How to Fix ‘Be Careful With This Message’ Error in Gmail (2026)

Are you seeing a yellow ‘be careful with this message’ warning in Gmail?

Gmail displays different variations of this warning if it thinks someone might be misusing your email address. Sometimes this is a false positive.

In this article, I’ll explain how to set up your emails to reduce the number of Gmail errors and warnings.

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Why Do I See ‘Be Careful With This Message’?

Google automatically adds ‘be careful with this message’ to emails that could be suspicious.

When Google detects a potentially malicious email, Gmail and Google Workspace users see a warning in a colored bar at the top of the email.

Along with the warning, you might see text like:

• This email claims to come from example.com, but replies will go to an email address at another domain.
• This may be a spoofed message. The message claims to have been sent from your account, but example.com Mail couldn’t verify the actual source.
• Gmail couldn’t verify that example.com actually sent this message.
• This message seems dangerous.

Sometimes senders are marked with a question mark icon. When you hover over it, you’ll see text like ‘yourdomain.com couldn’t verify that example.com actually sent this message (and not a spammer)’.

If you’re seeing ‘be careful with this message’ warnings, don’t worry. Your emails will likely still be delivered.

But any Gmail warning is still a problem because:

• People might think your emails are spam or not trustworthy.
• Recipients might hit the Report Spam or Report Phishing button in the warning box, which could cause problems with email deliverability.
• You might have missed a step when setting up your contact form, and that could mean important messages are already being filed as spam. This can affect any contact form plugin, such as Ninja Forms (see Ninja Forms emails not sending).

You can’t shut these warnings off completely, but you can correct your email and contact form settings to reduce the chance that recipients see them.

How to Fix ‘Be Careful With This Message’ Error in Gmail

Gmail Bulk Sender Rules (A Quick Checklist)

Gmail enforces strict rules for any sender reaching approximately 5,000 emails per day. If you’re sending high volumes of email (like newsletters, notifications, or automated campaigns), you must meet three requirements:

• DKIM and SPF alignment. Your authentication records must pass and align with your From domain.
• One-click list-unsubscribe header. Recipients must be able to unsubscribe with a single click.
• Spam complaint rate below 0.3%. Keep your spam reports under 0.3% as measured by Google Postmaster Tools.

Failing to meet these requirements can result in Gmail rejecting your emails entirely, not just showing warnings.

For complete details, see Google’s official email sender guidelines and monitor your performance with Google Postmaster Tools.

Want the Gmail Blue Checkmark?

Gmail shows blue checkmarks next to verified senders using BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification). To get the blue check, you’ll need BIMI set up on top of DMARC, plus a VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) or CMC (Common Mark Certificate). This enhanced verification can boost recipient trust and email engagement.

Two more technical requirements are worth knowing about. Gmail now aggressively rejects emails that aren’t sent over TLS (encrypted connections). Most modern email services handle this automatically, but if you’re using custom SMTP settings, make sure TLS is enabled. And if your emails are forwarded through mailing lists or other intermediaries, ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) helps preserve authentication results through forwarding, which prevents legitimate forwarded emails from failing authentication checks.

1. Check Your DMARC, DKIM, and SPF Records

The WP Mail SMTP plugin lets you send emails from your WordPress site through a third-party mailer service. This is a great way to improve email deliverability from WordPress because these mailer services can add verification to your emails.

But for this to work properly, you may also need to set up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF on your domain.

DMARC, DKIM, and SPF add verification data to the email header, the technical part of the email we don’t normally see. Without that data, Gmail assumes the email is suspicious because the From address doesn’t match the server that actually sent the message.

Additionally, Gmail is blocking email that doesn’t pass a DKIM or SPF check, rejecting the email with an error stating that at least one of these authentication methods must be used.

You can run into this issue any time you use a third-party mailer service to send emails. For example, it’s also common when you send out email newsletters.

The best way to fix this is to check that your DMARC, DKIM, and SPF records are working.

Solution: Check Your DNS Settings

DKIM, SPF, and DMARC are TXT lines in your domain name’s DNS record.

If you’ve already created an account with Google Postmaster Tools, it will tell you whether DKIM, SPF, and DMARC are set up correctly.

