Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/03/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have been the owner of a photography website for almost 25 years. On multiple occasions Proofpoint has blocked the ** address of my email server without explanation, which blocks many of my customers from being able to use the web site. I own my own dedicated mail server, the server is not an open relay, not compromised, and not a source of spam. My server also properly implements DKIM to ensure integrity of my email. In spite of this Proofpoint continues to block my server. I have followed Proofpoint's instructions to get my ** address unblocked, but without success: my requests for an ** address reset using their remediation request form are not responded to. My attempts to contact them via their normal support channels are either not responded to, or responded to by simply telling me to go fill out the remediation form again, as if they had not even read my request. When my ** address is blocked by them, the block message directs me to a FAQ page on their website, however the link they provide to that FAQ page is not valid, it simply redirects back to their support form. When I reported the broken link to them, rather than acknowledging or fixing it, they simply responded by again telling me to go fill out the remediation form, even though that was not was I was contacting them about. In summary: (1) They are blocking my email to many customers, which causes me harm. (2) They won't tell me why they are doing so. (3) They are unresponsive to any requests that I send to them.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/04/2024

  I am sorry that your experience has been difficult I can review your ** reputation with Proofpoint if you can provide the ** and Domain Name used with your email.

  Thank you in advance for your time while we look into this for you.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/05/2024

   
  Complaint: 22215331
  
  Thank you.
  
  Here is the additional information that you requested:
  
  My server's IP address is ************. Most of the email that I see bounced because of your blocking is from ************** (my photography web site), however the server handles email for all of the following domains:
  
  *****************
  **************
  ************
  **************
  ****************
  ****************
  **********
  *************
  *************
  **********************
  
  In case it is helpful, here is an example log file entry for one of the most recent emails that you blocked today:
  
  Sep  5 23:18:44 colo1 postfix/smtp[29044]: DEDB24177F9E6: to=<**********************************>,relay=***************[47.43.18.9]:25, delay=4671, delays=4671/0.04/0.12/0,dsn=4.0.0, status=deferred (host ***************[47.43.18.9] refused to talk to me: 554 ******************************** cmsmtp ************ is listed on Cloudmark CSI-Global. Please visit -************************************************** AUP#In-1200)
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** ******

  Business Response

  Date: 09/17/2024

  Hello.  We have remediated the listing -- you should be good at this point.  Thanks.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/25/2024

   
  Complaint: 22215331
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  When I submitted this complaint I requested four specific and very reasonable things:
  
  (1) That my IP address be removed from your blacklist.
  
  (2) That I be provided with an explanation of why my IP address was blocked, so I could take any appropriate action necessary.
  
  (3) That I be provided with a means of direct contact should this occur again in the future, as it has multiple times in the past. I do not wish to have to submit a formal complaint with the BBB every time you block my server's IP address, and none of the attempts that I made to contact you about this in the past were responded to.
  
  (4) That you correct the broken link on your website which is supposed to provide more information about why you block IP addresses.
  
  You have provided only one of the four things that I have requested (i.e. you have removed my server's IP address from your blacklist.) I therefore can not reasonably consider this matter resolved.
  
  Please respond to and address my other three requests as well, so that we can resolve this matter amicably.
  
  Thank you.
  

  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** ******

  Business Response

  Date: 09/25/2024

  Hi ****,

  Apologies for the frustration on this.  I will provide responses to all of your requests below inline:

  (1) That my IP address be removed from your blacklist.
  >> I have confirmed that we have removed ************ from our blacklist

  (2) That I be provided with an explanation of why my IP address was blocked, so I could take any appropriate action necessary.
  >>I don't have specific details, but suspect this was a potential false positive block based on the *** configuration of your IP address -- specifically the *** record.  Currently your IP resolves to "*******************".  Recommended best practices are that IPs used for sending email have a *** record that that is easy to identify as a mail system -- i.e. ****************, ***************, etc.
  
  (3) That I be provided with a means of direct contact should this occur again in the future, as it has multiple times in the past. I do not wish to have to submit a formal complaint with the BBB every time you block my server's IP address, and none of the attempts that I made to contact you about this in the past were responded to.
  >> You are welcome to email our postmaster team -- ************************************* or **********************************************************.  Both of these mailboxes are actively monitored.
  
