Top Ten Indications that Someone Might be a Spammer

Running an email delivery service keeps us constantly on the alert for people trying send spam. I have been figuring out that I can pretty much tell if someone is going to be trouble with their first sentence or two.

Here are the top 10 indications that someone might be a spammer:

10. They refer to SpamCop (or even ReturnPath) as the Internet mafia – and are pretty emotional about it.

9. They refer to sending email as “blasting”.

8. They use profanity. i.e. F&*#ing yahoo is blocking my email.

7. They refuse to openly give out information about themselves or their business and use a freemail address.

6. When you ask for their web site address, they have a big explanation.

5. Any email they send you goes into YOUR spam folder.

4. They use the word “leads” or “acquisition”.

3. They are not afraid to throw wads of cash your way. (lots of money and no place to spend it)

2. They are eating (and chewing sloppily) while on the phone with you.

and finally…

1. They lead the conversation with: “I’m fixin’ to send me some email.”

This is funny and sad, but absolutely true as well. A good portion of our time is used to vet out the numerous new customers that come our way and determine who is acceptable and who is not.

By keeping only the cleanest of senders we are able to provide spectacular deliverability rates for our customers.

Gotta go, someone is on the phone who needs to send 5 million messages today. : )

Follow me on Twitter: @johnalessi


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  • http://twitter.com/KentMcGovern Kent McGovern

    This sounds like some of the clients we “used” to have.

  • Diana

    I could add a few more. Like they immediately mention “the list was legally collected!!!” or they use exclamation points. Or they're in specific industries (I'm sure we all know what they are) that seem to love purchasing lists.

  • http://www.socketlabs.com John Alessi

    Right, or they make a point of saying that their list is “opt-in”. Just repeating the same jargon they got from the person selling them the list : )

  • Ken Magill

    As a reporter who has covered e-mail marketing since 1997, I can vouch for all these signs, especially the rude eating behavior. I thought I was the only one who noticed that!

    A couple years ago, I had dinner with an executive who wanted me to write about his operation. He smacked his lips while he ate and touched my arm every time he made a point. (shiver)

    I was skeeved out through the entire meal. Sure enough, he turned out to be very bad news.

    Great post!

  • http://www.socketlabs.com John Alessi

    Ewww a lip smacker – gross. I am scarred just hearing about it.

    I had a guy once that asked me to hold while I listened to him order at the Wendy's drive through. Then he proceeded to eat the cheeseburger while talking about his email issues with his mouth full.

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