Email Bounced Hard but Status is Opened?

[aleksandrablock]

Hi,

We recently ran an email program (subscription/opt-in) with two emails as part of the larger program. One went out and the other went out to those who hadn't yet subscribed after 2 weeks. We're reviewing the data now and realizing that some of the hard and soft bounces don't really seem to make sense according to our logic. 

I am under the assumption that some "Clicks" and "Delivered" can be attributed to Spam blockers? If that's the case, then that rules out a good number of the bounces. The same goes for those who received the follow up email - I am assuming their status is Clicked/Opened because they clicked/opened email 1 and then blocked/unsubscribed from us before receiving email 2? That's the best explanation I can see based on the data. 

However, there are a few where the first email hard bounced (and the second email wasn't sent to that person), where their "Activity Type" is Email Bounced but their "Status" is Opened. What might be causing this?

Thanks,

Sasha

[SanfordWhiteman]

---

I am under the assumption that some "Clicks" and "Delivered" can be attributed to Spam blockers? If

---

Delivered isn’t directly related to mail scanners. Delivered means the recipient’s mailserver accepted the email during the initial connection. This can happen even if the recipient’s mailbox doesn‘t actually exist in any meaningful way, because Marketo (like any mail sender) takes the word of the mailserver that there’s something to deliver to.

Later, a server may reveal that the far-end mailbox doesn’t exist or doesn’t accept new messages. In that case it sends an Out-of-Band (OOB) bounce to Marketo. Marketo won’t reverse the initial Delivered, since it did indeed happen. But a Bounced will then be logged.

[aleksandrablock]

Thanks - this is helpful color on the "Delivered" aspect. We're still a bit confused about the "Opens" and "Clicks" part of this though. 

[SanfordWhiteman]

What’s the question about Opens and Clicks exactly? Both of those can be the result of non-human activity.

[aleksandrablock]

We have some Hard Bounces who have a status of "Opened" or "Clicked" - wondering what we might be able to attribute this or whether this is some kind of error with the data on our end. No Email Invalid/Email Suspended Cause in the activity detail. 

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

---

We have some Hard Bounces who have a status of "Opened" or "Clicked" - wondering what we might be able to attribute this or whether this is some kind of error with the data on our end.

---

That would be when a mail scanning service (a gateway) checks the email content before determining the final address does not exist.