  (4) That you correct the broken link on your website which is supposed to provide more information about why you block IP addresses.
  >> We have an improved Postmaster site that hopefully provides more visibility / context:  *********************************************

  Please let me know if I can be of any additional assistance.  Thanks.

  ***** **********
  Proofpoint Postmaster

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/03/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Proofpoint continues to block my server IP address, regardless of multiple requests to unblock. My customers cannot get my order/shipping related information because of this. Proofpoint never responds to my requests to unblock the *** nor does it take any action to resolve or explain the issue. This is affecting my small business and is unacceptable behavior. Please get back to me and unblock my IP address, so that I can communicate with my customers.IP: ************** Domain: **********, chicagowallart.com

  Business Response

  Date: 09/04/2024

  I have reviewed your IPs and domains in our reputation system and I am unable to find a reason for the mail to be returned. If you could find an error or NDR to provide us we can look into this further. 

  Thank you for your patience while we look into this.

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/04/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  After my complaint, it appears they have resolved the issue. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/18/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ProofPoint has blocked all e-mail communications between their customers and **************** based on poor threat intelligence. ProofPoint has not acknowledged our request to delist our domain and provides no other means to escalate (e.g. they do not have a phone number you can call as a non-customer).As one of the largest, if not largest e-mail security vendors in the **, this heavy-handed approach is incredibly impactful for small and medium sized businesses that are non-customers.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/18/2024

  Hello.  We have unblocked your domain.  It was blocked because we had detected malicious content being hosted, which apparently appears to have been remediated.  Thanks.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/08/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  A little over a month ago, I moved my web hosting over to ********** Services and was assigned a new static ** for my VPS. The ** is not on any blacklists, nor do my clients send spam, they're just small businesses that do business with major companies in ********, *********, *******, some of which are also Proofpoint clients. The problem is that my clients' ability to communicate and conduct business with these clients has been severely impaired by your service over this period. This despite making four (4) requests through your Dynamic Reputation ** Lookup page/form to lift the ban with no response from your tech support people. This of course flies in the face of Proofpoint's own stated policy: "An ** that presents indications of spam may be delayed for a short time. You do not need to do anything to get your ** removed from delay status; this will happen automatically, usually within a few minutes." By the number of complaints filed against Proofpoint with the BBB and similar ones lodged in forums across the Internet, I guess I am not alone.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/09/2024

  We have reset the reputation for the ** as you have requested. Any new mail will be evaluated to re-establish the reputation going forward. If you have any other questions please let us know.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/09/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  Thank you for you assistance. I appreciate Proofpoint's attention to this matter. I just verified that my IP is no longer being blocked. This resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/15/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am COO of *************************, a provider of service parts to the electronics industry in business for over 40 years. Several months ago we discovered our out going emails from IPs 47.180.78.153, 47.180.78.154 and 47.180.78.155 were being blocked by customers subscribing to Proofpoint. We do not use the IPs to send spam. We submitted a request through the online whitelist request system and the IPs in question became unblocked. Recently, these IPs became blocked again for no apparent reason. No spam or any other type of inappropriate emails were sent from those IPs. Instead we use them to communicate with our existing customers concerning orders, fulfillment returns, etc. Again, we submitted the data to Proofpoint's online whitelist request system, but after a month, these addresses are still being blocked. As of now we are finding that we cant communicate via email with many of our customers to confirm routine business transactions and it is severely impacting our business.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/01/2024

  Apologies for the delayed response.   We have remediated the issue with the blocked IPs.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/04/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************

  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/27/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My personal email server on a vultr VPS (155.138.202.133) has been blocked by proofpoint. I'm unable to send emails to organizations/users that using proofpoint ip blocking. I have never sent mass emails and use my email address purely for personal/professional correspondence. This is impacting me significantly as emails I expect to be delivered are not getting delivered requiring me to keep up multiple email addresses.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2024

  We have removed the listing in question.
  
  The ** address was listed due to improper DNS configuration specifically the ** resolves to a generic hostname (alexselimov.com).  Spammers, as well as compromised systems will commonly use default DNS configuration, making it hard to recognize as a legitimate ***********.
  
