Emails from Sift

Longer than they used to be

Didn't find your answer?

Every so often, I used to get emails from Aweb, telling me that someone had replied to a thread that I'd posted in.

Now I get emails from [email protected] telling me

2022-11-26 03:30:07
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2022 03:30:07 +0000
Return-Path: [email protected]
From: AccountingWEB <[email protected]>
Reply-to: AccountingWEB <[email protected]>
Subject: Your digest for: Cash gift subsequently repaid - IHT implications?
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: PHPMailer 5.1 (phpmailer.sourceforge.net)
Sender: "AccountingWEB" <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8Bit
Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"
 
 
<!-- Theme variables -->
<!-- /Theme variables -->
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-gb">
  <head>
    <title>A communication from AccountingWEB</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;" charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
    <!-- CSS -->
    <style type="text/css">
  /* CLIENT-SPECIFIC STYLES */
  #outlook a { padding: 0; }
  .ReadMsgBody { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass { width: 100%; }
  .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div, .ExternalClass * { line-height: 100%; }
  body, table, td, a { -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; } table, td { mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; }
  img { -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; }
  /* RESET STYLES */
  body { height:100% !important; margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; width: 100% !important; }
  img { border: 0; height: auto; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; }
  table { border-collapse: collapse !important; }
  /* Remove margin on email wrapper in Android 4.4 KitKat */
  div[style*="margin: 16px 0"] {margin:0 !important; font-size:100% !important;}
 
  /* Remove ios blue links */
  a[x-apple-data-detectors] {
    color: inherit !important;
    text-decoration: none !important;
    font-size: inherit !important;
    font-family: inherit !important;
    font-weight: inherit !important;
    line-height: inherit !important;
  }
 
  /* Outline styles */
  @media only screen and (max-width: 599px) {
    .content-table {
      width: 100% !important;
    }
 
    img[class="img-max"]{
      width: 100% !important;
      height: auto !important;
    }
 
    table[class="mobile-button-wrap"]{
      margin: 0 auto;
      width: 100% !important;
    }
 
    a[class="mobile-button"]{
      width: 80% !important;
      padding: 8px !important;
      border: 0 !important;
    }
 
    .mobile-align-center {
      text-align: center !important;
      margin-right: auto;
      margin-left: auto;
    }
  }
</style>
  </head>
  <body style="margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important;">
  <!-- hidden preheader text - Remember to change it! -->
  <div style="display: none; font-size: 1px; color: #fefefe; line-height: 1px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; max-height: 0px; max-width: 0px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden;mso-hide:all;">
    A communication from AccountingWEB  </div>
 
  <!-- Header -->
  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td bgcolor="#ea5b25" align="center">
      <table style="min-width: 320px;" class="content-table" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600">
        <tr>
          <td style="padding: 16px 16px 16px 16px;" align="center" valign="top">
            <a href="https://www.accountingweb.co.uk">
              <img style="display: block;width: 215px;" src="https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/sites/all/themes/awuk/logo.png?442e84727063a075943d6f43b51d3687" width="215" border="0" alt="AccountingWEB logo">
            </a>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
  <!-- /Header -->
 
  <!-- defualt body -->
  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
    <tr>
      <td style="padding: 0;" bgcolor="#f2f2f2" align="center">
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
          <tr>
            <td align="center">
              <table class="content-table" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600">
                <tr>
                  <td style="padding: 32px 24px 32px 24px;" bgcolor="#ffffff" align="center" valign="top">
                    <!-- content -->
                    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
                      <tr>
                        <td align="left" style="padding: 0 0 8px 0; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">
                          <p>Hi lionofludesch,  Here's what you missed.</p>
<p>Cash gift subsequently repaid - IHT implications?<br />
<p>On 26th Nov 2022 | Tax Dragon Wrote:<br />
I'm a bit surprised Justin hasn't popped by to say there's no problem with any of it.</p>
<p>To be fair to him, assuming the second letter had no legal effect (and in particular didn't create - or record - an enforceable debt), I'm not sure I would disagree.</p>
<p>Whether such an assumption would be correct is of course a legal matter. IANAL. But... the answer(s) to the OP's question(s) depend(s) on it. If there's no debt, it would (for example) mean that parent(s) couldn't reclaim the money from daughter's estate (and the 180k would be taxable as part of daughter's estate). It would mean that, if daughter returned the money as planned, that would be a PET.</p>
<p>Conversely, if the letter did create or record a debt (the existence of which was withheld from the mortgage provider), I believe that would be mortgage fraud, as has been said.</p>
<p>You can view it by clicking on the link below.<br />
                        </td>
                      </tr>
                    </table>
                  </td>
                </tr>
              </table>
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  <!-- /Hero title, text, cta -->
 
