Below is a current list of the most popular words used in spam emails. As such, these words get higher spam points by evaluators. Once an email has too many spam points, it will get flagged as spam, either by outgoing filters or filters on the incoming mail servers. Using one of these phrases once will not trigger an email as spam, but using a phrase repeatedly or many of these phrases together in the same email can cause it to be flagged as spam.
List of most common terms that trigger spam filters
| $$$ | Free membership | Potential earnings |
| 4U | Free money | Print form signature |
| Accept credit cards | Free offer | Print out and fax |
| Act now! Don’t hesitate! | Free preview | Produced and sent out |
| Additional income | Free priority mail | Profits |
| Addresses on CD | Free quote | Promise you! |
| All natural | Free sample | Pure profit |
| Amazing | Free trial | Real thing |
| Apply Online | Free website | Refinance home |
| As seen on | Full refund | Removal instructions |
| Auto email removal | Get It Now | Remove in quotes |
| Avoid bankruptcy | Get paid | Remove subject |
| Be amazed | Get started now | Removes wrinkles |
| Be your own boss | Gift certificate | Reply remove subject |
| Being a member | Great offer | Requires initial investment |
| Big bucks | Guarantee | Reserves the right |
| Bill 1618 | Have you been turned down? | Reverses aging |
| Billing address | Join millions of Americans | Risk free |
| Billion dollars | Laser printer | Round the world |
| Brand new pager | Limited time only | S 1618 |
| Bulk email | Long distance phone offer | Safeguard notice |
| Buy direct | Lose weight spam | Satisfaction guaranteed |
| Buying judgments | Lower interest rates | Save $ |
| Cable converter | Lower monthly payment | Save big money |
| Call free | Lowest price | Save up to |
| Call now | Luxury car | Score with babes |
| Calling creditors | Mail in order form | Section 301 |
| Can’t live without | Marketing solutions | See for yourself |
| Cancel at any time | Mass email | Sent in compliance |
| Cannot be combined with any other offer | Meet singles | Serious cash |
| Cash bonus | Member stuff | Serious only |
| Cashcashcash | Message contains disclaimer | Shopping spree |
| Casino | MLM | Sign up free today |
| Cell phone cancer scam | Money back | Social security number |
| Cents on the dollar | Money making | Special promotion |
| Check or money order | Month trial offer | Stainless steel |
| Click below | More Internet traffic | Stock alert |
| Click here link | Mortgage rates | Stock disclaimer statement |
| Click to remove | Multi level marketing | Stock pick |
| Click to remove mailto | Name brand | Stop snoring |
| Compare rates | New customers only | Strong buy |
| Compete for your business | New domain extensions | Stuff on sale |
| Confidentially on all orders | Nigerian | Subject to credit |
| Congratulations | No age restrictions | Supplies are limited |
| Consolidate debt and credit | No catch | Take action now |
| Copy accurately | No claim forms | Talks about hidden charges |
| Copy DVDs | No cost | Talks about prizes |
| Credit bureaus | No credit check | Tells you it’s an ad |
| Credit card offers | No disappointment | Terms and conditions |
| Cures baldness | No experience | The best rates |
| Dear email | No fees | The following form |
| Dear friend | No gimmick | They keep your money- no refund! |
| Dear somebody | No inventory | They’re just giving it away |
| Different reply to | No investment | This isn’t junk |
| Dig up dirt on friends | No medical exams | This isn’t spam |
| Direct email | No middleman | University diplomas |
| Direct marketing | No obligation | Unlimited |
| Discusses search engine listings | No purchase necessary | Unsecured credit/debt |
| Do it today | No questions asked | Urgent |
| Don’t delete | No selling | US dollars |
| Drastically reduced | No strings attached | Vacation offers |
| Earn per week | Not intended | Viagra and other drugs |
| Easy terms | Off shore | Wants credit card |
| Eliminate bad credit | Offer expires | We hate spam |
| Email harvest | Offers coupon | We honor all |
| Email marketing | Offers extra cash | Weekend getaway |
| Expect to earn | Offers free (often stolen) passwords | What are you waiting for? |
| Fantastic deal | Once in lifetime | While supplies last |
| Fast Viagra delivery | One hundred percent free | While you sleep |
| Financial freedom | One hundred percent guaranteed | Who really wins? |
| Find out anything | One time mailing | Why pay more? |
| For free | Online biz opportunity | Will not believe your eyes |
| For instant access | Online pharmacy | Winner |
| For just $ (some amt) | Only $ | Winning |
| Free access | Opportunity | Work at home |
| Free cell phone | Opt in | You are a winner |
| Free consultation | Order now | You have been selected |
| Free DVD | Order status | Your income |
| Free grant money | Orders shipped by priority mail | |
| Free hosting | Outstanding values | |
| Free installation | Pennies a day | |
| Free investment | People just leave money laying around | |
| Free leads | Please read |
I’ve been having trouble sending my customers their invoices for over a year. About half of them get to the customer. I don’t get any bounce back email so I don’t know if the customer got the email or not. I only find out after months of not getting paid. It seems to me that they are mostly gmail customers but some of my gmail customers them my invoice. After reading some of the comments here, is this why my emails are net getting to them? Every invoice email is identical with just the customers name different and the name of the attached invoice PDF file. Help would be appreciated.
