Blacklisted by uceprotect.bad

Is uceprotect considered a bad blacklist? Marketo support claims that it's not a trusted blacklist, so just wanted to confirm and see if there was any list of trusted blacklists and/or untrusted blacklists.

I'd like to be able to send this client an email again in the future, so looking for next best step to resolve? Not sure if I should ask client to stop using that particular blacklist?

Thanks for your help,

Tom

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

After checking a client's activity details (and pulling a smart list), I'm noticing that there are a sizable portion of people that have been email suspended with the following error message: 554 5.7.1 DNS Blacklisted by uceprotect.bad

Is uceprotect considered a bad blacklist? Marketo support claims that it's not a trusted blacklist, so just wanted to confirm and see if there was any list of trusted blacklists and/or untrusted blacklists.

Unfortunately the word "trusted" shouldn't be used. Trustworthy, yes. But if you're seeing messages rejected because of it, it's obviously trusted enough by recipients to have a real-world effect.

UCEProtect are awful people who do some good things. Their DNSBLs are the only ones I know of that are acknowledged as simultaneously useful (that is, catching IPs that aren't aren't on other lists) and a scam (because they force you to pay to be delisted).

Because you are clearly using an IP address that has emitted spam in the past (Marketo users, like it or not, do send spam) and can't be guaranteed to not do so in the future, I wouldn't try to convince your client that UCEProtect shouldn't be used. You'll be doing battle with their IT department's technical decisions. Instead, try to get them to use DKIM (not IP addresses) to whitelist messages from your domain, and your domain only. This means you won't be pressuring them to give up on other elements of their anti-spam stack, questionable as they are.