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Lorem Ipsum "Dummy Text" Gets Spam Filtered
Was working on a quick HTML Email trick to post here on the blog, and while I was sending myself test emails, I noticed they were getting thrown into my junk folder. I tweaked my HTML a little (it was admittedly a little sloppy) but it didn't help. Everytime I sent my test messages, Mozilla Thunderbird's built-in spam filter threw every single one into the junk folder. After half a dozen more tests, I finally figured it out. I was using a paragraph of "Lorem Ipsum" placeholder text in my mockup. Once I switched it out with "real" copy (I pulled the first paragraph from the MailChimp home page) it got past the spam filter. So if you're a designer sending yourself some HTML email tests, find some "real" copy to use. Spam filters (Thunderbird's, at least) don't like lorem ipsum. Et tu, Mozilla?
Here's what the email that was getting blocked looked like
And here's the one that got past the spam filter
January 16, 2006 in Tips, Tricks, Best Practices | Permalink
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Comments
Probably that's because Thunderbird uses a filtering method called "Bayesian" filtering. Without going into the details of it, the filter checks the words in your message against the words in your inbox. If there are many in common, it is not junk and if there are few in common, it is. Thus, since you never receive emails with the words "lorem", "ipsum", or "dolor" in them, the message was marked as spam. Any mail client that uses this method of filtering will likely have similar problems for similar reasons.
Posted by: Alan Underwood | Jan 19, 2006 5:09:24 PM
