Unable to send email to Hotmail or Outlook addresses - how to remove yourself from the block list

Unable to send email to Hotmail or Outlook addresses – how to remove yourself from the Hotmail block-list

If you find yourself suddenly unable to send email to Hotmail or Outlook.com email addresses from your website or work email address, you may have ended up on the Hotmail or Microsoft spam block-list. This can happen through no fault of your own as spammers will disguise the email they send as coming from someone else’s domain name (spoofing). Nevertheless, you’re the one who ends up paying the consequences. By the time the spammer has moved on to their next next victim, you find yourself unable to send emails to addresses you may have emailed a dozen times before with no problem – so what now? Follow this quick guide to submit a Microsoft block-list removal request and unblock your email from the Hotmail servers.

Step 1 – find the error message in the bounced email

The following is an example of the error message from an email bounced back from Hotmail. The sender’s domain is perfectly reputable – is many years old and has never sent spam – but they found themselves on the Microsoft email block list:

host eur.olc.protection.outlook.com[104.47.12.33]
    said: 550 5.7.1 Unfortunately, messages from [**.**.**.**] weren't sent.
    Please contact your Internet service provider since part of their network
    is on our block list (S3150). You can also refer your provider to
    http://mail.live.com/mail/troubleshooting.aspx#errors.
    [DB3EUR04FT007.eop-eur04.prod.protection.outlook.com] (in reply to MAIL
    FROM command)

Step 2 – fill in the Microsoft email blacklist removal request form

Click the following button to open the Microsoft email blacklist removal form (will open in a new tab):

Step 3- fill in the required fields

The email blacklist removal form will ask you for several different things. Most are intuitive, others not so. Here are a few pointers:

  • Issue title – you could write something along the lines of ’email block list removal request’
  • Contact name, contact email address, time-zone, how you describe yourself – your details in these fields
  • which domain are you sending to? – This is the domain name part of the email your trying to send to e.g. Hotmail.com or Outlook.com
  • Domain your sending from & URL of your website – this is the domain name part of the email address that is blocked e.g. if your email address is yourname@yourdomain.com, in this field write yourdomain.com
  • Outbound IP range – here you just need the IP address you can find in the bounced email error message. It is a group of 4 numbers separated by full-stops. In the error message you see above I have changed the IP address to ‘**.**.**.**’ but your IP would look something like 23.122.54.233. Just one IP in this box is enough (you won’t normally need to input a whole IP range)
  • Server dedicated or shared? – if you don’t know, just put ‘shared’
  • Paste error message – copy and paste in the error message from your email which will look similar to the example above

Step 4 – submit the form and wait

You may get an email acknowledgement. In any case, it may take a couple of days to remove you from the block list

For reference – the Hotmail blocklist error codes

SMTP Error CodeExplanation
421 RP-001The mail server IP connecting to Outlook.com server has exceeded the rate limit allowed. Reason for rate limitation is related to IP/domain reputation. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
421 RP-002The mail server IP connecting to Outlook.com server has exceeded the rate limit allowed on this connection. Reason for rate limitation is related to IP/domain reputation. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
421 RP-003The mail server IP connecting to Outlook.com server has exceeded the connection limit allowed. Reason for limitation is related to IP/domain reputation. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
550 SC-001Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
550 SC-002Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. The mail server IP connecting to Outlook.com has exhibited namespace mining behavior. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
550 SC-003Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. Your IP address appears to be an open proxy/relay. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
550 SC-004Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. A block has been placed against your IP address because we have received complaints concerning mail coming from that IP address. We recommend enrolling in our Junk Email Reporting Program (JMRP), a free program intended to help senders remove unwanted recipients from their email list. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
550 DY-001Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. We generally do not accept email from dynamic IP’s as they are not typically used to deliver unauthenticated SMTP email to an Internet mail server. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help. http://www.spamhaus.org maintains lists of dynamic and residential IP addresses.
550 DY-002Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. The likely cause is a compromised or virus infected server/personal computer. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.
550 OU-001Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help. For more information about this block and to request removal please go to: http://www.spamhaus.org.
550 OU-002Mail rejected by Outlook.com for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your Email/Internet Service Provider for help.