Emails not going through for the past month

Scoutbook Scoutbook Bugs
1

Hi,

For the good past month messages sent from scoutbook have been unreliable. I think I have seen on some of my messages that there was an announcement message at the top notifying us but even when there is no message not there it is not working. I send a message but I don’t even get my own message in my mailbox even though I’m selected. I have to text a few parents to see if they got it.

The point of this post is this and I need to know if we need to stop using scoutbook, completely. We can go back to the book method and email chains.

Communication is key. Why are the scoutbook message emails not being sent a priority for being resolved reliably?

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The BSA is working on getting Scoutbook off the blacklist but it is not a simple procedure, especially since the blacklist vendors will not disclose the exact reason for blacklisting.

We will continue updating the banner message when we have information we can share.

Our suggestion is to use a tool other than Scoutbook for communication at this time.

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@FrankSplain Hi Frank. We are having the same issue. I recommend using a gmail account for Scoutbook communication. Apparently gmail.com messages are delivered correctly.
Good luck!

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As a member of SUAC and a Scoutmaster - I RARELY used SB for messages - for over the past 7 years. I used my email. FYI

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Which mail server is scoutbook using that it is getting flagged on the blacklist?

Can scoutbook pick a new mail provider? This should change the server IP address attached to the comms and eliminate the blacklisting. For the website I manage, I can choose my mail server. Maybe your hosting company can offer you a different regional AWS one. I didn’t do any snooping on scoutbook to see where it’s hitting off of but I can. The IPs are also listed in mail headers too on messages received. You just have to know where to look. Maybe you are using a shared server and that same IP address is used by multiple clients. Let me know I’m willing to help.

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It is different when you are the domain is the simple answer. And when you have units that send 3-6 reminders for every event to every user, ect… Multiplication is fun

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So it’s going down due to performance or the web api architecture?

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@FrankSplain - sure please do explain how to get past the blacklist… do tell.

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No, it is not a performance issue. It is a blacklist issue and as I said earlier, the blacklist owner will not tell BSA IT exactly why Scoutbook keeps getting blacklisted so finding the root cause is very difficult.

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Hi all,

This is a massive issue, especially since BSA has insisted on not communicating Scout email addresses to others for safety reasons. We forced everyone to use SB for email comms and noe we’re in trouble. Our unit will manually generate a Troop roster of Scout/Parent/Leader emails (no easy way to export Scout email addresses, only adults) and stop using ScoutBook for communication due to the reliability concerns. I doubt we’ll be using it going forward since the other way will be much easier. I appreciate the efforts to resolve, but we have to go with what works.

Like many, I’m working fulltime in IT. Had this same issue happen at our company. If the SPF record is not correctly set in DNS, it will appear to the receiving domain that ScoutBook is sending email without permission of the scouting.org domain, which is exactly what spammers do. This will result in the domain and IP to be blacklisted. The DNS record for scouting.org must include an SPF record that “authorizes” the email server that ScoutBook is using. On first pass, it looks like SPF is configured, but perhaps needs a deeper review.

Using some cursory tools such as MXToolbox and https://postmaster.google.com/ you can quickly see if everything is accurate and whether Google (Gmail) is marking you as a spammer, and blocking.

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Hello, I am with BSA IT and one of the guys working through the issue with blacklisitng us by Spamhaus. It has been a long process and we are in touch with the provider so please trust our process as we work on the recommendations they shared with us.

Main reason for being on their list is sending e-mails to addresses which owners did not consent to. How do they know that? They owned 100s of spam traps, like e-mail addresses with misspelled domains. We found many e-mail addresses that had misspelled domains (gmai.com, icoloud.com, etc.). We work thru the list of e-mails in Scoutbook and scrub them. It is time consuming process and we also used 3rd party service to help with that. We made some progress but not enough and we continue working on this problem daily for the last 5 weeks.

I also want to address concerns with smtp server misconfiguration. We are aware of that and made some corrections along the way. And while many volunteers suggested how to fix it, it is not as straight forward as it seems. I am not Sys Admin to give all the reasons we can’t do it fully but please believe me we have qualified staff addressing it. We have ‘sister’ smtp server which we used for different type of communication and it is configured exactly the same way as Scoutbook’s and it is not blacklisted by Spamhaus. I know it may not prove anything but we know why Spamhaus is flagging us for and it is not a server misconfiguration.

