Reputation metrics messages - Amazon Simple Email Service

Reputation metrics messages

The Amazon SES Reputation metrics console page provides important metrics related to your account. The following sections describe the messages that might be displayed in this dashboard, and provide tips and information that you might be able to use to resolve issues related to your sender reputation.

This section contains information about the following types of notifications:

Status Messages

When you use the reputation metrics console page, you see a message describing the status of your Amazon SES account. The following is a list of possible account status values:

  • Healthy – There are no issues currently impacting your account.

  • Under review – Your account is under review. If the issues that caused us to place your account under review aren't resolved by the end of the review period, we might pause your account's ability to send email.

  • Pending end of review decision – Your account is under review. Because of the nature of the issues that caused us to place your account under review, we need to perform a manual review of your account before we take any further action.

  • Sending paused – We've paused your account's ability to send email. While your account's ability to send email is paused, you won't be able to send email using Amazon SES. You can request that we review this decision. To learn more about requesting a review, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

  • Pending sending pause – Your account is under review. The issues that caused us to place your account under review haven't been resolved. In this situation, we typically pause your account's ability to send email. However, because of the nature of your account, we need to review your account before any further action is taken.

Additionally, the Bounce Rate and Complaint Rate sections of the reputation metrics page display status summaries for their respective metrics. The following is a list of possible metric status values:

  • Healthy – The metric is within normal levels.

  • Almost healed – The metric caused your account to be placed under review. Since the review period began, the metric has stayed below the maximum rate. If the metric remains below the maximum rate, the status of this metric changes to Healthy before the review period ends.

  • Under review – The metric caused your account to be placed under review, and is still above the maximum rate. If the issue that caused the metric to exceed the maximum rate is not resolved by the end of the review period, we might pause your account's ability to send email.

  • Sending pause – The metric caused us to pause your account's ability to send email. While your account's ability to send email is paused, you can't send email using Amazon SES. You can request that we review this decision. To learn more about submitting a request for review, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

  • Pending sending pause – The metric caused us to place your account under review. The issues that caused this review period haven't been resolved. These issues might cause us to pause your account's ability to send email. A member of the Amazon SES team has to review your account before we take any further action.

Bounce Rate Notification

This section contains additional information about bounce rate notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

You received this notification because the bounce rate for your account was too high. The bounce rate is based on the number of hard bounces generated by your Amazon SES account. Email providers interpret a high bounce rate as a sign that a sender isn't properly managing their recipient list, and that the sender might be sending unsolicited email.

A hard bounce occurs when an email is sent to an address that doesn't exist. Amazon SES doesn't consider soft bounces (which occur when a recipient's address is temporarily unable to receive messages) in this calculation. Bounced emails that you send to verified addresses and domains, as well as emails that you send to the Amazon SES inbox simulator, also aren't considered in this calculation.

We calculate your bounce rate based on a representative volume of email. A representative volume is an amount of email that represents your typical sending practices. To be fair to both high- and low-volume senders, the representative volume is different for each account and changes as the account's sending patterns change.

For best results, maintain a bounce rate below 5%. Higher bounce rates can impact the delivery of your emails. If your bounce rate is 5% or greater, we automatically place your account under review. If your bounce rate is 10% or greater, we might pause your account's ability to send additional email until you resolve the issue that caused the high bounce rate.

What you can do to resolve the issue

If you haven't done so already, put a process in place to capture and manage bounces and complaints. All Amazon SES accounts are required to have these processes in place. For more information, see Email program success metrics.

Next, determine which email addresses are bouncing, and create and implement a plan for reducing or eliminating these bounces. If your account's ability to send email has already been paused, sign into the AWS Management Console and go to AWS Support. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if the bounce rate for your account remains above 10%, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your response to the case, describe the changes you implemented. If we agree that the changes will reduce your bounce rate, we adjust our calculations to only consider bounces received after your changes were implemented.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you implement changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Complaint Rate Notification

This section contains additional information about complaint rate notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

You received this notification because the complaint rate for your account was too high. The complaint rate is based on the number of complaints generated by your Amazon SES account. Email providers interpret a high complaint rate as a sign that a sender isn't properly managing their recipient list, and that the sender might be sending unsolicited email.

A complaint occurs when a recipient identifies an email that you sent as spam. This usually occurs when the recipient uses the Report Spam button in their email client. Complaints that are generated by emails that you send to the Amazon SES inbox simulator aren't considered in this calculation.

