Message not getting Blocked at SMTP

Problem reported by kevind - 6/2/2026 at 7:46 PM

Submitted

Reviewing some messages in Junk folder with a scores of 40+ points. The header shows:

Reverse DNS Lookup [ForwardFailed]: 20, Null Sender: 20, etc.

If we have SMTP reject set to 30 points, I thought this message would get blocked at SMTP? Let me know what I'm missing.

Thanks!

2 Replies

Reply to Thread

J. LaDow Replied

6/3/2026 at 11:55 AM

The delivery logs (if set to detailed) should show what SM is doing to the message with that rule processing and scoring.

I ran into this dealing with a separate issue and I'll look at our settings to see what I finally setup that got it "rejecting" at the SMTP level for things like reverse DNS and others.

-- it may take me a little bit but I'll post what we have shortly.

MailEnable survivor / convert --

kevind Replied

Today at 9:47 AM

Changed this from a Question to a Problem as either Reverse DNS or Null Sender is not being used to block messages during SMTP. Here's a sample header that scored 47+ during SMTP, but still got delivered even though SMTP block set to 30.

Return-Path: <>

Received: from euynqy.xyz (euynqy.xyz [194.169.163.254]) by SM-GATEWAY

with SMTP(version=TLS\Tls12cipher=Aes256 bits=256);

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:34:18 -0400

Received: from euynqy.xyz (euynqy.xyz [194.169.163.254]) by SM-GATEWAY with SMTP

(version=TLS\Tls12

cipher=Aes256 bits=256);

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:34:18 -0400

X-SmarterMail-SpamAction: Medium | MoveToFolder

X-SmarterMail-TotalSpamWeight: 57

X-SmarterMail-Spam: DMARC [skipped - No Return Path]: 0, Reverse DNS Lookup [ForwardFailed]: 15, Null Sender: 20, ISpamAssassin [raw:1.4]: 2, SPF [None]: 5, DKIM [None]: 3, _ARC: none, A: 2, R: 10, etc.

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