[Sender Not Verified] in Gmail subject

[SkilComm]

Hi,

I'm sending mail from my own Gmail account on a Google-provided domain to Gmail accounts in another organization. They receive the email with [Sender Not Verified] inserted into the subject. I confirmed that my emails are DKIM-authenticated.

What might cause [Sender Not Verified] to be inserted into email subjects?

Thanks!

[icrew · Accepted solution]

If the recipient is also on Google Workspace, it's almost definitely because their organization's Workspace admin has configured a content compliance rule to add that text to the subject line of incoming messages. See https://support.google.com/a/answer/2364580?hl=en#zippy=%2Cstep-specify-what-happens-if-expressions-... for how that feature works.

If the recipient wants to pursue this, they'd need to talk with their organization's Workspace admin about why your messages are getting flagged this way. As you can see from the documentation above, the content compliance rules are quite flexible, giving admins lots of power in terms of rejecting, quarantining, or modifying incoming messages. Perhaps the admin has chosen to tag any message from outside their domain as "[Sender Not Verified]" or maybe they have some internal verification process. Or something...

If the recipient isn't on Workpsace, there are fully-equivalent features for Microsoft 365 and most other email server offerings.

Hope that helps,

Ian

[SkilComm]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your comprehensive answer! I'll take it up with the recipients.

Best,

Al

[May2]

Hi icrew, 

Thank you for this answer. Just to clarify: in my case, anytime a certain company, with their own email domain (not google/microsoft 365 etc.), sends emails to my gmail account, and the subject line has [sender not verified] that this is an issue on their end, not a setting on mine? AKA can I add their email domain (ex: @exampledomain.com) to an approved sender list in my gmail settings?

Thanks in advance! May

[icrew]

Correct--that's something that their email system is adding to the message. If you're using an @gmail.com account, there's nothing you can do from your end to affect it.

If you're using Google Workspace for your own domain, making sure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is set up properly is important. See https://support.google.com/a/topic/9061731 for all the details. If it's not set up properly, there's a chance that that's what's causing the remote email system to add that to the subject line.

Hope that helps,

Ian

[May2]

Thanks Ian!!

[jarrbird58]

That is not my understanding. The addition of "sender not verified" is something gmail adds. It is NOT sent out that way. When gmail receives the mail from a domain email that is not on your gmail approved list "not junk", then "sender not verified" is added to the subject line upon receipt.

[icrew]

@jarrbird58 That's a setting in the Workspace admin console. Your workspace admin will have configured it to add that phrase. Here at UC Berkeley, we use "[Unverified] " instead. See https://support.google.com/a/answer/1346934 for all the details about how that's set up. 

Hope that helps,

Ian

[77capr]

Just as an update: I confirmed with the recipients that they are inserting the warning for emails from external domains. (And they won't change it)

Al

[SkilComm]

Just FYI: I confirmed with the recipients that they are inserting the warning for emails from external domains (and they won't change it).

Al