We calculate your complaint rate based on a representative volume of email. A representative volume is an amount of email that represents your typical sending practices. To be fair to both high- and low-volume senders, the representative volume is different for each account and changes as the account's sending patterns change.

For best results, maintain a complaint rate below 0.1%. Higher complaint rates can impact the delivery of your emails. If your complaint rate is 0.1% or greater, we automatically place your account under review. If your complaint rate is 0.5% or greater, we might pause your account's ability to send additional email until you resolve the issue that caused the high complaint rate.

What you can do to resolve the issue

If you haven't done so already, put a process in place to capture and manage bounces and complaints. All Amazon SES accounts are required to have these processes in place. For more information, see Email program success metrics.

Next, determine which messages you are sending that result in complaints, and implement a plan for reducing these complaints. If your account's ability to send email has already been paused, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf

While you should immediately stop sending to addresses that have complained, it is important that you identify the factors that are causing recipients to issue complaints. After you identify these factors, adjust your email sending behaviors to address them.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if the complaint rate for your account remains above 0.5%, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your response to the case, describe the changes you implemented. If we agree that the changes will reduce your complaint rate, we adjust our calculations to only consider the complaints that were received after you implemented the changes.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Anti-Spam Organization Notification

This section contains additional information about anti-spam organization notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A reputable anti-spam organization has reported that some of the content being sent from your Amazon SES account has been flagged as unsolicited or problematic by their systems.

We're unable to provide information about the specific messages that caused the anti-spam organization to flag your content as problematic. We can't provide the name of the organization that issued the report. Typically, anti-spam organizations consider a combination of the following factors: recipient feedback, message engagement metrics, attempted deliveries to invalid addresses, content that is flagged by their spam filters, and spamtrap hits. This isn't an exhaustive list; other factors might cause these organizations to flag your content.

What you can do to resolve the issue

To resolve this issue, you need to determine what aspects of your email sending program might be causing the anti-spam organization to flag your email as problematic. You then need to change your sending program to address those issues.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if the anti-spam organization continues to identify the email sent from your account as problematic, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your message, provide details of the changes you made. When we receive this information, we will extend the review period to ensure that we're only analyzing the anti-spam organization notifications we have received after you implemented your changes. At the end of this extended review period, your account is no longer listed by the anti-spam organization, we will remove the review period for your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Listbombing Notification

This section contains additional information about Listbombing notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

An anti-spam organization has identified that your email-sending processes are vulnerable to "listbombing." Listbombing is a form of abuse in which an attacker registers a very large number of email addresses on a web-based form. Listbombing can result in service disruptions for users of impacted email services. It can also result in your email being blocked by email providers.

Anti-spam organizations use proprietary methods to identify sites that are vulnerable to listbombing. For this reason, we can't provide additional details about the issue that led the anti-spam organization to identify your email-sending process as problematic. We also can't share the name of the organization that identified the issue.

What you can do to resolve the issue

You should examine all of your web-based sign-up forms to ensure that they aren't vulnerable to this kind of abuse. Every form should include a CAPTCHA to prevent automated scripts from submitting subscription requests. Additionally, when new users sign up for your product or service, send them an email to confirm that they did, in fact, intend to sign up. Don't send any additional email to customers unless they explicitly opt in to your communications.

Finally, you should perform a "permission pass" on your email list. In a permission pass, you send an email to all of your customers asking them if they still want to receive email from you. Only send email to customers who verify that they want to continue to receive email from you.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if the anti-spam organization continues to identify the email sent from your account as problematic, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your message, provide details of the changes you made. When we receive this information, we will extend the review period to ensure that we're only analyzing the anti-spam organization notifications we have received after you implemented your changes. At the end of this extended review period, your account is no longer listed by the anti-spam organization, we will remove the review period for your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Direct Feedback Notification

This section contains additional information about direct feedback notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A significant number of users have contacted Amazon SES directly to report messages that they received from an address or domain associated with your Amazon SES account. This type of feedback isn't visible in the complaints reported by mailbox providers directly, and isn't included in the bounce and complaint metrics shown on the reputation metrics page.

To protect the privacy of the users who reported these issues, we can't provide their email addresses.

