Why are test messages from Outlook 2019 being categorised as spam by talktalk

[surfing69]

I have added my tiscali account to Outlook 2019 and usually access my emails from there. 

I have recently become aware that when I test the account settings for REMOVED FOR SECURITY@tiscali.co.uk in Outlook 2019, the test emails sent are being caught by your spam filter.

However, NO MATTER how many times I mark these emails as NOT spam on your webmail platform, they keep getting caught by your spam filter !

WHY ??!

Below are screenshots showing sequence of what happens

does anyone know why the talktalk mail server keeps categorising test emails from outlook DESPITE marking these as NOT spam on the talktalk web platform???

[ferguson]

Well, in fairness, it is. I was trying to ask you ever so nicely to wind your neck in from interfering in a topic which is nothing to do with you and you have gone on to admit does not even affect you. As you have on many other occasions. Any further posts of yours here, or in a similar vein elsewhere, will be removed. 

[Billx]

It's not a big deal, ferguson.

[ferguson]

So still a pointless intervention on your behalf? 

Can you just leave this now, please? You are not helping with the issue in question. Thank you.

[Billx]

Mind you, I do use Outlook, but a more recent version, which avoids any mention of 'Outlook test messages'.

[ferguson]

The other commenters and other things being discussed here are because you prompted it. Please remember that the purpose of the community is primarily to help people with issues they have raised, not broader chat. 

[Billx]

I don't think the commenters here are just interested in  'Outlook test messages'. There are other things being discussed here. But if you so wish, maybe I could do that.

[ferguson]

@Billx 

In light of preceding comments and your latest response i.e. "I haven't got a clue, what Outlook test messages are, and how one would set them up," perhaps you could leave this to those who are directly impacted by the subject of this topic?

[Billx]

@jbuchanangb 

 I can't explain why TalkTalk webmail allows me to define my currently logged in TalkTalk email address, as an email address under the 'Allowlist', and then the same procedure does not allow you. TalkTalk must explain that.

And whether and how much notice TalkTalk's 'spam filtering' will take of the 'Allowlist', again I don't know. It's up to TalkTalk to define these things and inform us. Which it hasn't.

Edit: By the way, I haven't got a clue, what Outlook test messages are, and how one would set them up.

I would just send a new message, to one of my TalkTalk email addresses or non-TalkTalk email address and see what happens.

I would not go through a special procedure to send a test message. What's that?

 Edit2: More crucial is this. Can you access a message before it reaches the spam folder? That's what I am looking for.

It would obviously be done, via webmail or third-party email client's ' user message filtering'.

Bill

[surfing69]

I believe you are correct when you state :

'TalkTalk's spam filters have not always treated Outlook Test Messages as spam, but it seems that they do now.'

i think this is why this piqued  my attention 

[jbuchanangb]

As a longstanding user of Outlook mail clients and Tiscali email addresses I thought I would test this process. I caused my Outlook 365 to trigger a test message. It arrived in the Spam folder, which I can access using Outlook. I then connected to my Tiscali email using webmail and opened the test message. From there I requested to add the sender to the AllowList. As previously mentioned, the response is that you can add yourself to the AllowList. Because @Billx has asserted that he has checked and found this to be possible, I then dug down through the settings to see my allow list, which currently includes my wife's Tiscali address and one other. (messages from my wife to me and vice versa were being treated as spam). I attempted to add my own address to the AllowList and this was refused again. In the process I found that my Spam folder was full of a lot of stuff of which I was blissfully ignorant, but fortunately almost all of it could be described as spam! TalkTalk's spam filters have not always treated Outlook Test Messages as spam, but it seems that they do now.

[surfing69]

whilst this may be the case, adding my tiscali address does sweet FA when it comes to stopping test emails from OU being classified as spam. 

[Billx]

 @surfing69   @nameunknown 

Contrary to what @nameunknown said  on ‎25-06-2025 06:34 PM, 

a customer can add any or all of his/her TalkTalk email addresses in the 'Allowlist' (another name for whitelist) within the settings in TalkTalk webmail. This includes a TalkTalk email address to itself.

I have just verified that.

Bill  

[surfing69]

i raised a complaint about this issue with TT head office and this is what they said in an email from today

'We would like to inform you that we no longer support Tiscali email addresses, as this policy has been in effect for several years. Unfortunately, we are unable to take any action to prevent emails from your Tiscali account from going to the spam folder. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. '

Is this true and do you know when this took place? 

[Billx]

Hi, @1Bmac 

@nameunknown was replying to the correct poster, which was me, @Billx 

Can you tell me who would have been the correct poster?

Bill

[fr8ys]

@1Bmac 

No idea how that happened.

You can unsubscribe by clicking the 3 dots at the top of this thread and clicking unsubscribe.

[ferguson]

@1Bmac 

You will receive notifications if you have subscribed to the thread., I presume you chose to do that? It has all got a bit messy because others have chipped in.

Can we all leave it now to the support team to respond to the original poster, please? 

[1Bmac]

HI,

I am not part of this conversation, no idea what you are talking about. I'm  receiving notification of your posts as it would appear you haven't replied to the correct poster!!

Cheers

1Bmac

[surfing69]

oK - understood. I was more confused than offended 😁🤔

[surfing69]

Unfortunately if I had resolved this issue, i would posted something to this effect - don't you think? 

furthermore, when i send the OU test msg from my tiscali account in OU, when the msg arrives in my OU Tiscali account it appears in the Spam folder  - no surprise there.

However when i select this email and use OU junk rules and mark it as NOT spam, i see a small popup window asking me if i want to allow emails from ME to ME !  How ridiculous.!!  Even then, if i send another OUtest message, IT STILL GETS DUMPED IN THE SPAM FOLDER!

[Gliwmaeden2]

@surfing69,

You will sometimes see people using "they" on this forum as we are all using usernames to protect anonymity. 

The downside of anonymity is that it's tricky to work out if a customer is "he" or "she" and getting it wrong can cause even more offence. "They" is generally considered acceptable as a catch all that avoids making assumptions.