When you look at an email message in your Gmail spam folder, Google helpfully displays a little bit of text along the top of the message, telling you why they've delivered that particular email message to the junk bin, instead of sending it to the inbox.
I decided to dig through my own spam folder, and over the past 30 days worth of spam, I found nine different reasons explaining why different messages didn't merit inbox placement. While not all of the reasons are very clear – or even if clear, they might not provide specific direction to a sender when it comes to preventing spam folder delivery for future messages. Regardless, I thought it might be fun-and-or-useful to share those reasons here, with a bit of my own description added for each.
Why is this message in spam? This message is similar to messages that were identified as spam in the past. This doesn't say what initially caused messages like this to get on Google's spam radar, but it does suggest that your messages look too much like spam they've already caught on to.
Why is this message in spam? It seems to be an auto-reply to a message that pretended to be sent from your email address. Bad guys like to send spam that is supposedly "from you, to you." Ever received a spam email from yourself? That's what's happening here. Of course, the message is forged. I am not entirely sure why bad guys still bother, given the broad blocking of this sort of thing.
This message might be dangerous: It contains a suspicious link that was used to steal people's personal information. Avoid clicking links or replying with personal information. Google's saying that this email message links to one or more domains previously associated with phishing emails. Sometimes, if a bad actor abuses an otherwise good sending platform (like an ESP), the sending platform's default click tracking or other shared domains could end up with a besmirched reputation, and this warning can follow.
Why is this message in spam? You reported this message as spam from your inbox. I sure did! Remember that reporting spam is the best thing you can do, to tell your mailbox provider that a message is unwanted. Enough negative votes means the message will stop going to the inbox across all recipients.
This message might be dangerous: Messages like this one were used to steal personal information. Don't click links, download attachments, or reply with personal information. This is another type of phishing fingerprinting. They're less sure about the specific domain reputation, but the message content raises enough red flags to sound the alarm.
Be careful with this message. This message isn't authenticated and the sender can't be verified. Use caution when clicking links, downloading attachments, or replying with personal information. A good sender who incorrectly configures email authentication could end up with this warning, or, more likely, a bad actor is spoofing an unprotected email domain. This is why you need email authentication (and DMARC).
This message might be dangerous: Many people marked similar messages as phishing scams, so this might contain unsafe content. Avoid clicking links, downloading attachments, or replying with personal information. Another phishing warning; this time, explicitly related to receiving complaints about this message (or similar ones) from other Gmail users.
Why is this message in spam? This message was marked as spam because previous messages from example.com were marked as spam. Because I reported this sender's email messages as spam before, Google is not routing future messages from the sender to the inbox.
Why is this message in spam? You unsubscribed from this mailing list so these messages are sent to Spam. To send these messages to your Inbox instead, report this message as not spam. This one highlights why respecting unsubscribes is so important. Spam me after I've unsubscribed? Google knows. Be careful and be a good sender. I'm not sure if this is triggered every time someone unsubscribes, but if you broadly continue to send email messages to people after unsubscribing, it's going to have a negative impact on your sending reputation.
What did I miss? Are there other common Gmail warnings that you see in your own spam folder? Drop me a line or leave a comment below.
When you look at an email message in your Gmail spam folder, Google helpfully displays a little bit of text along the top of the message, telling you why they've delivered that particular email message to the junk bin, instead of sending it to the inbox.
I decided to dig through my own spam folder, and over the past 30 days worth of spam, I found nine different reasons explaining why different messages didn't merit inbox placement. While not all of the reasons are very clear – or even if clear, they might not provide specific direction to a sender when it comes to preventing spam folder delivery for future messages. Regardless, I thought it might be fun-and-or-useful to share those reasons here, with a bit of my own description added for each.
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