Spam Trigger Words & Phrases To Avoid

So you’re doing the right thing… You’re creating non-spam e-campaigns and sending to a list of subscribers who have given you permission to send to them… Then why are your messages getting caught up in spam filters?

The most common culprit would be the words that you are using in the subject line of your e-campaigns. There are actually certain spam filter “trigger” words, which are words and combinations of words that are identified as being most commonly used in spam messages. These add spam points to your email when being received by your subscribers, and if your points are too high, your message will get blocked. In other words, if your e-campaign “looks” like a spam message, it could get caught in spam filters, even if you are following all the rules.

So… wondering which words and phrases to avoid? Have a look…

100 Spam Trigger Words & Phrases To Avoid

(Note: I am going to assume you are not using words like sex, Viagra and other spam filter trigger words in an honest e-campaign, so obvious ones like that have been intentionally left out of this list.)

#1 100% satisfied 4U Accept credit cards Act Now! Additional Income Affordable All natural All new Amazing Apply online Bargain Best price Billing address Buy direct Call Call free Can’t live without Cards Accepted Cents on the dollar Check Claims Click / Click Here / Click Below Click to remove Compare rates Congratulations Cost / No cost Dear friend Do it today Extra income For free Form Free and FREE Free installation Free leads Free membership Free offer Free preview Free website Full refund Get it now Giving away Guarantee Here Hidden Increase sales Increase traffic Information you requested Insurance Investment / no investment

Investment decision Legal Lose Marketing Marketing solutions Message contains Money Month trial offer Name brand Never No gimmicks No Hidden Costs No-obligation Now Offer One time / one-time Opportunity Order / Order Now / Order today / Order status Orders shipped by priority mail Performance Phone Please read Potential earnings Pre-approved Price Print out and fax Profits Real thing Removal instructions Remove Risk free Sales Satisfaction guaranteed Save $ Save up to Search engines See for yourself Serious cash Solution Special promotion Success The following form Unsolicited Unsubscribe Urgent US dollars Wife Win Winner Work at home

What’s the Difference Between CC and BCC When Sending an Email?

The CC and BCC fields when sending email work similarly. CC stands for “carbon copy,” while BCC stands for “blind carbon copy.” While these terms may have been immediately obvious when email was invented, they’re antiquated today.

CC and BCC are both ways of sending copies of an email to additional people. However, you can also send copies of an email to additional people by specifying multiple addresses in the To field.

Carbon Copying Explained

The abbreviation CC comes from “carbon copy.” By placing a sheet of carbon paper between two pieces of paper, the pressure from writing on the first piece of paper will push the ink from the carbon paper down onto the second piece of paper, producing an additional copy of the document. Like a physical carbon copy, a CC is a way of sending additional copies of an email to other people. Some people refer to CC as “courtesy copy,” which better describes what a CC actually is. CC is often used as a verb, as in “I CC’d him on the email.”

Image Credit: Holger Ellgaard on Wikimedia Commons

CC vs. BCC

When you CC people on an email, the CC list is visible to all other recipients. For example, if you CC bob@example.com and jake@example.com on an email, Bob will know that Jake also received the email, while Jake will know that Bob also received the email.

BCC stands for “blind carbon copy.” Unlike with CC, no one can see the list of recipients on the BCC list. For example, if you have bob@example.com and jake@example.com in the BCC list, Bob won’t know that Jake received the email, and Jake won’t know that Bob received the email.

Someone on the BCC list can see everything else, including the CC list and the contents of the email. However, the BCC list is secret – no one can see this list. (If a person is on the BCC list, they’ll see only their own email on the BCC list.)

To vs. CC

The To and CC fields work similarly. Whether you put four email addresses in the To field or put one email address in the To field and three in the CC field, the four people will all receive the same email. They’ll also be able to see every other recipients’ email address.

When it comes to email etiquette, the To field is generally used for the main recipients of your email. The CC field is used to send a copy to other interested parties for their information. This isn’t a concrete rule, and usage of To and CC can vary.

For example, let’s say your boss wants you to email a customer in response to a complaint. You’d put the customer’s email address in the To field and your boss’s email address in the CC field, so your boss would receive a copy of the email. (If you didn’t want the customer to see your boss’s email address, you’d put your boss’s address in the BCC field instead.)

When to Use CC and BCC

CC is useful when:

• You want someone else to receive a copy of an email, but they aren’t one of the primary recipients.

