If you are having trouble reaching your contacts via email, then the odds are your email address may have been blacklisted. Fortunately, finding out whether your email address has somehow been blacklisted and removing it from the blacklist is usually a straightforward process.
What is Blacklisting?
Blacklisting is a filter-like tool that servers use to determine whether or not an email makes it to the recipient’s inbox. The primary purpose of blacklisting is to block spam and prevent malicious spam emails from reaching the inbox. Spam trapping is another commonly used term for blacklisting.
There are many reasons why you might end up on an email blacklist. Some of the most common reasons are –
- There are many typos in your mailing list, resulting in emails bouncing back.
- Blacklists use fake email addresses and domains to identify and trap spammers that use bought or scraped mailing lists. Sending emails to those addresses can get your email address blacklisted.
- The spam trap will flag your address if you repeatedly email to not-in-use or dormant email addresses.
- Sending emails containing spam filter trigger words also gets your email address blacklisted.
How to Check If Your Email Address Is Blacklisted?
There are two main types of blacklists: IP-based blacklists and Domain-based blacklists. First, you need to determine whether your email address is blacklisted if you suspect it. You can check different block lists and blacklists by going through their record. However, as there are hundreds of active blacklists, it’s better to use free email blacklist checkers such as:
The procedure is similar for most of these email blacklist checkers. When you go to the checker, you will find a search field to put your IP address or domain name and search for it. The checker typically returns results for popular email blacklists with your current status. Some tools might require additional information, such as name and company details. Keep in mind that these free tools only check for active block listings.
How do I Get My Email Address Off of a Blacklist?
Even though ending up on an email blacklist sound scary, the solution to it is pretty simple — especially if your personal email address has been blacklisted by mistake. Sometimes it’s as easy as requesting the blacklist admin to remove your IP address. However, if you have confirmed that one or more blacklists have listed your email address, we suggest you follow the below two steps to remove yourself from the blacklist effectively.
First, you need to identify and change what got you on the list in the first place. Second, you will have to contact the spam list to inform them about the changes.
Most spam list owners and administrators are very responsive in removing and assisting anyone ending up mistakenly in their list. However, you should ensure that you have successfully solved the issue because they might be reluctant to remove your email address multiple times.
The administrator might ask you to follow a few steps to remove your email address, including –
- To remove all email addresses added after a certain period
- To send a re-permission request to all email addresses added after a specific date
- To add a double opt-in subscription process to all of your subscriber procurement sources
- Terminating relationships with partners and affiliates who have directly contributed to getting your email address blacklisted
We also recommend that you obey the rules and guidelines set by blacklists and inbox providers to avoid getting marked as spam again. Keep in mind that frequent spam complaints and falling for spam traps can get your email address blacklisted again.
Spam emails are a cybersecurity threat that can significantly reduce email deliverability and introduce additional problems related to email communication. If your email address appears on multiple spam lists, it can pose an alarming threat to your personal email account security. Additionally, when you become a victim of phishing attacks via spam emails, it can compromise the privacy of others in your contact list. You can end up on the blacklist if your mail account got hacked and was used to distribute spam.
Spammers and phishers can also impersonate you to phish others in your email contacts, leading to you ending up in blacklists instead. The most valuable information spammers can get their hands on is your email address. This is why it is crucial to keep your personal information private and secure on the web.
Go to Sniff Email to check your email address visibility on the web. Sniff Email is an online platform dedicated to finding out if your email address exists on the internet. Enter your email address in the search field and click fetch to find out if your email address exists on the web within a few seconds. Based on the results, you can take appropriate action to remove it.
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