Just to give you a perspective we send about 80,000 e-mails / day through Scoutbook platform so there is a lot we have to deal with to manage that volume from unsubscribe perspective, spam reporting due to over communication, etc.

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This is actually great actionable intelligence for those of us at the unit level. It’s not the easiest (nor the most difficult) thing for us to go in and review (at the unit level), but if we know what the issue is, many of us are eager to help mitigate the problem, and this is something we can do (and keep an eye on going forward). Thanks for bringing it to our (collective) attention that it’s a significant factor that’s causing issues.

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At the risk of committing the 'net faux pas of replying to myself, I’m chasing down some of these items in our unit, and came up with some questions:

Item 1
I identified a youth who has an incorrect email entered in his account when look at his profile at my.scouting. From the format (default@cubscouts.org), it looks kinda like some automatic process created it.

I tried just deleting it (I’m a Key 3 Delegate) and had no success leaving it blank. Would it be possible to get it cleared until I can get his parent to set up the correct information?

BSA ID 132379077

Item 2
I have a parent who had a Scoutbook account created via an automated process (I assume) that shows an old address and name. That account has a changeyouremail@scoutbook.com address. I’d like to eliminate that incorrect Scoutbook account if possible.

Incorrect parent Scoutbook account (Initials DA):
ScoutUserID=1106408&ConnectionID=65551959

Correct parent Scoutbook account (Initials DF):
ScoutUserID=1106408&ConnectionID=7580709

Both link through (when I click on Edit Profile) to the same parent profile at IA2. That shows BSA ID 13130430.

Item 3
On a related note, the DOB for the parent in Item 2 shows up as “invalid date” in the IA2 profile. This is something to be corrected with council, correct?

Item 4
I have a parent who is connected in Scoutbook to her scout, but started showing up as No Messages shortly after the email account disabling was done pursuant to the blacklisting. Is there a way to determine whether or not she is connected to her scout in the Akela database without calling council? I have confirmed that the email address is “correct” (i.e. I copied it from Scoutbook to my personal email and got a response).

Parent Scoutbook account:
ScoutUserID=8153&ConnectionID=7773

To the extent that it’s relevant, the parent has never connected to her Scoutbook account, and I get an error message “Error: //personprofile” when I click Edit Profile for that Scoutbook account. I don’t believe she was the parent who originally filled out the new scout application when her scout was first registered.

Item 5
I have yet another parent who started showing up as “No emails” shortly after the email disabling.

ScoutUserID=571533&ConnectionID=19864830
BSA ID 13141274

I similarly verified her email address is good as entered at Scoutbook. When I click Edit Profile, it delivers me to the IA2 profile matching the BSA ID above. To the extent that it’s relevant, her DOB also shows up as “Invalid Date”. Again, I assume the DOB issue I correct with council. Can you confirm whether or not she’s connected to her scout in Akela?

I’m hoping I can resolve the issues with these four accounts and at least clear that part of the BSA’s headaches.

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I was able to clear the e-mail in Scoutbook. I am not able to clear it in my.scouting. As a Key 3 Delegate, you might be able to clear it there.

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This one might be better fixed by your local council Registrar, because it sounds like the parent has had a name change. It’s not a problem, except that the Scout is connected to the parent with the wrong name or wrong BSA member ID number (“User Relationships”).

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Yes, your council Registrar should be able to fix this.

In my opinion, it is better to ask parents to create an account for themselves at my.scouting and try to connect to BSA member ID number (if one exists). When units create accounts for parents inside Scoutbook, what usually happens is a BSA member ID number gets created, but it is missing the date of birth (DOB), which can make matching difficult later.

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For this parent (Scoutbook userID 8220), she does not have a BSA member number in Scoutbook. I think she probably has a BSA member number, but maybe under a different last name?

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emails like default@cubscouts.org, changeyouremail@scoutbook.com, and other system generated ones have already been blocked - no emails sent to them

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This parent is missing DOB and has not “User Relationships”. Your council should be able to fix with their Registrar Tools.

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True, but it’s a collective system that not every unit will check. Doing our part to check scout accounts will help but you need checks and balances setup on the admin side to eliminate it.

And scoutbook is not new, why now?