BCC is useful when:

• You want someone else to receive an email, but you don’t want the primary recipients of the email to see you’ve sent this other person a copy. For example, if you’re having a problem with a fellow employee, you might send them an email about it and BCC the human resources department. HR would receive a copy for their records, but your fellow employee wouldn’t be aware of this.
• You want to send a copy of an email to a large amount of people. For example, if you have a mailing list with a large amount of people, you could include them in the BCC field. No one would be able to see anyone else’s email address – if you CC’d these people instead, you would be exposing their email addresses and they’d see a long list of CC’d emails in their email program. You could even put your own email address in the To field and include every other address in the BCC field, hiding everyone’s email address from each other.

BCC, Replies, and Email Threads

Note that BCC doesn’t function like CC when it comes to email threads. For example, if you send an email to bob@example.com and BCC jake@example.com, Jake will receive the original email you send. However, if Bob replies, Jake won’t get a copy of Bob’s reply – Bob’s email program can’t see that Jake ever received the email, so it doesn’t send him a copy of the reply.

Of course, you can continue to BCC Jake on future emails or forward him a copy of the reply. it’s also possible that Bob could erase Jake’s email from the CC field and reply directly to you if you CC’d Jake instead. However, people are much more likely to receive all replies in an email thread if you CC them. You’ll have to keep them in the loop if you’re BCC’ing them.

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In practice, a lot of this can come down to email etiquette and different people will use these fields differently – particularly the To and CC fields. Don’t be surprised if you see them used differently.

How To Easily Send Emails From The Windows Task Scheduler

The Windows Task Scheduler can automatically send email at a specific time or in response to a specific event, but its integrated email feature won’t work very well for most users.

Instead of using the Task Scheduler’s email feature to send emails, you can use the SendEmail utility. It allows you to construct a single-line command that authenticates with an SMTP server and sends an email.

The Problem With The Task Scheduler’s Email Function

When we covered setting up your computer to send you email notifications when anyone logs in, we found that the built-in email feature had some issues.

While you can enter any SMTP server you like, the Task Scheduler doesn’t support authentication, so you can’t provide a username and password for your SMTP server. The type of SMTP server most users have access to (for example, Gmail’s SMTP server, or an SMTP server provided by your Internet service provider) requires authentication, so it can’t easily be used from the Task Scheduler.

If you’re running an SMTP server on your local computer, the Task Scheduler’s email function may be useful to you. However, the average user will need another tool – that’s where SendEmail comes in.

Using SendEmail

First, download SendEmail, a free (and open source) tool for sending emails from the command line. Extract the downloaded archive into a folder on your computer.

Next, launch the Windows Task Scheduler and create a new task – consult our guide to creating scheduled tasks for more information. You can create a task that automatically sends an email at a specific time or a task that sends an email in response to a specific event.

When you reach the Action window, select Start a program instead of Send an e-mail.

In the Program/script box, use the Browse button and navigate to the SendEmail.exe file on your computer.

Finally, you’ll have to add the arguments required to authenticate with your SMTP server and construct your email. Here’s a list of the options you can use with SendEmail:

Server Options

-f EMAIL – The email address you’re sending from.

-s SERVER:PORT – The SMTP server and port it requires.

-xu USERNAME – The username you need to authenticate with the SMTP server.

-xp PASSWORD – The password you need to authenticate with the SMTP server.

-o tls=yes – Enables TLS encryption. May be necessary for some SMTP servers.

If you’re using Gmail’s SMTP servers, these are the server options you’ll need:

-s smtp.gmail.com:587 -xu you@gmail.com -xp password -o tls=yes

Of course, you’ll have to enter your own email address and password here.

Destination Options

-t EMAIL – The destination email address. You can send an email to multiple addresses by including a space between each address after the -t option.

-cc EMAIL – Any addresses you’d like to CC on the email. You can specify multiple addresses by placing a space between each email address, just as with the -t command above.

-bcc EMAIL – The BCC version of the CC option above.

Email Options

-u SUBJECT – The subject of your email

-m BODY – The message body text of your email.

-a ATTACHMENT – The path of a file you’d like to attach. This is optional.

For example, let’s say your email address is you@gmail.com and you’d like to send an email to person@example.com. You’d use the following options:

-f you@gmail.com -t person@example.com -u Subject -m This is the body text! -s smtp.gmail.com:587 -xu you@gmail.com -xp password -o tls=yes

Once you’ve put together your options, copy and paste them into the Add arguments box.

