Outlook keeps saying my message can't be delivered because the recipient is a spam, but they aren't.

Question

Outlook keeps saying my message can't be delivered because the recipient is a spam, but they aren't.

Daiana Espinoza 5

I was trying to message someone but immediately after, I get a text saying that the person I'm sending it to is a spam so the message cannot be delivered. But I've known this person for a while now and I know they aren't a spam. So now they haven't been getting my messages anymore because of it. It just says, Screenshot 2026-04-20 4.58.07 PM

Do you know how I could get it fixed so my messages go through? Thank you very much for your time.

Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-21T00:05:39.96+00:00

The sender address isn't a spam, I know that because I know the person well. I'm just not really sure what to do, haha.
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-21T23:10:44.3833333+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza

Some clarification please:

1 -- You are sending an email to your friend, right? Not your friend sending you an email?

2 -- Who gets the Non-Delivery Report (NDR) that you show? You or your friend?
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-21T23:12:01.3266667+00:00

I sent the email to my friend. It just wasn't delivering. I can get and see my friend's emails, I just can't reply to them because the messages won't deliver.
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T00:01:36.71+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza said

I can get and see my friend's emails, I just can't reply to them because the messages won't deliver

So when you send an email to your friend, you are the one getting the Non-Delivery Report (NDR) that you pictured and your email is not delivered to you friend. Right?

If so, then your friend's email system thinks that you are a spammer. Can be lots of different causes.

1 -- Have your friend add your email to her Safe Senders List.

2 -- What is the domain of your friend's email? The part of their email address after the "@". Do NOT reply with their full email address. Just the domain.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T00:53:24.2766667+00:00

Yes, I am the one being sent the NDR. My friend's email address after the '@' is 'gmail.com'. By the way, do you know how my friend could add me to their safe senders? I don't really know how to do that myself. Only to my contacts, I'm not sure if that's the same thing.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T01:06:58.66+00:00

I'd also like to add something. It came after I first posted about the error, but I found out that it's not only that friend in which it won't let me send messages to, but several others as well. One of my best friends told me she sometimes got similar errors and they usually go away within a month before things return to normal, but I still don't think it should be happening.

Do I have to tell them all to add me to their safe senders in case I'm not already?

By the way, I'd like to thank you SO very much for the help so far. I was honestly really confused about the whole thing and I'm so very grateful you came to help. I appreciate it!
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T01:43:16.9533333+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza said

Do I have to tell them all to add me to their safe senders in case I'm not already?

Yes.

how my [GMail] friend could add me to their safe senders?

Normally they would find an email from you in their GMail Spam folder, open it and click the [Not Spam] button.

But I was wrong. This will not fix your particular problem because your email to them got "bounced". i.e. It got turned away by the GMail system and never reached their mailbox. Not even their Spam folder.

There is no real fix for this that I know of. One method I've seen suggested is to have them send you an email and you reply to it. Sometimes, because you are replying to a GMail user and not sending it "blind" like Spammers do, GMail may relent and let it go thru, or at least let it be delivered to their Spam folder, and then they can then mark it as "Not Spam".

One of my best friends told me she sometimes got similar errors and they usually go away within a month before things return to normal, but I still don't think it should be happening.

Yes. This should never happen to someone who only sends a few emails a day to people that they know. But I don't have any simple answers as to the cause or how to fix it.

One thing you can check is to be sure that someone else isn't using your outlook.com email account without your knowledge. Check your "Sent Items" folder. Anything in there that you don't remember sending or that looks suspicious?
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T02:00:42.28+00:00

Ah, ok. I'll ask my friend later today to do so. Uhm, I don't think anyone's used my account. I checked my sent items, it's just things that I've sent so I don't think there is.

Anyways, thank you so very much for your help. I'll see if things work out and well, i'll update you if they did or not. I appreciate it, and have a great rest of your day! : )
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T02:16:29.2433333+00:00
@Daiana Espinoza
Some suggestions:

1 -- Ask your Gmail friend to add your email address to their Google Contacts. This raises your "reputation" with GMail. How to add a new contact to GMail: https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/1069522

2 -- You can create a new Outlook "alias" and use that when you want to send or reply to someone who is blocking your current email address.

This is another email address for your existing account. NOT a whole new Outlook account. You can continue to send and receive emails using your current email address and the new alias email address. All the mail sent to the new alias will show up in the same Inbox as your mail to your current email address.

