Thaivisa.Com Blocks All Yahoo Email Addresses From Today

[onthemoon]

Last year I tried to sign up for Bangkok Bank Internet banking, on the signup form you enter an email address.

It could ONLY be @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com I was staggered to say the least. I asked why.

The reply "Because it's only a real email address if it ends in @yahoo.com or hotmail.com" said the senior girl behind the desk.

Totally unbelieivable, but totally true.

Talk to her supervisor, she obviously has not been trained properly and should not be allowed to talk to customers yet.

[chrisinth]

Before you all have stress disorder problems with this, nobody is telling you to 'cancel' or stop using your Yahoo email accounts. What you are being asked to do is to create a new email account so that you can receive the TV newsletter/updates, and to update that information with TV. 10 minute job!

The reason given for this is that the protection adopted by Yahoo (and possibly Hotmail?) brand ThaiVisa as Spam generators (because of their bulk mail) and will put them on blacklists such as Spamhaus, etc, where the IP address is stopped from sending to that Yahoo/Hotmail address. A real pain in the butt.

That would be my understanding of the request; Mods, please advise if this is wrong?

[ThaiSold]

The problem isn't as much Yahoo as it is users, ThaiVisa are probably being punished because of idiot users who click SPAM instead of the unsubscribe link.

ThaiVisa are just being lazy to tell people to stop using Yahoo,

I have a mailing list with 60% of people who live in Thailand here how it's broken down by client, I can only assume ThaiVisa has similar numbers so if they do this they'll lose 50% of their business because i doubt people are going to change email addresses just so they can view ThaiVisa, what a joke.

Hotmail

41.5% Gmail

22.0% iPhone

15.5% Yahoo Classic

7.5% Windows Live Mail

4.5% Thunderbird

3.3% Outlook 2007

2.2% Outlook 2010

2.0% AOL

0.9% Yahoo

0.5% Spicebird

0.1%

[george]

Before you all have stress disorder problems with this, nobody is telling you to 'cancel' or stop using your Yahoo email accounts. What you are being asked to do is to create a new email account so that you can receive the TV newsletter/updates, and to update that information with TV. 10 minute job!

The reason given for this is that the protection adopted by Yahoo (and possibly Hotmail?) brand ThaiVisa as Spam generators (because of their bulk mail) and will put them on blacklists such as Spamhaus, etc, where the IP address is stopped from sending to that Yahoo/Hotmail address. A real pain in the butt.

That would be my understanding of the request; Mods, please advise if this is wrong?

You Are 100% correct!

[Honkytowner]

All ThaiVisa emails are initially blocked by Hotmail with the banner: "This message looks very suspicious to our SmartScreen filters, so we've blocked attachments, pictures, and links for your safety." There is, however, the option to "Show content". Perhaps Yahoo has something similar in place but without the option? It would be interesting to know. It's hard not to conclude that TV is merely trying to protect its advertising revenue.

[george]

Quick point... i take it that notifications from the classifieds section will now come to new e-mail ?

No changes to classifieds emails at present time.

[ukrules]

The reason given for this is that the protection adopted by Yahoo (and possibly Hotmail?) brand ThaiVisa as Spam generators (because of their bulk mail) and will put them on blacklists such as Spamhaus, etc, where the IP address is stopped from sending to that Yahoo/Hotmail address. A real pain in the butt.

You Are 100% correct!

There are apparently ways around this using a digital signing technology known as DKIM which works with your outgoing email server.

[manarak]

I believe the reasoning is thus, Yahoo don't like bulk email (the newsletters and email notifications) we send out. Thaivisa ends up on spammers block lists. Obviously this is something TV wishes to avoid.

I don't know if this "quick fix" could help you or not:

Mails sent through PHP's regular sendmail or mail function does not use SMTP (as PHP's mails are automatically approved) and usually X-MAILER PHP is added to the mail headers.

These 2 markers increase the message's SPAM score at yahoo, hotmail and some other dumb email providers, which are mostly US based.

Their rationale behind this is that spammers use PHP to send spam. duh.

One fix for this is to send email through SMTP instead of using PHP's mail function.

On Linux systems, it's easy to install the PEAR mail package which provides a simple framework for sending SMTP emails.

This should solve many delivery problems to yahoo and hotmail.

Edited August 13, 2012 by manarak

[davee58]

I had problems with mails from my Philippine girlfriends Yahoo account a couple of years ago, and spent a couple of days analysing the bounced header, and sending enquiries to different internet companies.

I finally received an e-mail from a spam company, confirming that all mail from the particular Yahoo node was blocked due to bulk spamming.

No problem with her other e-mail addresses.

[manarak]

and of course, there is another reason for getting listed on spamlists:

i.e. even dumber users who are either too lazy to login to thaivisa.com to change their email preferences and then just report the mail from TV as spam or who are just too dumb to do it.

