Emails from NHS being rejected as spam

[#1]

Hi,

I have never tried to access NHS medical records via email before but having completed an online request giving my plusnet email address for reply, It appears that the encrypted email containing the information I asked for is being rejected by Plusnet as spam. The supplier has sent me the full text of the rejection (which I will not repeat here) but the essence of it appears to be:

mx.avasin.plus.net
Remote Server returned '554 5.0.0 <mx.avasin.plus.net #5.0.0 smtp; 552 Spam Message Rejected>'

The odd thing is that the originator has emailed me at the same plusnet address to tell me about the rejection. That message got through from the same source email address as the failed message.

Has anyone else experienced this and been able to work around it?

All help gratefully accepted.

[#2]

@Biscayne The rejection was caused by some content within the body of the original email, not the address it was sent from.

It is perfectly safe to post the rejection message, providing you obscure sensitive information such as any email address contained within it.

[#3]

@jab1 Thank you for your reply. The content of the rejection message contains other information, some of which may be encoded, that I think it best not to post to an open forum (e.g. case reference number). This line may be pertinent:

X-IMSS-DMARC-Authentication-Results: spf=fail (sender IP address:XX.XXX.XX.X) smtp.mailfrom=nhs.net; dkim=fail(no signature) header.d=none; dmarc=fail policy=reject action=none header.from=nhs.net

However, I have now found where 'Manage my mail' has been moved to

(<rant> why do programmers take such delight in redesigning user interfaces? I can't imagine a car designer who decided to reverse the order of the control pedals would get away with it </rant>)

and have changed the settings (whitelist nhs.net, don't discard obvious spam). Hopefully this will fix it. I will wait 48 hours & ask the originator to resend.

[#4]

OK, @Biscayne . See what happens with the resent message. Keep us informed.

[#5]

spf=fail (sender IP address:XX.XXX.XX.X) smtp.mailfrom=nhs.net; dkim=fail(no signature) header.d=none; dmarc=fail policy=reject

@Biscayne that IS significant. The senders mail system is not configured properly! The sender is not sending from an authorised  nhs.net mail server. The lack of valid SPF & DKIM will cause the PlusNet spam detection system to give a high spam score.

and have changed the settings (whitelist nhs.net, don't discard obvious spam). Hopefully this will fix it. I will wait 48 hours & ask the originator to resend.

That will make no difference I'm afraid, the sender needs to send via an authorised server. Having checked with Mxtoolbox the nhs.net domain does have a valid SPF and DKIM record published. Therefore either the sender isnt sending correctly OR new servers have been added and the records not updated. If the latter , then NHS IT need to fix it.

[#6]

Thanks, @MisterW I wondered about that, but was side-tracked by the 'rejected as spam' message.

[#7]

@jab1 I don't think the PN mail servers ( like many others ) apply strict SPF/DKIM actions, rather they use lack of (or invalid) SPF/DKIM to affect the spam score. So if the message content is detected as slightly spammy, then lack of SPF/DKIm will likely tip it over the limit.

[#8]

@MisterW Thank you for your response. I have been in communication with the originator of the email and relayed your comments. They were unable to offer any near term resolution, so I have taken the pragmatic approach of requesting a paper copy to be sent by mail instead.

Thanks to all that responded.