Junk Mail Filter Criteria

[Brendon B]

Hi Everyone

I hope someone can assist with this request.
I'm looking for some more details information on how the junk mail filter
works - i.e what criteria it uses to classify an email as spam. I know this
might be hard to get hold of considering it would assist spammers in avoiding
the filter but perhaps there is some detail available (I have googled and
have come up empty handed)

We have business notification which get sent out to internal and external
customers which get blocked at times by the junk mail filter even though the
actual content doesnt vary by much except for a few monetary amounts.

Our management is asking us to find a solution for this. I assume the only
way is to change the element which makes the mail get blocked at that stage.

Your assistance in this matter is appreciated

Regards
Brendon

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I assume this is a(n automated) mass email? Junk email filters pick up on
that and most often is even more important than content. Especially when the
To address is different from the receiver and at no other place the address
of the receiver is addressed. In pretty much all such cases the mail will be
marked as spam.

The solution is to add the modified To address to the Safe Recipients list
or the From address to the Safe Senders list.

Junk email filter definitions are updated regularly which could explain why
sometimes it is marked as spam and not at another time.

 

[Brendon B]

Hi Robert

Thanks for getting back to me. This is an automated email but is not a bulk
or mass mail. It's more of a notification that is sent on certain activity on
an account and is only sent to a specific person.
The "From" and "Return Path" are the same and are also valid. That is why
I'm battling to understand why it is blocked.
Perhaps if I had some criteria I could check it against, I would pick it up

Regards
Brendon

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I don't know which criteria it checks against but it is a combination of
factors like;
-what's in the header
-IP-address
-computational puzzle
-spf DNS-record
-size
-amount of links
-amount of words
-amount of embedded objects
-certain words
-etc...

Validity of the addresses in From is not as important. It's more about which
address is placed in the To line. If that's not the same as the receiver, in
most cases it will be marked as junk.