Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

E-gift Certificates = Spam?

Posted by timothy on from the another-spam-abcess dept.

vincewazalooski writes "Good read in NY Times Circuits section today about how spam filters at Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. often interpret gift certificates from Amazon et. al. as spam. Worst part is, you might send a gift cert to someone, they never get it and you never know."

2 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Spam filters by Scrooge? by MacAndrew · · Score: 3, Informative

    Very cute.

    Some notes I sent friends about whatever got screened by my own filter (on bcc) as spam because I put a $ in the subject field. Brilliant bayesian filter my eye.

    In any case, the gift certificate should REQUIRE the recipient to check in at their site to confirm receipt. If no confirmation is rec'd, the merchant could try again, then notify the sender with the option to void the certificate. This is easier than tabulating receipts yourself because (1) that's work and (2) not everyone says thank-you (hey, I'm catching up!).

  2. Re:Don't delete spam... by Basje · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can never be *sure* that your filter(s) are working perfectly.

    It's even worse: you *can be sure* that your filters will not work perfectly. So the above is a sound advise: move suspected spam to a junkfolder, and check occasionally.

    --
    the pun is mightier than the sword