7 Important Email Security Tips You Should Know About

Internet security is a topic that we all know to be important, but it often sits way back in the recesses of our minds, fooling ourselves into believing that "it won't happen to me". Whether it's the destructive force of the newest virus or just the hacking attempts of a newbie scriptkiddy, we're always only one click away from dealing with a security mess that we'd rather not confront. Nowhere is this truer than in our emails.

Mat Honan wrote a fascinating article over at Wired about Internet security and about how he became a victim of various online security flaws. In it, he wrote, "[The] security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them". He hits home on a very serious truth: in most of the cases where we face hiccups in security, we can trace the issue back to our own ignorance and negligence.

Safe online practices are important to keeping your online identity unadulterated and free from viruses, hackers, and all sorts of Internet-based shenanigans. And the best place to start? Your inbox.

Here are some simple yet important security tips you should know in order to keep your email account as secure as possible.

1. Use Separate Email Accounts

If you're like most people, your email account is probably the centralized hub of your personal activity. All of your Facebook notifications, website registrations, newsletters, messages, etc. get sent to your email box, right? That means you're putting all of your eggs in one basket - if that basket happens to fall, you'll lose all your eggs with it.

In other words, if you bring all of your activity into a single email account, what happens when someone breaks into it? I'd say it's plausible that they would gain access to everything else. This is why you should use multiple email accounts.

Having separate email accounts will not only help boost your security, but also your productivity. Imagine if you could consolidate all of your work emails into a single work account; all of your friends and family communicate with your personal account; you have a recreational account for various websites; and a throwaway account for potential spam links. This way, if someone hacks your work account, all of your personal emails are still safe.

2. Create A Unique Password

Going along with the multiple account idea, you should also have an entirely unique password for each of your email accounts. Even if you decide to keep one "master" email account, make sure that its password is 100% unique.

Using one password for all of your accounts is a rookie-level mistake. Suppose someone did hack into your personal email and they see all of your incoming Facebook notifications, eBay reminders, and more. Any half-wit hacker will test those accounts with the same password as your email account-and in your case, they would succeed.

This is common advice, I know, but so many people still neglect it. Admittedly, for the longest time, I too used the same password for literally every account that I had. When one of my friends figured out my password (without messing with anything, thankfully), I knew it was time to wise up.

3. Beware Of Phishing Scams

When dealing with a particular company or product that requires account information, have you ever seen the following message: "Never give away your personal information. We will never ask you for your password." When someone sends you an email asking you for your personal information, you know right away that it's a trick.

But there's another level to this scam and it's called "phishing." Basically, malicious users will imitate and impersonate high-profile websites (e.g., eBay, Amazon, Facebook, etc.) and say that they're experiencing trouble with your account; all you have to do to fix it is to send them your username and password to verify your authenticity. Sometimes they'll even link you to a false website that looks exactly like the real thing.

Be wary. In fact, whenever your personal information is ever brought up in a non-face-to-face capacity, your scam detector should go off loud and clear.

4. Never Click Links In Emails

Phishing brings me to my next point. Whenever you see a link in an email, 99% of the time you should not click on it. The only exceptions are when you're expecting a particular email, such as a forum registration link or game account activation email. Things like that.

If you receive a spam email that tries to sell you a particular service or product, never click on any of the links inside. You never know where they'll lead you. Sometimes they might be safe; other times they'll bring you straight to the doors of hell and swarm you with malware and viruses.

If you get an email from your bank or any other service (e.g., bill payments), always visit the website manually. No copy and paste. No direct clicking. You'll thank yourself later.

5. Do Not Open Unsolicited Attachments

Attachments are a tricky thing when it comes to email. If you're expecting something from a buddy or an uncle, then sure, go ahead and open the attachment. Have a laugh at the funny photo they sent you. It's all good when you knowthe person sending the attachment.

But if the email is unsolicited, never open any attachments. Even if the file looks innocent, you could be in for a world of hurt. Filenames can be spoofed. JPEGs could be EXEs in disguise and those EXEs will run as soon as they're downloaded. And then you'll have a virus on your hands.

6. Scan For Viruses & Malware

If you open an email and it seems suspicious in any way, go ahead and run a malware and virus scanner. Not every spam email will infect you with a virus and it may seem like overkill to run a malware scanner every time you open a fishy email, but it's better to be safe than sorry. The one time that you decide to let it go could be the time your computer loads a keylogger.

7. Avoid Public Wi-Fi

And lastly, avoid checking your email when you're on public Internet. Yes, I know that when you're waiting for an airplane to reach your gate, it can be tempting to whip out your smartphone or laptop and check for new messages. Unfortunately, public Wi-Fi can be extremely insecure.