To add a new alias:

Open https://account.live.com/AddAssocId

Enter a name for your new alias and click [Add username]

Once you have created the new alias - In Outlook, when you composing or replying to an email you can click the drop down arrow in the "From:" field and you should be able to pick which email address you want to use.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T06:18:01.56+00:00

I was able to make the alias, but for some reason, it didn't recognize my email address. I added a 'g.' after the '@' because I use it for Google sometimes, but instead, it made a brand new account and linked the alias there. My original email address didn't have a 'g.' but without it, it didn't recognize it. I even double-checked as well to make sure I wrote it right.

On the new acc, everything started fresh, I couldn't find their email addresses. My original acc works, it just won't deliver. I asked my friend to send an email and when I responded, it didn't deliver it, either.

I'll ask my friend to add me to Google Contacts, hopefully that helps. Do I have to add my friend to Google Contacts as well?
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T07:08:27.6866667+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza said

My original email address didn't have a 'g.' but without it, it didn't recognize it. I even double-checked as well to make sure I wrote it right. but instead, it made a brand new account and linked the alias there

Sorry. But I don't understand. I'm not sure what happened, but for now I would suggest you Close the brand new account. Be very sure that you specify the new account, not your "real" account.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/how-to-close-your-microsoft-account-c1b2d13f-4de6-6e1b-4a31-d9d668849979

We'll come back to this approach later if we can't fix the problem with your existing account.

Do I have to add my friend to Google Contacts as well?

No.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T17:04:34.52+00:00

Okay, then. Well, thank you so much for trying to help. I'll make sure to tell my friend to add me to Google Contacts, hopefully things work. And if not, I'll try to wait and see if my best friend was right and it goes away within that month.

1 answer

Your answer

Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-21T00:05:39.96+00:00

The sender address isn't a spam, I know that because I know the person well. I'm just not really sure what to do, haha.
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-21T23:10:44.3833333+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza

Some clarification please:

1 -- You are sending an email to your friend, right? Not your friend sending you an email?

2 -- Who gets the Non-Delivery Report (NDR) that you show? You or your friend?
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-21T23:12:01.3266667+00:00

I sent the email to my friend. It just wasn't delivering. I can get and see my friend's emails, I just can't reply to them because the messages won't deliver.
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T00:01:36.71+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza said

I can get and see my friend's emails, I just can't reply to them because the messages won't deliver

So when you send an email to your friend, you are the one getting the Non-Delivery Report (NDR) that you pictured and your email is not delivered to you friend. Right?

If so, then your friend's email system thinks that you are a spammer. Can be lots of different causes.

1 -- Have your friend add your email to her Safe Senders List.

2 -- What is the domain of your friend's email? The part of their email address after the "@". Do NOT reply with their full email address. Just the domain.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T00:53:24.2766667+00:00

Yes, I am the one being sent the NDR. My friend's email address after the '@' is 'gmail.com'. By the way, do you know how my friend could add me to their safe senders? I don't really know how to do that myself. Only to my contacts, I'm not sure if that's the same thing.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T01:06:58.66+00:00

I'd also like to add something. It came after I first posted about the error, but I found out that it's not only that friend in which it won't let me send messages to, but several others as well. One of my best friends told me she sometimes got similar errors and they usually go away within a month before things return to normal, but I still don't think it should be happening.

Do I have to tell them all to add me to their safe senders in case I'm not already?

By the way, I'd like to thank you SO very much for the help so far. I was honestly really confused about the whole thing and I'm so very grateful you came to help. I appreciate it!
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T01:43:16.9533333+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza said

Do I have to tell them all to add me to their safe senders in case I'm not already?

Yes.

how my [GMail] friend could add me to their safe senders?

Normally they would find an email from you in their GMail Spam folder, open it and click the [Not Spam] button.

But I was wrong. This will not fix your particular problem because your email to them got "bounced". i.e. It got turned away by the GMail system and never reached their mailbox. Not even their Spam folder.

There is no real fix for this that I know of. One method I've seen suggested is to have them send you an email and you reply to it. Sometimes, because you are replying to a GMail user and not sending it "blind" like Spammers do, GMail may relent and let it go thru, or at least let it be delivered to their Spam folder, and then they can then mark it as "Not Spam".

One of my best friends told me she sometimes got similar errors and they usually go away within a month before things return to normal, but I still don't think it should be happening.