  <!-- Footer -->
  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td style="padding: 0 0 0 0;" align="center">
      <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
        <tr>
          <td bgcolor="#232323" align="center">
            <table class="content-table" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600">
              <tr>
                <td style="padding: 16px 16px 16px 16px;" align="center" valign="top">
                  <!-- content -->
                  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
                    <tr>
                      <td style="padding: 0 0 12px 0; color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
                      font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;" align="center">
                        <a href="https://www.sift.co.uk/">
                          <img class="mobile-align-center" style="display: block" src="https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/sites/all/themes/pp/img/sift-logo--white.png?e686992a92e68b7c2606089f33446c63" width="150" border="0" alt="Sift Ltd">
                        </a>
                      </td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td class="mobile-align-center" style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;" align="center">
                        Copyright 2022 | <a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.sift.co.uk/">Sift Ltd</a>
                      </td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td class="mobile-align-center" style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;" align="center">
                        Sift Ltd, 2nd &amp; 3rd Floor,
                      </td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td class="mobile-align-center" style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;" align="center">
                        Charlotte Place, Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, BS1 4EX
                      </td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td class="mobile-align-center" style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;" align="center">
                        <a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.sift.co.uk/">Contact us</a>
                      </td>
                    </tr>
                  </table>
                </td>
              </tr>
            </table>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
  <!-- /Footer -->
  </body>
  </html>
 
 
Is anyone else getting these new style, very dull emails or is it just me?

Replies (29)

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avatar
By richard thomas
26th Nov 2022 09:58

I've just had two of these, which I only found when I looked in junk.

Thanks (1)
Replying to richard thomas:
RLI
By lionofludesch
26th Nov 2022 10:09

Good.

Not just me, then.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Leywood
26th Nov 2022 10:15

I dont sign up to many, just had one this morning, re the Sage deprecation post, but email did not have all that extra blurb on it.

Thanks (0)
Replying to Leywood:
RLI
By lionofludesch
26th Nov 2022 10:23

2-1 so far, then.

Thanks (0)
Replying to lionofludesch:
avatar
By Leywood
27th Nov 2022 18:02

Ive just had a couple of them land. Its very odd to see! Even infected where they have come from!

Thanks (0)
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By zebaa
26th Nov 2022 10:31

So far, no. But then I have email response turned off & my spam box works well. When something gets through I look at the subject heading and decide yea or nay if I want to read it, but don't mark it as spam. I get a lot of rubbish - companies house and the pension regulator take a bow here - but sometime there is a nugget of good information or news. Information these days is filled with warnings, that you are already know about, or adverts, or repeat information that leads you in circles. Have a look at any technical manual, for example. It will give world-wide addresses, warnings about every thing under the sun, but only short items about the product itself & use.

And breathe... rant over.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By David Ex
26th Nov 2022 10:51

I’ve had the same on thanked responses including 3.42 and 4.49 this morning!

Thanks (0)
Tornado
By Tornado
26th Nov 2022 11:49

Me Too! Lots of them.

Seems to be associated with 'Thanks'

Thanks (0)
Replying to Tornado:
RLI
By lionofludesch
26th Nov 2022 11:57

Tornado wrote:

Seems to be associated with 'Thanks'

My guess is that the unintelligible gobbledegook is the graphics coding which, for some reason, isn't working.

Thanks (1)
Replying to lionofludesch:
avatar
By Hugo Fair
26th Nov 2022 12:35

Spot on (including the 'for some (unknown) reason') bit).

FWIW I've received the gobbledegook styled emails for both 'Thanks' emails and for notification emails of a new Comment (when 'following' a thread).
And it's not restricted to threads on Any Answers, it also applies (for the above scenarios) with regard to comments on Articles (such as Rebecca's recent 'Boomers shouldn’t get all the tax breaks').

Thanks for bringing up the issue (they certainly look like they've been regurgitated) ... hopefully someone at Sift will finally notice & rectify the abominations.

Thanks (1)
Replying to lionofludesch:
avatar
By Hugo Fair
26th Nov 2022 18:24

I've just 'Liked' the thread in the hope that lionofludesch can tell us whether that, too, generates one of these voluminous emails?