I get many of these, at first they manually request the newsletter to be sent to them, and then when they don't want it anymore they report the mail as spam.

I wish there was a way to report these users somewhere.

[2008bangkok]

People using Yahoo or Hotmail Email addresses really know nothing about internet...

Yahoo and Hotmail are the worst about SPAM and nobody should use them anymore.

Only Gmail rules.

But what about Ymail.com ? (also belongs to Yahoo)

Hotmail and Yahoo do have alot of spam butI think it is the other way round, people who use Gmail know nothing about the internet, if they did they wouldnt want to use a provide who scans/reads all your incoming email and then gives you target ads based on the type of email you recieve, i also belive they have just launced a new service im not 100% sure how it will work but it has something to do with scanning email to provide either better search results or anwsers to search related questions, i think Microsoft jumped all over this when they launched the new Outlook/Hotmail preview.

[12DrinkMore]

So,

1. I won't be receiving news to my Hotmail account, but can still log into TV. OK I can live with that.

2. Is Outlook (the new Hotmail) similarly affected?

3. Will password resets still be sent to hotmail?

[RBOP]

Thai Visa says:

"Blocked from today 2011-08-13:

yahoo.com

yahoo.com.* (all country specific yahoo email addresses)

yahoo.co.* (all country specific yahoo email addresses)

Hotmail.com and Live.com addresses will probably be blocked as well shortly.

My question to Thai Visa is: "Why? Please give an explanation".

[wordchild]

I have a yahoo address for Thai visa ( i dont want to use my work email ) and never seem to have any problems getting updates from tv into my main mailbox. I have no intention of changing an email address because I am commanded to do so by some website I am registered with because they are concerned they can't get their marketing stuff through to my mailbox. If that means that I miss out on "updates" from tv , so what! hardly ever click through on them anyway.

Edited August 13, 2012 by wordchild

[manarak]

The reason given for this is that the protection adopted by Yahoo (and possibly Hotmail?) brand ThaiVisa as Spam generators (because of their bulk mail) and will put them on blacklists such as Spamhaus, etc, where the IP address is stopped from sending to that Yahoo/Hotmail address. A real pain in the butt.

You Are 100% correct!

There are apparently ways around this using a digital signing technology known as DKIM which works with your outgoing email server.

yes, that together with SPF records and sending emails through SMTP should pretty much solve the delivery problems.

(DKIM, SPF and sending through SMTP are solutions that can be implemented for FREE)

[Gimbo]

Last year I tried to sign up for Bangkok Bank Internet banking, on the signup form you enter an email address.

It could ONLY be @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com I was staggered to say the least. I asked why.

The reply "Because it's only a real email address if it ends in @yahoo.com or hotmail.com" said the senior girl behind the desk.

Totally unbelieivable, but totally true.

Does not surprise me at all. Back in 2009, I wanted to buy a computer, and went into a store that sells these infernal machines.

naturally I had a few questions before I spent thousands of baht...but all the sales girl (she was a stunner I tell you) could come up with was that it had a screen saver. That was her sales pitch....

On the other hand, with her looks that was perhaps all she needed...but I purchased elsewhere..

[Iamemjay]

Unbelievable stupidity!

No I won't change.

If you guys cannot sort out whatever is the problem you're having with Yahoo, when most other businesses seem to be able to, you don't deserve my membership. ... and what in the world is your reason?? You haven't even shown sufficient respect to explain yourselves properly.

[Gimbo]

To get around it...make yourself a gmail account. And forward all e-mail that drops into it to your yahoo account...

If you don't know how, ask the resident teenager of the household....

[whybother]

Due to delivery problems with all types of email addresses by Yahoo.com, Yahoo.co.uk etc etc including Rocketmail.com, we have today banned all Yahoo email addresses to sign up with thaivisa.

Unless you're signing up, it shouldn't be a problem ... unless they're going to stop sending out to existing Yahoo etc email addresses.

[chrisinth]

The reason given for this is that the protection adopted by Yahoo (and possibly Hotmail?) brand ThaiVisa as Spam generators (because of their bulk mail) and will put them on blacklists such as Spamhaus, etc, where the IP address is stopped from sending to that Yahoo/Hotmail address. A real pain in the butt.

You Are 100% correct!

There are apparently ways around this using a digital signing technology known as DKIM which works with your outgoing email server.

yes, that together with SPF records and sending emails through SMTP should pretty much solve the delivery problems.

(DKIM, SPF and sending through SMTP are solutions that can be implemented for FREE)

The problem isn't the delivery, but the receipt of the emails on the Yahoo servers. For example, TV sends out an update to its registered users, say for example xxx,000 of which 40% are using Yahoo email addresses. The Yahoo servers see the receipt of xxx,000 emails arriving at once from the same email address/IP adress with the same timestamp and kneejerk that this is unusual traffic. The next step is that the email address/IP address is reported as a spam generator and put on a blacklist until such time that the sender removes themselves from the blacklist.

