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Why Would a Major Client Not Have SPF Records?

May 6, 2025 5 answers
Asked by GamerNerd42
I'm curious about a situation with a big client of mine who doesn't appear to have any SPF records published. Tools like Mxtoolbox and dmarcly confirm that there are no SPF records for their domain. Given their size, it's hard to believe they wouldn't be aware of SPF or have some sort of setup in place. Could there be an alternative to SPF that they're using instead?
dkim DMARC email authentication SPF System Operations system operations

Answers

EmailExpert99
If SPF records are missing from their DNS, that means they simply don’t have it. There could be many reasons for that, but honestly, none of them is a good reason.
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AdminNinja
Yes, they definitely should have SPF. I wonder if they only receive emails on that domain and don't send anything out. Do they send from a different domain instead?
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ITSupportHero
They should ideally have SPF set up along with DKIM and a DMARC policy. It's been known to happen, though. I mean, the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce didn’t have theirs published back in 2022. They seem to have sorted it out now, possibly due to issues like having their emails land in spam.
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TechGuy123
It’s not that uncommon—just because they’re a big client doesn’t mean they have up-to-date systems. I used to see a lot of Fortune 500 companies and government contractors without any SPF records back in my consulting days (2015-2020). They might just be behind the times.
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EmailWhiz
Do they have MX records configured? Just curious—sometimes companies use third-party services to send email and might rely solely on CNAME records without needing an SPF record. But yeah, it’s pretty strange if they don’t have the usual SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup.
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