I have questions about spam. Who decides what is spam and how is the decision made? I thought it might be when the same mail was sent to multiple recipients. Recently, the results of my lab tests from my doctor ended up in spam. A few days later, the doctor’s office sent me an appointment reminder and that became spam. Later, after I paid my CMP bill via the telephone, my confirmation number also landed in spam. All three of those e-mails were meant only for me and were not “junk mail,” but  important.

There often is mail that is obviously trash just because of the subject matter, such as sexually explicit material or gossip about some movie or TV personality, that is delivered into my inbox. Naturally, I delete them without opening them. Sometimes, I receive mail in spam where my e-mail address is listed in the sender line with some foreign language in the subject line. All these mysteries about spam are very confusing. — Margaret, Wilton.

ANSWER: When it comes to questions about computers and software, the answers can be fairly technical, but Sun Spots is guessing that’s not going to help the average reader understand. So here’s her attempt at demystifying spam — the email variety, not the canned ham-like stuff — in her relatively short column space.

Most email providers (Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail, etc.) are equipped with spam filters that monitor incoming mail for certain characteristics and then route that mail into your inbox or spam folders accordingly. There are several things these spam filters search for when they scan incoming mail, and that can vary depending on which spam filter is used by your email provider. Essentially, they look for clues in the address lines about where the emails originated, what software was used to send the message, among other things, and then they monitor content for coding, certain trigger words or phrases or images.

It’s a complicated process, and it’s certainly not flawless, as you pointed out. Companies using spam to target consumers are constantly developing ways around spam filters, which is why certain messages that seem like they should be obvious spam still find their way into your inbox.

If there are important messages ending up in your spam box, however, you can fix this problem over time. Simply add the sender’s email (your doctor’s office, for instance) to your contacts list. This should prevent future emails from that sender from ending up in the wrong folder. Occasionally, browse through your spam folders and search for errant misplaced emails. Add those senders to your contacts and, over time, fewer and fewer emails should land in the wrong folders.

Of course, there’s much more to say on this topic, and maybe some readers will have more input to offer. If so, Sun Spots hopes they write in to keep the conversation going. 

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