[It also takes your count to 99 ... so maybe someone else can do the honours to get you to 100].

Thanks (1)
Replying to Tornado:
avatar
By NotAnAccountant2
26th Nov 2022 16:44

Tornado wrote:

Me Too! Lots of them.

Seems to be associated with 'Thanks'

The email is malformed. Amongst other things it doesn't include a subject before the first blank line. It didn't quite get marked as spam in my case:

X-Spam-Status: No, score=3.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,DKIM_SIGNED,
DKIM_VALID,MISSING_HEADERS,MISSING_SUBJECT autolearn=no
autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Paul Crowley
26th Nov 2022 12:26

Started Friday 19.12
continues as of 10.00 today

Edit
just the same as I just liked this

Editorial team will not know as thanks are for comments not articles

Thanks (1)
Replying to Paul Crowley:
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By Hugo Fair
26th Nov 2022 12:49

Are you suggesting they don't read the Comments posted on their articles? :=)

Thanks (1)
Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By Paul Crowley
26th Nov 2022 17:51

Yes, sometimes.
It looks like they wait for complaints.

Thanks (0)
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By 356B
26th Nov 2022 16:11

Far more of a challenge than the usual stuff!

Thanks (0)
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By neiltonks
27th Nov 2022 08:48

Something is malformed in the email which is making it treat all the html tags as text. Could be as simple as a single missing character (but my skills aren't up to identifying it). All this stuff is always there, but usually you don't see it.

Thanks (1)
Replying to neiltonks:
avatar
By NotAnAccountant2
27th Nov 2022 11:30

neiltonks wrote:

Something is malformed in the email which is making it treat all the html tags as text. Could be as simple as a single missing character (but my skills aren't up to identifying it). All this stuff is always there, but usually you don't see it.

The key problem is a blank line in the middle of the "headers" - it looks to me like someone is constructing the email using an API incorrectly and the headers are being included as body text. But the very first line of the email body (after the first blank line) is a date without any header prefix.

The OP has the "body" of the email quoted. If the blank line before this and that weird date were removed then the email might be interpreted better (I've not checked what conflicts with the real headers of the email there might be)

This is the "header" that would tell most email clients to interpret the email as HTML:

Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"

but because it's in the email body, all sane email clients will display it rather than interpret it.

Thanks (1)
Tornado
By Tornado
27th Nov 2022 09:47

Technology is the future that we will rely on .... except at the weekends.

Thanks (0)
Tom Herbert
By Tom Herbert
27th Nov 2022 14:03

Apologies one and all. It looks like gremlins in the system, which our crack team are working hard to resolve.

And yes, although it's not always great for morale, we do read the comments :-)

Thanks (3)
Replying to TomHerbert:
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By Hugo Fair
27th Nov 2022 15:36

I know you do, Tom, and the thick skin is both necessary & appreciated.
My comment was tongue-in-cheek and aimed at Paul with regard to his assertion that Articles are thankless (in every sense of that word) by pointing out it may be true, but they attract comments which are then thankable - if there's such a word!

Thanks (2)
Replying to Hugo Fair:
avatar
By Paul Crowley
27th Nov 2022 18:11

Articles are not likeable, only threads
And on articles the writer does not get the thanks, the commentator does
Hence the team are unlikely to see the problem without testing it.
It would be a HUGE undertaking for the team to read every comment and posting.

Thanks (2)
avatar
By carnmores
27th Nov 2022 21:17

2 friday thought it looked like a hack?

Thanks (0)
Replying to carnmores:
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By Tax Dragon
28th Nov 2022 05:58

How long after the thread about Russians did this start happening?

Thanks (1)
Replying to Tax Dragon:
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By carnmores
28th Nov 2022 11:01

:-)

Thanks (0)
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By 356B
28th Nov 2022 09:47

Now I keep getting this one:
https://blog.jmwhite.co.uk/2015/09/19/revealing-why-emails-appear-off-ce... */
div[style*="margin: 16px 0"] {margin:0 !important; font-size:100% !important;}

Which isn't any help.

Thanks (0)
Richard Hattersley
By Richard Hattersley
28th Nov 2022 09:49

Hello all. Thank you for flagging this issues. Our DEV team has fixed the issue and you should no longer be receiving these broken emails.

Thanks (0)
Replying to Richard Hattersley:
RLI
By lionofludesch
28th Nov 2022 09:51

Hurrah!

Thanks (0)
By JCresswellTax
28th Nov 2022 10:05

Good read, that.

Thanks (0)