Microsoft's Anti-Spam Policies for Cold Email

Links:

1. ⁠⁠Microsoft's Anti-Spam Policies for Email Outreach
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Main Topics:

• Impact of Microsoft's Anti-Spam Policies on Sales Organizations: The article focuses on how Microsoft's increasingly stringent anti-spam measures within Office 365, specifically Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Defender for Office 365, are impacting sales organizations reliant on cold emailing for lead generation.
• Outbound Spam Protection: Microsoft has rigorous outbound spam protection mechanisms in place. Exceeding sending limits or violating Outbound Spam Policies (OSP) can trigger alerts and restrictions on user accounts.
• High-Risk Delivery Pools: Suspected spam emails are routed through high-risk IP delivery pools, impacting deliverability for legitimate emails.
• Policy Customization and Best Practices: The article highlights the importance of customizing EOP outbound spam policies and adhering to best practices to prevent accounts from being flagged as spam.

Most Important Ideas/Facts:

• Restricted Entities: Users exceeding sending limits or sending spam content can become "restricted entities," blocked from sending emails. This results in bounce messages with error code 550 5.1.8 'bad outbound sender'.
• Undisclosed Sending Limits: Microsoft deliberately keeps exact sending limits confidential to prevent manipulation. "We don’t advertise the exact limits so spammers can’t game the system, and so we can increase or decrease the limits as necessary."
• Zero-Day Spam: Unrecognized spam patterns can trigger account restrictions, often due to exceeding daily sending volume limits.
• Customizing Outbound Spam Policies: Sales organizations are advised to customize EOP outbound spam policies to align with their legitimate cold emailing practices. This includes setting appropriate sending limits and actions for policy violations.
• Default vs. Custom Policies: Microsoft's default policies are often stricter than the recommended settings. Creating custom policies allows for greater control and flexibility.
• Secure Presets: While Microsoft recommends "Secure Presets" for optimal security, custom policies can be created as alternatives.
• Priority Order: When using custom policies, it's crucial to adjust the priority order to ensure they override default policies.

Key Quotes:

• "Users who hit the sending limits or the Outbound Spam Policies (OSP) listed in the Exchange Online Protection ( EOP) may trigger the default Suspicious Email Sending Patterns alert."
• "We monitor accounts that are sending spam, and when they exceed an undisclosed limit, the account is blocked from sending email. There are different thresholds for individual users and the entire tenant.”
• "We don’t advertise the exact limits so spammers can’t game the system, and so we can increase or decrease the limits as necessary. The limits are high enough to prevent an average business user from ever exceeding them, and low enough to help contain the damage caused by a spammer.”

Recommendations:

• Sales organizations using Office 3