Yes. This should never happen to someone who only sends a few emails a day to people that they know. But I don't have any simple answers as to the cause or how to fix it.

One thing you can check is to be sure that someone else isn't using your outlook.com email account without your knowledge. Check your "Sent Items" folder. Anything in there that you don't remember sending or that looks suspicious?
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T02:00:42.28+00:00

Ah, ok. I'll ask my friend later today to do so. Uhm, I don't think anyone's used my account. I checked my sent items, it's just things that I've sent so I don't think there is.

Anyways, thank you so very much for your help. I'll see if things work out and well, i'll update you if they did or not. I appreciate it, and have a great rest of your day! : )
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T02:16:29.2433333+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza
Some suggestions:

1 -- Ask your Gmail friend to add your email address to their Google Contacts. This raises your "reputation" with GMail. How to add a new contact to GMail: https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/1069522

2 -- You can create a new Outlook "alias" and use that when you want to send or reply to someone who is blocking your current email address.

This is another email address for your existing account. NOT a whole new Outlook account. You can continue to send and receive emails using your current email address and the new alias email address. All the mail sent to the new alias will show up in the same Inbox as your mail to your current email address.

To add a new alias:

Open https://account.live.com/AddAssocId

Enter a name for your new alias and click [Add username]

Once you have created the new alias - In Outlook, when you composing or replying to an email you can click the drop down arrow in the "From:" field and you should be able to pick which email address you want to use.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T06:18:01.56+00:00

I was able to make the alias, but for some reason, it didn't recognize my email address. I added a 'g.' after the '@' because I use it for Google sometimes, but instead, it made a brand new account and linked the alias there. My original email address didn't have a 'g.' but without it, it didn't recognize it. I even double-checked as well to make sure I wrote it right.

On the new acc, everything started fresh, I couldn't find their email addresses. My original acc works, it just won't deliver. I asked my friend to send an email and when I responded, it didn't deliver it, either.

I'll ask my friend to add me to Google Contacts, hopefully that helps. Do I have to add my friend to Google Contacts as well?
Hornblower409 8,855 Reputation points

2026-04-22T07:08:27.6866667+00:00

@Daiana Espinoza said

My original email address didn't have a 'g.' but without it, it didn't recognize it. I even double-checked as well to make sure I wrote it right. but instead, it made a brand new account and linked the alias there

Sorry. But I don't understand. I'm not sure what happened, but for now I would suggest you Close the brand new account. Be very sure that you specify the new account, not your "real" account.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/how-to-close-your-microsoft-account-c1b2d13f-4de6-6e1b-4a31-d9d668849979

We'll come back to this approach later if we can't fix the problem with your existing account.

Do I have to add my friend to Google Contacts as well?

No.
Daiana Espinoza 5 Reputation points

2026-04-22T17:04:34.52+00:00

Okay, then. Well, thank you so much for trying to help. I'll make sure to tell my friend to add me to Google Contacts, hopefully things work. And if not, I'll try to wait and see if my best friend was right and it goes away within that month.

Answer 1

AI answer

The error shown in the screenshot means the sender address is being treated as a bad or spam sender, not that the recipient is spam. In Microsoft 365/Outlook this corresponds to the “Access denied, bad outbound sender” condition that occurs when an account is suspected of sending spam or has exceeded sending limits.

Resolution depends on who manages the mailbox:

If this is a work or school account
- The mailbox owner should immediately inform the organization’s email administrator and share the full error text.
- The admin should:
  1. Check whether the account is compromised and follow the guidance in Secure a compromised email account in Exchange Online.
  2. Go to the Restricted entities page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal and unblock the user if listed there. After unblocking, sending is usually restored within about an hour.
- The admin should also review and apply the recommendations in Top 10 ways to secure your business data to reduce the chance of future blocking.
If this is a personal Outlook.com/Hotmail account
- The mailbox owner should use the Outlook.com support channel (for example, via the in-product Help/Support option) and provide the error text. Outlook.com support can investigate if the account has been blocked for suspected spam and remove the restriction.
- If any non‑delivery report (NDR) is received, review it for additional details and, if the address is correct, follow the guidance in Sender Support in Outlook.com for blocked or limited senders.

Once the account is unblocked and any compromise is remediated, new messages to that contact should be delivered normally.

References:

AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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Outlook keeps saying my message can't be delivered because the recipient is a spam, but they aren't.

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