Hotmail Emails Suddenly Rejected by Shaw Addresses — Error AUP#BL

Question

My Hotmail account suddenly stopped being able to send emails to Shaw email addresses this morning.

I can still receive emails from those Shaw accounts, and I can send emails normally to Gmail and other email providers. The problem only affects outgoing messages from my Hotmail account to @shaw.ca addresses.

These are people I email regularly, often many times a day, and this has never been an issue before. I have not changed any settings.

The messages are rejected with this error:

550 5.1.0 sender rejected AUP#BL

The rejecting servers include:

• shw-ibgw-4001b.ext.cloudfilter.net
• shw-ibgw-4004b.ext.cloudfilter.net

I contacted Shaw support, but they told me this is not their problem and would not investigate it further. I do not know where else to get support, so I am asking Microsoft for help.

Could Microsoft please check whether my Hotmail account or Microsoft’s outgoing mail servers have been incorrectly blocklisted and advise how this can be escalated?

Answer 1

Hello kristen hart,

I understand that messages from your Hotmail account are being rejected only when sent to Shaw addresses, with the response“550 5.1.0 sender rejected AUP#BL.”

Since the rejection is being returned by Shaw’s ext.cloudfilter.net servers before the message reaches the recipient’s mailbox, changing Outlook.com settings or asking the recipients to add your address to their Safe Senders list is unlikely to resolve it.

Ask one of the affected recipients to contact Rogers/Shaw again and provide the complete non-delivery report, including the rejection code, rejecting server, sender and recipient domains, and the date and time of the rejected message. Rogers/Shaw would need this information to review why its filtering service is rejecting the sender.

You should also submit the complete non-delivery report to Outlook.com Support:

1. Go to Outlook.com and sign in.  
2. Select the Help icon, the question mark, in the upper-right corner. 
3. In the Help pane that opens, search for "cannot receive emails", then press Enter.   
4. Scroll down the page until you see "Still need help?", click Yes.   
5. Choose "Chat with a support agent in your web browser."  
6. Review the issue description and confirm an email address you can access. 
7. Click Confirm to create the service request. The screen will indicate that your request has been submitted and the system is connecting you to Outlook.com live chat support, which may take a moment to load.  

The official instructions are available in How to get support for Outlook.com.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors cannot access mail-delivery logs, remove a server-side block, or escalate the case internally. Until the rejection is reviewed, using another email provider to contact the affected recipients may serve as a temporary workaround.

I hope this helps you bring the delivery rejection to the appropriate support teams.