There are programs out there called "network sniffers" that run passively in the background of some hacker's device. The sniffer monitors all of the wireless data flowing through a particular network - and that data can be analyzed for important information. Like your username and password.

It's strange that as the years go by, security grows tighter in some ways and we remain just as vulnerable as we've always been in other ways. Email security comes down to common sense and careful decisions. Don't let laziness and convenience overshadow your desire for protection and peace.

How Scammers Forge Email Addresses and How You Can Tell

Consider this a public service announcement: Scammers can forge email addresses. Your email program may say a message is from a certain email address, but it may be from another address entirely.

Email protocols don’t verify addresses are legitimate — scammers, phishers, and other malicious individuals exploit this weakness in the system. You can examine a suspicious email’s headers to see if its address was forged.

How Email Works

Your email software displays who an email is from in the “From” field. However, no verification is actually performed – your email software has no way of knowing if an email is actually from who it says it’s from. Each email includes a “From” header, which can be forged – for example, any scammer could send you an email that appears to be from bill@microsoft.com. Your email client would tell you this is an email from Bill Gates, but it has no way of actually checking.

Emails with forged addresses may appear to be from your bank or another legitimate business. They’ll often ask you for sensitive information such as your credit card information or social security number, perhaps after clicking a link that leads to a phishing site designed to look like a legitimate website.

Think of an email’s “From” field as the digital equivalent of the return address printed on envelopes you receive in the mail. Generally, people put an accurate return address on mail. However, anyone can write anything they like in the return address field – the postal service doesn’t verify that a letter is actually from the return address printed on it.

When SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) was designed in the 1980s for use by academia and government agencies, verification of senders was not a concern.

How to Investigate an Email’s Headers

You can see more details about an email by digging into the email’s headers. This information is located in different areas in different email clients – it may be known as the email’s “source” or “headers.”

(Of course, it’s generally a good idea to disregard suspicious emails entirely – if you’re at all unsure about an email, it’s probably a scam.)

In Gmail, you can examine this information by clicking the arrow at the top right corner of an email and selecting Show original. This displays the email’s raw contents.

Below you’ll find the contents of an actual spam email with a forged email address. We’ll explain how to decode this information.

Delivered-To: [MY EMAIL ADDRESS]
Received: by 10.182.3.66 with SMTP id a2csp104490oba;
Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:32:15 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.14.212.72 with SMTP id x48mr8232338eeo.40.1344724334578;
Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:32:14 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <e.vwidxus@yahoo.com>
Received: from 72-255-12-30.client.stsn.net (72-255-12-30.client.stsn.net. [72.255.12.30])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id c41si1698069eem.38.2012.08.11.15.32.13;
Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:32:14 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 72.255.12.30 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of e.vwidxus@yahoo.com) client-ip=72.255.12.30;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 72.255.12.30 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of e.vwidxus@yahoo.com) smtp.mail=e.vwidxus@yahoo.com
Received: by vwidxus.net id hnt67m0ce87b for <[MY EMAIL ADDRESS]>; Sun, 12 Aug 2012 10:01:06 -0500 (envelope-from <e.vwidxus@yahoo.com>)
Received: from vwidxus.net by web.vwidxus.net with local (Mailing Server 4.69)
id 34597139-886586-27/./PV3Xa/WiSKhnO+7kCTI+xNiKJsH/rC/
for root@vwidxus.net; Sun, 12 Aug 2012 10:01:06 –0500

…

From: “Canadian Pharmacy” e.vwidxus@yahoo.com

There are more headers, but these are the important ones – they appear at the top of the email’s raw text. To understand these headers, start from the bottom – these headers trace the email’s route from its sender to you. Each server that receives the email adds more headers to the top — the oldest headers from the servers where the email started out are located at the bottom.

The “From” header at the bottom claims the email is from an @yahoo.com address – this is just a piece of information included with the email; it could be anything at all. However, above it we can see that the email was first received by “vwidxus.net”  (below) before being received by Google’s email servers (above). This is a red flag – we’d expect the see the lowest “Received:” header on the list as one of Yahoo!’s email servers.

The IP addresses involved may also clue you in – if you receive a suspicious email from an American bank but the IP address it was received from resolves to Nigeria or Russia, that’s likely a forged email address.

In this case, the spammers have access to the address “e.vwidxus@yahoo.com”, where they want to receive replies to their spam, but they’re forging the “From:” field anyway. Why? Likely because they can’t send massive amounts of spam via Yahoo!’s servers – they’d get noticed and be shut down. Instead, they’re sending spam from their own servers and forging its address.