Recipients can complain to Amazon SES when they receive messages that they didn't sign up to receive, when they don't receive the type of mail they expected to receive, when they don't find the email they receive to be useful or interesting, when they don't recognize that the messages are something that they signed up for, or when they are receiving too many messages. This list isn't exhaustive; the factors that are relevant in your case depend on your specific email sending program.

What you can do to resolve the issue

We recommend that you implement a double opt-in strategy, as described in Building and maintaining your lists, for acquiring new addresses, and that you only send email to addresses that complete the double opt-in process.

Additionally, you should purge your lists of addresses that haven't interacted with your emails recently. You can use open and click tracking, as described in Monitoring your Amazon SES sending activity, to determine which users are viewing and interacting with the content you send.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if Amazon SES continues to receive a significant number of direct complaints about messages sent from your account, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Provide detailed information about the steps you've taken to resolve the issue, and describe how these steps prevent the issue from happening again in the future. If we agree that the changes you've made appropriately address the issue, we cancel the review period on your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Domain Blocklist Notification

This section contains additional information about domain blocklist notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

Emails sent from your Amazon SES account contain references to domains that have been listed on a reputable Domain Blocklist. Domains on these lists are typically associated with abusive or malicious behavior. The domains in question might or might not be the domains from which you are sending email. Messages that include references or links to a domain on a blocklist, or that include images hosted on such a domain, might also be flagged.

We're unable to provide the names of the domains that are causing your messages to be flagged, or to identify which emails were flagged in this way.

What you can do to resolve the issue

First, create a list of all of the domains referenced in the emails you send through Amazon SES. Next, use the Spamhaus Domain Lookup tool to determine which domains in your email are on the domain blocklist. More than one domain referenced in the emails you send might be on this blocklist.

The Spamhaus Domain Blocklist isn't affiliated with Amazon SES or AWS. We make no guarantees about the accuracy of the domains on this list. The Spamhaus Domain Blocklist and Domain Lookup Tool are owned, operated, and maintained by the Spamhaus Project.

If your account is under review

We look for references to domains that have been used for malicious purposes in the emails that you send during the review period. If your emails still contain a significant number of references to these domains, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your message, provide details of the changes you made. When we receive this information, we extend the review period to ensure that we're only analyzing the number of blocklisted domains present in your email after you put your changes in place. At the end of this extended review period, if the number of domain blocklist notifications has been reduced or eliminated, and we believe that you've taken steps to prevent this issue from occurring again in the future, we cancel the review period for your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Internal Review Notification

This section contains additional information about internal review notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A comprehensive review of your account identified several characteristics that may cause mailbox providers or recipients to identify your messages as spam.

To protect our abuse detection process, we can't reveal the specific factors that led to your account being flagged in this way.

Common factors that can lead to this determination include the following:

  • Messages being flagged by commercial anti-spam systems.

  • Message content that implies the recipient hasn't explicitly requested the email.

  • Mismatches between the message sender and the branding within the email body.

  • Content that doesn't make it obvious who the sender is.

  • Sending messages that deal with content that is associated with unsolicited email.

  • Formatting patterns associated with unsolicited email.

  • Sending from or making reference to domains with poor reputations.

This isn't a comprehensive list. The specific reason for this notification might be a combination of any of these factors, or the reason might be something not listed.

What you can do to resolve the issue

The following suggestions might help reduce the severity of the issue:

  • Ensure that the only recipients you are contacting are those who have explicitly asked to receive email from you.

  • Never purchase, rent, or borrow lists of email recipients.

  • Don't attempt to hide your identity or the purpose of your communication in the messages you send.

  • Create a list of all of the domains referenced in the emails you send through Amazon SES, and then use the Spamhaus Domain Lookup tool at https://www.spamhaus.org/lookup/ to determine if any of those domains are on the Spamhaus Domain Blocklist.

  • Ensure that you are following industry best practices when designing your emails.

This list isn't exhaustive, but it should help you identify some of the most common factors that might lead to your email being flagged.

The Spamhaus Domain Blocklist isn't affiliated with Amazon SES or AWS. We make no guarantees about the accuracy of the domains on this list. The Spamhaus Domain Blocklist and Domain Lookup Tool are owned, operated, and maintained by the Spamhaus Project.

