Email from Gmail blocked

I didn't know quite where to put this, as it's not really a broadband issue, but I'm sure somebody will know.

I need to send an email to a government department, but I'm getting a bounce from [email protected] saying that my email to them was blocked.

I sent myself a quick test message, but that didn't get blocked.

Is it likely to be an issue at the government department, or has my Gmail account somehow been flagged for spam (possibly due to someone else spoofing it)?

If it was flagged, who do I appeal to to get it unflagged?

OK, seems the IP address is blacklisted at Spamhaus, among others.

It's a dynamic address, so I don't think I am the culprit. Just running some AV to be sure.

Hopefully it can be fixed by just disconnecting for a while and hoping to get a clean address when I reconnect.

Why is it always when you have to do something urgent?

I got a new dynamic IP, and checked its blacklist status.

It was ONLY listed at Spamhaus, who said this was a general policy exception common to most domestic broadband connections; it doesn't mean I've done anything wrong, and won't mean I can't send emails.

So why can I still not mail the government department?

In reply to a post by TLM:

So why can I still not mail the government department?

Have you tried using a different email provider that isn't Gmail?

I would, but I haven't got one. I might have an old Hotmail address still kicking around, but not used it in decades.

In reply to a post by TLM:

I would, but I haven't got one. I might have an old Hotmail address still kicking around, but not used it in decades.

Any entity can refuse to receive email from anywhere. It is unusual but possible that the specific dept has a policy to ignore gmail accounts.

You can get an outlook.com (sucessor to Hotmail) or Yahoo account for as easily as you created gmail, or you can go more obscure and look at ProtonMail, or loads of others.

Managed to dredge up the Hotmail address. It bounced from there too, but with a bit more info.

It looks like it's failing because the receiving domain doesn't recognize the recipient's email address.

Edited by TLM (Sat 11-May-24 19:24:30)

Are you sending via Gmail/Hotmail's webmail?

Yes!

In reply to a post by TLM:

Yes!

Can you paste the bounce message you get, redacting personal info?