Not-So-Obvious Words Trigger Spam Filters

Besides obvious words and phrases such as Viagra and penis enlargement, there are a whole slew of not-so-obvious words that can trigger spam filters, according to British company Email Reaction.

As most e-mail marketers know, spam filters give words in incoming e-mail scores based on how often they tend to be used in spam massages. Too high a score results in a blocked mailing.

While some words and phrases that trigger spam filters, such as “hot stocks” are easy to spot, others aren’t the least bit obvious, according to Email Reaction. They include: acceptance, accordingly, beneficiary, beverage, certified, dainty, deceased, degrees, deposit, depression, diagnostics, dollars, dormant, enlarge, foreigner, lenders, lottery, medication, paste, presently, reciprocal, replicas, reseller, southwestern, Swiss, tablets, trademarks, valuables and watches.

Some commonly used business words also have a high probability of appearing in spam, according to Email Reaction. They include loan, maintained, medium, organization, percent, perpetual, sincerely, somebody, statements, transaction, urgent, verify and warehouse.

Web sites such as Hotmail, Paypal, Amazon and Ebay are frequently mentioned in spam e-mails, according to Email Reaction.

The top country named in spam is Nigeria, followed by the Netherlands, the company said.

“It’s extremely difficult for people to second guess what spam filters will consider to be an indicator of junk e-mail,” said Vicky Carne, managing director, Email Reaction, in a press release. “Companies often run a simple test using the open source Spam Assassin filter, but this tends to highlight technical issues, which owe more to the e-mail template than the message. It’s important to run a keyword check as well to see how the message can be edited to improve the likelihood that people receive the messages they have asked for.”

Of course, Email Reaction claims to have just the product to detect not-so-obvious words that trigger spam filters.