If your account is under review, or if your account's ability to send email is paused

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Provide detailed information about the steps you've taken to resolve the issue, and describe how these steps prevent the issue from happening again in the future. If we agree that the changes you've made appropriately address the issue, we cancel the review period or remove the sending pause from your account.

If we remove a review period or sending pause from your account, and we observe the same issue at a later time, we might place your account under review or pause your ability to send email again. In extreme cases, or if we observe repeated instances of the same issue, we might permanently suspend your account's ability to send email.

See Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs for more information about what to do if your account is under review, or your account's ability to send email is paused.

Mailbox Provider Notification

This section contains additional information about mailbox provider notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A major mailbox provider has reported to us that unsolicited or malicious email is being sent from an address or domain associated with your Amazon SES account.

We can't share the identity of the organization that issued this report. Additionally, we don't have information about the specific factors that caused the mailbox provider to issue the report. Typically, mailbox providers make this kind of determination based on customer feedback, customer engagement metrics, attempted deliveries to invalid addresses, and content that is flagged by spam filters. This list isn't exhaustive; there might be other factors that caused the mailbox provider to flag your content.

What you can do to resolve the issue

To resolve this issue, you need to determine which aspects of your email sending program might have caused mailbox providers to flag your mail as being problematic. You must then change your sending program to address those issues.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if the mailbox provider continues to identify the email sent from your account as being problematic, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your message, provide details of the changes you made. When we receive this information, we will extend the review period to ensure that we're only analyzing the number of mailbox provider notifications we receive after you implement your changes. At the end of this extended review period, if the mailbox provider no longer reports your account as being problematic, we might remove the review from your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Recipient Feedback Notification

This section contains additional information about recipient feedback notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A major mailbox provider has reported to us that large numbers of their users are reporting mail sent from your Amazon SES account as unsolicited. This type of feedback isn't visible in the complaints reported by mailbox providers directly, and isn't included in the Amazon SES bounce and complaint notifications.

A large number of complaints can have a negative impact on all Amazon SES users. To protect your reputation and that of other Amazon SES customers, we take immediate action when an account receives a certain number of complaints.

We are unable to provide a list of the specific email addresses that are reporting your email as unsolicited. Additionally, we're unable to share the name of the mailbox provider that has reported this issue to us.

What you can do to resolve the issue

To resolve this issue, you need to determine which aspects of your email sending program might be causing your recipients to issue complaints against the email messages they receive from you. After you identify these factors, change your email sending practices to correct them.

To acquire new addresses, we recommend that you implement a double opt-in strategy, as described in Building and maintaining your lists. We recommend that you only send email to addresses that have completed the double opt-in process.

Additionally, you should purge your lists of addresses that haven't interacted with your emails recently. You can use open and click tracking, as described in Monitoring your Amazon SES sending activity, to determine which users are viewing and interacting with the content you send.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if the mailbox provider continues to report a significant number of complaints, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your message, provide details of the changes you made. When we receive this information, we extend the review period to ensure that we're only analyzing the number of mailbox provider complaints that we receive after you implement your changes. At the end of this extended review period, if the number of mailbox provider complaints has been reduced or eliminated, we might remove the review from your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Related Account Notification

This section contains additional information about related account notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

We have detected serious problems related to emails sent from another Amazon SES account. We believe that the problematic account is related to your AWS account, so we have taken action to avoid similar problems.

What you can do to resolve the issue

When we pause an account's ability to send email, we always send information about the reasons for the sending pause to the owner of that account. Refer to the email we sent to the owner of the related account for more information.

You should address the issues with the related account first. After you implement changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Provide detailed information about the steps you've taken to resolve the issue, and describe how these steps prevent the issue from happening again in the future. If we agree that the changes you've made appropriately address the issue, we cancel the review period or remove the sending pause from your account.

Spamtrap Notification

This section contains additional information about spamtrap notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A third-party anti-spam organization has reported to us that their spamtrap addresses recently received email from a verified address or domains associated with your Amazon SES account.

A spamtrap is a dormant email address that is used exclusively to lure unsolicited email (spam). A large number of spamtrap reports can have a negative impact on all Amazon SES users. To protect your reputation and that of other Amazon SES customers, we take immediate action when an account sends a particular volume of email to spamtrap addresses.

What you can do to resolve the issue

We can't reveal the email addresses associated with the spamtrap you encountered. These addresses are closely guarded by the organizations that own them, and once the addresses are known, they become worthless.