This is known as bulk email and is used as a marketing tool and as a means of transmitting information to multiple addresses at once. Because free email providers such as Yahoo & Hotmail want to save money, they have adopted many automated systems which generalize in certain circumstances too much and will paint innocent services as Spammers as they don't do all the checks. To my knowledge, the free email providers do not have a Whitelist option. This I think is the position TV finds itself in. I for one sympathize with them.

As for G-mail: this was a suggestion from TV as an alternative email service, and not a directive. IMEHO

Edit: IMEHO added for clarity

Edited August 13, 2012 by chrisinth

[manarak]

aaah, I understand better now!

Thaivisa doesn't have its own mail servers, it uses google for sending emails:

mx:thaivisa.com Pref Hostname IP Address TTL 0 aspmx.l.google.com 173.194.77.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com 74.125.134.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test 10 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com 173.194.76.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test 25 aspmx2.googlemail.com 173.194.69.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test 35 aspmx3.googlemail.com 74.125.127.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test 50 aspmx4.googlemail.com 173.194.78.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test 75 aspmx5.googlemail.com 74.125.130.27 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test

[KeyserSoze01]

People using Yahoo or Hotmail Email addresses really know nothing about internet...

Yahoo and Hotmail are the worst about SPAM and nobody should use them anymore.

Only Gmail rules.

But what about Ymail.com ? (also belongs to Yahoo)

Really? That's is quite funny. You slam two of the largest web-based mail systems, then admit that you use gmail.

[manarak]

The problem isn't the delivery, but the receipt of the emails on the Yahoo servers.

that's what's meant with "delivery"

To my knowledge, the free email providers do not have a Whitelist option.

well, the *proper" free email providers have that option.

For example GMX

Since 2005 or 2006 when yahoo and hotmail introduced their anti-spam policies, those providers have just been rubbish.

[fxe1200]

It would be nice if someone from ThaiVisa would explain in this thread WHY the forum is taking this move against Yahoo addresses....and talking about doing the same for Hotmail and related addresses.

I would imagine, for most people in terms of email, they're either using Gmail, Hotmail or some variety of Yahoo mail. If ThaiVisa rules out both Yahoo and Hotmail (and Live.com) addresses, that's pretty much leaving one email major email provider standing in terms of ThaiVisa log-ins.

Easy to understand: all messages sent by Thaivisa.com are sent to spam/bulk folder

...and this is because thaivisa uses a Thai-IP which is considered as spam suspicious by Hotmail, yahoo, and AOL. I also had to inform friends to exclude my email address manually from spam, as - when you use local mail - always write with a Thai IP.

[noahvail]

Microsoft has already announced that they are going to abandon Hotmail.

And replace it. It's been in the works for some years now.

[Fgis]

Really amazing how people who never worked online and don't know what they are talking about AT ALL still support Yahoo and Htomail that are the biggest and at the same time the worst Email services...

Yes I use Gmail just as anybody with a brain in this world, and one day you will also understand why.

Robots reading your Email ? Yes they all do it now but they do not all clearly say it as Google since te beginning.

I prefer to have ads that I do not see around the text just as on Thaivisa than ads in by INBOX, but as I said, many must know better than people who work online since the beginning of Internet...

[Andre0720]

All ThaiVisa emails are initially blocked by Hotmail with the banner: "This message looks very suspicious to our SmartScreen filters, so we've blocked attachments, pictures, and links for your safety." There is, however, the option to "Show content". Perhaps Yahoo has something similar in place but without the option? It would be interesting to know. It's hard not to conclude that TV is merely trying to protect its advertising revenue.

Correct.

I am a user of Yahoo.ca, and I also have a GMail address. I do prefer Yahoo.

And when I got my first ThaiVisa.com e-mail, I simply added ThaiVisa.com as a "contact".

I never had a problem with YAHOO

[wxpwzrd]

Wow some pretty presumptive (rude and insulting) comments about which email system to use... People have their preferences to the type of email service they use. Insulting them doesn't say much for your genius knowledge of email systems.

Those of you so 'in the know' should be using your own private domains and email services...

[bkkjames]

until today i get my tv message notifications to my yahoo.com address with no issues, no spam folder etc. anyways, i dont subscribe to e-news or sms thingys anyways and I wont be setting up a gmail account to get notifications that someone sent me a message.

[yourauntbob]

I refuse to use gmail or facebook for anything. They collect and sell your data with no regard for peoples privacy. If thaivisa no longer accepts my business then i will add it to the long list of companies i simply dont do business with because of this reason. I agree with many of the posts above saying its a marketing or money thing.