If you need to fix these records in your DNS, check the documentation for your mailer service. If you’re using WP Mail SMTP, you can jump to the instructions using these links:

• SendLayer
• SMTP.com
• Brevo
• Amazon SES
• Google Workspace / Gmail
• Mailgun
• Microsoft 365 / Outlook.com
• Postmark
• SendGrid
• SparkPost
• SMTP2GO
• Mailjet
• Elastic Email
• Zoho Mail
• Other SMTP

Review the requirements for setting up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF records, then check each record using MXToolbox to make sure it’s valid.

If you need extra help, check out our tutorials on how to add a DMARC record and how to fix multiple SPF records.

2. Check the From Address in All Plugins

In WordPress, you might have multiple plugins all sending emails using their own templates and settings.

For example, your contact form plugin and your backup plugin might have different From email addresses. One might send from your preferred From address, but another might send from the site admin email address or even a completely made-up one.

For example, Contact Form 7 defaults to a From address of wordpress@[your-domain], which is the default From address in WordPress.

To resolve email problems and make your WordPress site easier to manage, we recommend that all of the plugins on your website use the same From address. This should ideally be an email address at your domain that actually exists.

Solution: Force the From Email in WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP makes it easy to send all of your emails from the same From address.

You can enable this by clicking the Force From Email checkbox in the plugin settings.

When you do this, each plugin on your WordPress site uses the From address you’ve chosen instead of its own random or invalid address. This helps make sure that all of the emails from your site are validated.

If the Force From Email checkbox is grayed out, it means your mailer requires this setting to be turned on and WP Mail SMTP has already taken care of it for you.

3. Use Different From and To Addresses

WP Mail SMTP has a test email feature that makes it easy to check that your WordPress emails are working.

But you might see a Gmail warning if you send the test email to the same address you used as your From address.

This can also happen with some plugins that send notifications. They might send emails to and from the same address like this:

This email has a Google Workspace From address, but it isn’t sent from Google servers. So if you send it to yourself, it might trigger a ‘be careful with this message’ warning.

Nobody else will see this particular error, but it can be confusing because it looks like there’s a problem with your emails.

Solution: Use a Different Email Address for Testing

In WP Mail SMTP, try sending your test email to a different email address, not the From address you set up in the plugin.

This should remove the error and reassure you that your emails are working.

Additionally, if you’re seeing this error from specific plugin notifications, see if you can change the sender address for those notifications.

Here’s an example from WPForms. In the settings, we can send form submission notifications using the From address that matches our domain, but we can also have plugin notifications sent to a different email address.

WP Mail SMTP also has an email error logging feature that helps you troubleshoot problems if your WordPress emails aren’t sending for any reason.

Next, Fix WordPress Emails Going to Spam

Are your WordPress emails landing in the junk mail folder? This often happens if your DNS records aren’t set up correctly, or you’re on a spam blacklist.

To troubleshoot this, check out how to fix WordPress emails going to spam. If you’re using Gravity Forms and need troubleshooting help, check out our post on fixing Gravity Forms notification issues, or our guide to the Divi form not sending email issue.

Ready to reduce Gmail warnings and fix your WordPress emails for good? Get started with WP Mail SMTP today.

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FAQs About the Gmail ‘Be Careful With This Message’ Warning

Have more questions about Gmail warnings? Here are answers to some of the most common ones.

Can I disable Gmail warnings for internal company emails?

No, Gmail warnings can’t be disabled by senders. However, Google Workspace admins can configure trusted domains and senders within their organization to reduce false positives for internal communications.

Why do I still see warnings even with DMARC, DKIM, and SPF set up?

Authentication records can take 24 to 48 hours to propagate. Also, check that your records are properly aligned. Your DKIM and SPF must align with the domain in your From address, not just pass authentication.

Will my emails still be delivered if Gmail shows the warning?

Yes, emails with this warning are typically still delivered to the inbox. However, recipients may be less likely to trust or engage with warned emails, and some may mark them as spam, which can hurt your sender reputation over time.

Why does the warning only appear on emails I send to myself?

This is usually a harmless false positive. When you send a test email to the same address you use as your From address, Gmail can’t reconcile the sender and recipient being identical without matching server authentication. Send your test to a different address and the warning goes away.

Do Gmail warnings affect my email deliverability score?

While warnings don’t directly impact deliverability, they can lead to reduced engagement and increased spam complaints, which do hurt your sender reputation. Recipients who see warnings are more likely to delete emails or mark them as spam.