Every so often a customer contacts us because they feel it is taking too long to be de-listed from a blacklist or they were almost immediately re-listed on a blacklist.  We have a few recommendations for you:

First, be patient!  Some blacklists are operated by a small team that must field hundreds or thousands of requests every day.  They need time to get to your issue.  Some blacklists require a minimum delay before they will delist an IP address or domain.  This is for everyone’s protection.  They have no credibility as an anti-spam service if they delist a regular spammer or if they delist someone with a malware infestation before it has been remedied.  Blacklist administrators need time to trust your servers again.  Give them time.  It’s painful for you, but it’s temporary.

Second, research your issue!  You may not think you have an issue, but it is very rare that your email randomly dropped into a honeypot or other spamtrap that blacklist administrators use to create their lists.  You have an issue, somewhere.  It might be a malware infection, it might be an accidental   inclusion in an email campaign, it could be an internal user sending malicious email by accident.  Regardless, you need to do some research into your systems to make sure it doesn’t happen again!  And, you may need to look into your internal email controls and policies.  You should be doing this anyway, but now is the time to make a special effort!

Finally, fix your issue!  Put new policies in place.  Invest in new email controls.  Talk with Marketing about how they do campaigns.  Setup user controls.  Sweep your systems for malware.  Clean your house.  This will save you time and money down the road.  And, you can mention all this in your next request to delist.  The blacklist provider will appreciate the work.

Why do all this work if it was an accident?  How do you know it was really an accident you were listed?  You don’t unless you look into it and there’s tremendous risk in assuming that you’re “okay”.  The downside of being listed a second or third time is severe:  you will be listed for a much longer time and it will be much more difficult to be delisted.  In fact, most blacklist administrators have a three-strikes policy.  A third listing and you’ll likely be blacklisted for the better part of a year.  Continued listing could get you on their permanent blacklist.

Yes, I am trying to scare you.  Yes, this is serious.  Yes, this requires you to work to fix the issue.  Get started!  The downside is much more severe than the minor inconvenience you are experiencing with your first blacklisting or even with your delisting request being delayed.  And, remember, paid MxToolbox users don’t have to go it alone: we provide delisting support services to help you get off these lists.  But, we can’t magically delist you:  you still have to do the work.