Sending email to spamtrap addresses typically indicates that there is an issue with how you acquire your customers' email addresses. For example, purchased lists of email addresses can contain spamtrap addresses, which is why sending to purchased or rented lists is prohibited by the Amazon SES terms of service. To acquire new addresses, we recommend that you implement a double opt-in strategy, as described in Building and maintaining your lists. We recommend that you only send email to addresses that have completed the double opt-in process.

Additionally, you should purge your lists of addresses that haven't interacted with your emails recently. You can use open and click tracking, as described in Monitoring your Amazon SES sending activity, to determine which users are viewing and interacting with the content you send.

If your account is under review

At the end of the review period, if messages are still being sent to spamtrap addresses from your account, we might pause your account's ability to send email until you resolve the issue.

If you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. In your message, provide details of the changes you made. When we receive this information, we extend the review period to ensure that we're only analyzing the number of spamtrap reports we receive after you implement your changes. At the end of this extended review period, if the number of spamtrap reports has been reduced or eliminated, we might remove the review from your account.

If your account's ability to send email is paused

You can request that we reconsider this decision. For more information, see Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs.

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

Vulnerable Site Notification

This section contains additional information about vulnerable site notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A comprehensive review has found that messages are being sent from your account that we don't believe you intended to send. These messages are highly likely to be flagged as spam by mailbox providers and recipients.

Most often in these situations, a third party is abusing a feature of your website to send unwanted email. For example, if your website contains an "email to a friend," "contact us," "invite a friend," or similar feature, a third party can use that feature to send unsolicited email.

What you can do to resolve the issue

First, identify features of your website or applications that might allow third parties to send emails using Amazon SES without your knowledge. In your Support Center case, you can request a sample of the messages we believe were sent in this manner.

Next, modify your application or website to prevent unsolicited sending. For example, add a CAPTCHA, limit the rate at which emails can be sent, remove the ability of users to submit custom content, require users to log in to send email, and remove the ability for the application to generate multiple simultaneous notifications.

If your account is under review, or if your account's ability to send email is paused

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

If we remove a review period or sending pause from your account, and we observe the same issue later, we might place your account under review or pause your ability to send email again. If we observe extreme issues or repeated instances of the same issue, we might permanently suspend your account's ability to send email.

See Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs for more information about what to do if your account is under review, or your account's ability to send email is paused.

Compromised Credentials Notification

This section contains additional information about compromised credentials site notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

A comprehensive review has found that messages are being sent from your account that we don't believe you intended to send. These messages are highly likely to be flagged as spam by mailbox providers and recipients.

Some common causes are compromised IAM access keys, compromised SMTP passwords, or other security vulnerabilities.

What you can do to resolve the issue

You should perform a comprehensive security review of your SES utilization mechanisms. Ensure that you have rotated any applicable or SMTP passwords and that you have removed any unauthorized users or resources from your account. Ensure that you are not storing sensitive information such as passwords or access keys on third party web sites or repositories. It is now recommended that you don't use IAM access keys for users, and never for the root user. If you are still using them, you should migrate them over to mechanisms that provide temporary credentials such as creating an user in AWS IAM Identity Center.

If your account is under review, or if your account's ability to send email is paused

When you have implemented changes that you believe will resolve the issue, sign into the AWS Console and go to Support Center. Reply to the case we opened on your behalf. Include details of the actions you have taken to resolve this issue, as well as details of your plans to ensure that this issue doesn't occur again. After we receive your request, we review the information that you provided and change the status of your account if necessary.

If we remove a review period or sending pause from your account, and we observe the same issue later, we might place your account under review or pause your ability to send email again. If we observe extreme issues or repeated instances of the same issue, we might permanently suspend your account's ability to send email.

See Amazon SES Sending review process FAQs for more information about what to do if your account is under review, or your account's ability to send email is paused.

Other Notification

This section contains additional information about other notifications shown in the Amazon SES reputation metrics page.

Why you received this notification

An automatic or human review has identified issues that aren't listed in the previous sections of this document.

What you can do to resolve the issue

Refer to the Support Center case that we opened on your behalf for details on the specific issue. To access Support Center, sign into the AWS Management Console and then choose Support Center. In your response to the case, describe the changes you implemented. Depending on your specific situation and the nature of the issues we discovered, we might end the review period or restore your account's ability to send email.