[spam] In Email Replies


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I have a friend who's email replies always puts the word [sPAM] in front of the subject. It does not do it when he sends an email to me, but only when he replies to one I've sent. For instance, a subject line in his email reply to me may show up as:

[sPAM] Re: My email to him.

Does this indicate malware, virus, trojan or some other problem? Thanks for any thoughts....

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At my workplace, I see this in the subject all the time

I was told that it was some form of spam blocking

that put it there. It makes it a whole lot easier for

me to filter out all the crap that gets sent my way.

I don't know the answer to your question but I suspect

not.......

I just know that it happens.......

jim

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I have a friend who's email replies always puts the word [sPAM] in front of the subject. It does not do it when he sends an email to me, but only when he replies to one I've sent. For instance, a subject line in his email reply to me may show up as:

[sPAM] Re: My email to him.

Does this indicate malware, virus, trojan or some other problem? Thanks for any thoughts....

What email client do you both use and virus program(email scanner) do both of you use?

Mark

I doubt if this is malware related, so look for them to possibly move this thread

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What email client do you both use and virus program(email scanner) do both of you use?

Mark

I use OE6, and have AVG w/email scanner (always kept updated). I'm not sure what he uses. Could be a couple of days to find out.

No problem if they move it. At the time of posting, I wasn't sure if it was malware-related. Like I said, it doesn't seem to be causing any problems....probably just an anti-spam program on his end. :)

Edited by mystified
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Random thoughts. It could be your ISP, his ISP, Either one or both spam blockers in the email client. Does this happen when anybody else replies to an email you've sent? If his is the only one doing this, It's more than likely on his end.

Mark

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I suspect that a spam removal application, such as Spamassassin, has marked messages as [spam] because the spam level for that system has been reached or exceded. Some systems simply mark the mail as spam, using the systemwide spam level set by administrators.

Still others may mark the mail as spam and you won't know it because the spam messages that are received are instantly deleted. I have to set it this way in Florida because there has been a marked increase in spam to all of our system aliases - this basically has the effect of deleting spam before I see it.

It sounds like your friend is using an ISP which uses SpamAssassin, when you send an email to him, it won't mark it as spam until it is received by him. If his ISP is using SA to mark stuff as [spam] in the subject line, and he replies to it you will see "[sPAM] Re: My email to him. " because SA has marked it as spam, and your friend has decided to mark something spam rather then to move it or delete it completely.

The way to deal with this is to ask your friend to "whitelist" your address, so that mail coming from you to your friend's ISP won't be marked as spam. If your friend cannot whitelist your address himself, then he will have to ask that his ISP whitelist your address. If it is whitelisted, SA will consider your mail as "ham" (good, legit email) and the level for whitelisted addresses won't be so high, in fact it will be a NEGATIVE or a really low score.

I Wish you luck, and I hope that this answers your question.

Happy Holidays :)

Brian

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