Why am I seeing an increase in bounce code 60 from SES?
Summary
What email marketers say7Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that they would need to look at more data, but they haven’t seen any aggregate increased trend in this behavior related to bounce code 60 from SES.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that bounce code 60 can occur due to temporary issues with the recipient's email server. It's often a transient problem that might resolve itself with retries.
Email marketer from SparkPost explains that although less common, bounce code 60 could sometimes indicate an invalid or non-existent email address. He suggests verifying the recipient list.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid explains that authentication issues (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) can lead to deliverability problems, including bounce codes. He recommends verifying that all authentication methods are properly configured in SES.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow suggests that bounce code 60 might be related to rate limiting on the SES account. He recommends checking the sending limits and ensuring they are not being exceeded.
Email marketer from Reddit speculates that bounce code 60 might indicate that the recipient's server is classifying the emails as spam, even if they aren't. He recommends checking sender reputation and ensuring proper authentication.
Email marketer from AWS Forums explains that bounce code 60 can sometimes indicate a transient issue. He shares it can happen when the receiving server is temporarily unavailable or too busy to accept the message.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that greylisting, a spam-fighting technique, could cause temporary bounces. A receiving server may temporarily reject a message, resulting in a bounce code, and accept it upon retry. Increased greylisting could lead to more of these bounces.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that bounce code 60 from SES might just be a random code assigned to out of office replies.
Expert from Spam Resource suggests that a bounce code 60 might indicate issues with the server configuration on either the sending or receiving end. They recommend checking server logs and configurations for any misconfigurations or errors.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that bounce code 60 can be a generic bounce indicating a problem with the recipient's server. It doesn't provide specific details but suggests checking server logs for more information.
Documentation from RFC 3463 explains that SMTP enhanced status codes such as 6.0.x are non-standard and implementation-specific, meaning their meaning can vary between mail servers. Therefore, 60 might be a custom error code.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services details that SES sends notifications for bounces and provides guidance on interpreting these notifications, including checking the specific error codes and messages.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services states that exceeding sending limits or bounce quotas can lead to various bounce codes, and it recommends reviewing the SES dashboard for any alerts or notifications.