How to get yourself filtered out
At Email Universe,
Christopher Knight points out that if you want to get past Microsoft Outlook’s
two built-in spam filters (one for x-rated email, the other for all the rest of
the junk mail), you must avoid using a list of words and phrases. http://emailuniverse.com/ezine-tips/?id=1221&;cat=resources
Want to
test this out? Send yourself an email
with the bad words, and see what happens in Outlook 2003.
To get your
email dumped in the junk mail folder, get excited. Use at least
one exclamation point!!!, or say you accept credit cards, or offer a money-back
guarantee. Free is definitely an alarm
bell. And using more than one dollar
sign in a row is as bad as barking “order now!” or “Extra income.”
The To
lines are dangerous, too. If you address
the recipient as a friend, or the public, at the domain, you will get banished.
Ditto, if you say you yourself are in sales, or if you boast you are a success.
To be sure to be rejected for sexual content, mention the legal age of
adulthood, such as 18 or 21, in the subject or body. Mentioning adults or specifying that your
product is for “adults only” will get you banned. Of course, the very mention of sex in the
subject or body will get you filtered, especially if you offer “free sex.” And
don’t even think about going for an extra-extra-extra large row of kisses. XXX is taboo.
You would
think that a lot more trigger words might have made it onto the list of banned
terms. For instance, what has happened to
Viagra, Rolex, and Penis? And what about
all those emails from Rumania,
sent at 2 am? Surely Microsoft could
update its filter every time we send or receive, so that the scams and phishing
expeditions get caught. How many banks
want my credit card information and bank account number, by email?
For the
complete list of words, see Microsoft Office Online:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010450051033.aspx
11:53:02 PM 
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