Sorry to hear that you’re running into trouble with this. I wanted to offer a few tips to help deal with the situation and narrow down what might be causing your emails to be flagged as spam. First, as these emails being sent by you, manually, or using a script on your site? A common cause of errors is using the php mail function instead of SMTP; if you have WordPress, try using WP Mail SMTP or Easy WP SMTP. Double-check the configuration of your SPF and DKIM records, along with your DMARC records — I’d specifically recommend that you configure your DMARC to return rejection/error notices to an email address you create specifically for this purpose. Then you can send a few test messages to troubleshoot the problem.
Lastly, be sure to check your email error logs, which is easy to do in cPanel, and give you helpful information regarding why specific email may have been rejected. Hope that helps!
This is ridiculous. I suddenly cannot send out a simple work email because apparently there are words triggering your spam filters. I contact support an the robot in charge tells me to reword my email. So now I have a robot telling me to rewrite a business email? And what are the words triggering the sudden spam? I read the list above . Jesus, these are words we use everyday in our business emails. Your filters and algorithms are too severe. There must be a way customers can control these filters.
Hello,
Apologies for the frustration with dealing with your outbound emails being labeled as spam. There are valid reasons that these rules are in place. Mainly, it is due to spam being automatically sent by malicious code on websites that lead to the entire server being blacklisted. Blacklisted servers can lead to hundreds or thousands of users being unable to use the email server. We do have documentation on the issue that you can read in this article: 550 This Message Was Classified as SPAM and May Not Be Delivered .
If you have worked with the other solutions above and are still having issues with your emails getting classified as spam, you will want to contact our Live Support department. Simply forward the failed email complete with the bounceback headers and a request to review the problem to [email protected] and they will be able to test the email against the filter and find which rules were violated.
Kindest regards,
Arnel C.
The words “Order Status” used as possible triggering words to determine the e-email as spam is particularly bullshit. That would flag auto response e-mails from more than several ecommerce sites, at least one of which is offered by this host. I agree with the original OP, what is the point for being that picky?
Since about May we have had over half our outgoing e-mails get blocked from even making it to the e-mail server. It is NOT our internet provider which leads us to our web host and their mail server (that we use). What is even more mind boggling is some e-mails get through to some people, other e-mails to the same people do not go through. Could be a new e-mail or could be a reply. There is never any consistency to it.
I am extremely disappointed in what is going on here.
An email I received is not delivered when I respond because of “SPAM keywords” on some list (that did not stop it on it’s way in)… defined by who?!
Has anyone really looked at this list… I read the entire list and it is mind boggling. This is not an attempt at reducing SPAM… this appears more as an exercise in controlling information flow and seeing if everyone will simply buy into it. For example;
“Apply Online, Billing address, Click below, Congratulations, Free quote, Guarantee, Opportunity, Order status, Terms and conditions, US dollars”…. Really?! I don’t know about you, but if this list gets any longer… working over the internet will be seriously restricted.
Again, WHO is creating this list?
Hello,
I can understand your frustration. To answer your question, this list is compiled using common vocabulary found in the Subject of many Spam email messages. This list should not be construed as words that you can not use in emails. However, it should be referenced to assist you with reducing the likelihood of your email’s content being identified as Spam.
I have been having similar problems and it is GREATLY affecting my business!!!!! Please help fix this or I will be forced to change providers.
Following Arn’s advice above may help your situation.
“following ARnel’s advice” above has left me waiting on hold for support for now 17 minutes. Totally regretting our move 2 weeks ago to InMotion for our email hosting. Nothing but problems and wasted time so far.
Hello and I apologize for any inconvenience. I feel your frustration and want you to help you resolve this. Please check our guide to strengthen email authentication and check for any email errors or if they’re going to spam. Afterwards, please email Live Support with verification, your issues, and your explicit permission to configure your account(s) with that email authentication guide. We’ll work to resolve your issue as soon as possible.
Hello, I need your help because most of my email is counted into SPAM. It is too inconvenient. I am using Japanese so any words I use are not on the list. SOS
I send it from :[email protected]
to: [email protected]
Title:from Natsuko
Message:????????????
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Hello,
I would suggest contacting our support department as they can assist with whitelisting your account to not be counted as spam.
Best Regards,
TJ Edens
We got the message below. There is noting wrong with the email address we used. That should not happen.
From: System Administrator
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 6:57 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Undeliverable: [SPAM]Invoice-RE: Translation Done–RE: new job 17003
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
Subject: RE: [SPAM]Invoice-RE: Translation Done–RE: new job 17003
Sent: 4/20/2016 6:57 AM
The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:
‘Eric Cheng’ on 4/20/2016 6:57 AM
550 information, please see https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/everything-email/550-spam-message
Bert
Hello Bert,
Sorry for the problem with the email delivery. The problem is related to the Spam Assassin filtering outbound messages. Sometimes -depending on the formatting or content of the email – a false positive may be generated which causes the email to be filtered out. You can contact our live technical support team via phone/chat/email in order to have your domain whitelisted so that your outbound emails are not filtered. You will need to verify your account with either the full Account Management Panel (AMP) password or last 4 digits of credit card on the account.
I hope this helps to answer your question, please let us know if you require any further assistance.
Regards,
Arnel C.
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
how can solving this problem
Hello ,
Thank you for contacting us. Typically, after the error lists the address that failed, it will say why. We are happy to help you troubleshoot a returned mail, but will need to see the full returned/bounced message
For more information, see our full guide: Why does Email bounce, bounceback, or error?.
Thank you,
John-Paul