What does "Detected as spam" mean?

Question

Some of my tickets are getting suspended. What causes the "Detected as Spam" suspension reason?

Answer

There are a variety of definitions of spam, that can cause a ticket to be placed within the suspended queue. Click through the tabs below to learn more about ticket spam detection, suspension, and recovery.

Types of spam

How spam is detected

Reasons for suspension

Types of "Detected as Spam" suspended tickets

There are two different types of "Detected as Spam" suspended tickets:

1. One type occurs when the ticket requester is suspended. That is resolved by un-suspending the user. This is generally caused by an agent using the "Mark as Spam" option on a ticket without realizing that it also suspends the ticket requester and causes all future tickets from that sender to be suspended as spam.
2. Another type is where the spam filter that is set for their account (either Cloudmark or the RSPAMD EAP) finds the content to be spammy. Reach out to support if this is a false positive.

How spam is detected in Zendesk Support

Zendesk Support uses a spam filter service, known as Cloudmark. While Zendesk has no direct insight into their algorithms, which keeps their process safe and secure, Zendesk is given some information in the form of encoded "fingerprints," which Zendesk can then use to examine the nature of the suspension.

Depending on your permissions, agents and administrators can recover an email from the suspended queue. Recovery within Zendesk sends a coded message back to Cloudmark, letting them know that you believe the email to be legitimate. Depending on the cause for the spam rating, this can resolve the issue for you over time, often just after a few recoveries. This allows for better results through dynamic analysis.

Gmail has more permissive spam detection than Cloudmark. It identifies spam based on your usage patterns and other factors to which Cloudmark does not have access. Therefore, Cloudmark may occasionally identify an email as Spam even when Gmail does not.

Reasons for suspension

Here are just a few common causes for suspensions:

• A handful of end-users marked your outbound emails as spam.
• The use of distribution groups/lists is a common cause of end-users marking emails as spam. It is recommended to use a dedicated support address auto-forwarding to us as outlined in this article to ensure greater deliverability.;
• Your domain becomes temporarily blocked or blacklisted, possibly due to a proactive outbound marketing campaign.
• Your email forwarding IP is part of a shared-hosting setup like GoDaddy, and this rating has nothing at all to do with you.
• The sender's email address is recognized as a producer of spam.
• The email was generated by an online form, like a PHP, which is associated with spam-like practices.
• Your newsletters do not require a "double opt-in" that sends a confirmation email ensuring that the users want your weekly or monthly mailouts.
• Your attachments included suffixes many filters will act upon, such as .exe, .avi, .swf, .zip, etc.
• Poorly formatted HTML is a hallmark of spam, sometimes the result of converting an MS Word file to HTML.
• Excessive use of bright colors, fonts, sizes, images, etc.
• Multiple or excessive links to social media sites
• Having words like free, sex, Viagra, timeshare, buy now, urgent matter, medical breakthrough, money-back guarantee, !!!!!!, etc. Even excessive use of the word "opportunity" can cause a rise in the rate.
• A sending or relay server is not configured for a reverse DNS lookup.
• Bulk emails are sent using the BCC field.
• Signature file links directly only to sales sites.
• Your mailing lists still include users that have clicked your Unsubscribe link (or you don't have an Unsubscribe at all in your marketing emails)
• Your website doesn't let users update their profile details, which results in a lot of bounce-backs. Or, your autoresponder doesn't require confirmation, which allows people to fill your lists with false addresses.
• Even your local physical mailing address can be listed as engaging in questionable business practices or sales

For more information, see the article: Understanding and managing suspended tickets and spam.