Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2025 October 16

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 16

554 6.6.0 Error Sending Report of Spam

I was trying to send a report of a spam that I received to the ISP that transmitted it and to the businesses that have been joe-jobbed, and was trying to send the raw text of the body of the spam and a copy of the Internet header. When I tried to send the report using Outlook, I would get an error message listing all of the recipients, of the form: The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

    'abuse@microsoft.com' on 10/16/2025 2:10 PM
           554 6.6.0 Error sending message for delivery.

     'abuse@vrbo.com' on 10/16/2025 2:10 PM
           554 6.6.0 Error sending message for delivery.

    'abuse@paypal.com' on 10/16/2025 2:10 PM
           554 6.6.0 Error sending message for delivery.

I was able, as a test, to send the body of the spam to myself, but if I tried to send the header of the spam to myself, I got the 554 6.6.0 error. Then I sent the spam report with both the body and the header using a web mail client, and I got a copy delivered to myself and a boilerplate reply from paypal. That is, web mail sent it successfully, while an Outlook client on my computer became confused and returned 554 6.6.0 errors. So: Does anyone have any ideas as to what in the Internet header of a spam would make Outlook choke? Robert McClenon (talk) 23:28, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps a spam filter on outgoing messages that signals a spam-related address in the header? (Just guessing.)  ​‑‑Lambiam 06:20, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

It looks like Outlook indeed has filters for outgoing spam. (That doesn't necessarily mean that that is what happened in this case.) Long is the way (talk) 10:08, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

No, it doesn't mean that is what happened, but that would explain what happened. Technical measures to stop the sending of spam may be perversely impeding the reporting of spam. Thank you, sort of. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:27, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

I've run into the same issue with Rackspace recently, you may consider using SpamCop.net to report since manual reporting is going to start getting difficult it seems. PCHS Pirate Alumnus (talk) 14:37, 23 October 2025 (UTC)