  We recommend you modify your DNS so that the ** resolves to a hostname that better reflects a mail server (i.e. mail.example.com) which will help our reputation systems better identify it as a valid mail system.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/11/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have email server mail.neelc.org at the IPv4 address 107.191.41.18 and IPv6 2001:19F0:5:52D0:5400:4FF:FE8B:AA1A.This IP address is blocked by Proofpoint. I used the form a month ago to no avail, got no response when others respond instantly. Could you please unblock me?

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2024

  We have removed the listing in question.

  The ** address was listed due to improper DNS configuration specifically the ** resolves to a generic hostname (107.191.41.18.vultrusercontent.com).  Spammers, as well as compromised systems will commonly use default DNS configuration, making it hard to recognize as a legitimate ***********.
  
  We recommend you modify your DNS so that the ** resolves to a hostname that better reflects a mail server (i.e. mail.example.com) which will help our reputation systems better identify it as a valid mail system.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/05/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ProofPoint arbitrarily keeps our 212.174.249.226 IP address in blacklist while our IP address is not on any other blaclist. Even though we repeatedly tried to reach them, they insist on not responding to the cases we opened via the removal tool on their website and they do not respond our e-mails for delisting our IP. Moreover, they do not return to the voice mails with the same requests we left to their offices. Unfortunately, we cannot contact ProofPoint. through any channel whatsoever. This situation prevents our company from communicating with government agencies, banks, other global companies, our customers and damages our corporate reputation. Once again, we request to remove our IP address from therelevantlist.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2024

  We have removed the listing in question.
  
  The ** address was listed due to improper DNS configuration specifically the ** resolves to a generic hostname (212.174.249.226.static.ttnet.com.tr).  Spammers, as well as compromised systems will commonly use default DNS configuration, making it hard to recognize as a legitimate ***********.
  
  We recommend you modify your DNS so that the ** resolves to a hostname that better reflects a mail server (i.e. mail.example.com) which will help our reputation systems better identify it as a valid mail system.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/27/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This was the complaint I made on 10/25/2022:"We are an electronic health record company. A couple months ago ProofPoint added our dedicated IP address to their block list for no reason that I can guess. We send no marketing emails, only transactional emails, but now all of our emails are blocked. Customers who sign up for an account with us cannot even log in because ProofPoint blocks the email verification emails sent to them. I sent them a support ticket two weeks ago and sent another, more detailed one a few days later. We are still blocked and have received no communication from them, even thought their website says they strive to review a ticket within one business day. Lots of our customers are being impeded as they try to get health care through our services because of ProofPoint."ProofPpoint removed our IP address from their block list on 11/3/2022. Sadly they have begun blocking our IP address again as of 6/20/2023. I hope that ProofPoint can remove us from their block list again and perhaps consider keeping a "Do not block" list to keep us from being added to it again in the future.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2024

  We have removed the listing in question.
  
  The ** address was listed due to improper DNS configuration specifically the ** resolves to a generic hostname (o1.ptr7476.sympliact.com).  Spammers, as well as compromised systems will commonly use default DNS configuration, making it hard to recognize as a legitimate ***********.
  
  We recommend you modify your DNS so that the ** resolves to a hostname that better reflects a mail server (i.e. mail.example.com) which will help our reputation systems better identify it as a valid mail system.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/15/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/23/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  All 3 of my IP's (216.128.136.52 / 107.191.55.182 / 144.202.74.83) were wrongfully blocked just like thousands of others. This should be criminal. You disrupt legit businesses because your automatic software isn't smart enough to do its job correctly. Nor do you respond to requests to remove them. How are you even in business??? If these are not removed ASAP, I will take you to court for discrimination and anything else applicable. As a web dev, I'd love to launch proofpointfraud.com in a few hours, showcasing the thousands of bad reviews all over the internet regarding your shady business practices, and add it to my ****** Ads account so anytime someone looks you up, it's on top. I despise horrible business, and more than that, having to deal with this for no reason and wasting my time. Don't run a business if you don't know what you're doing.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2024

  We have removed all of the listings.
  
  The IP addresses were listed due to improper DNS configuration specifically the IPs resolved to a generic hostnames (i.e. 5280dev.com).  Spammers, as well as compromised systems will commonly use default DNS configuration, making it hard to recognize as a legitimate ***********.
  
  We recommend you modify your DNS so that your IPs resolve to hostnames that better reflects a mail server (i.e. mail.example.com) which will help our reputation systems better identify it as a valid mail system.