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Email marketing - avoid being flagged as a scam artist

by Neil Morgan
8 replies
Many people use the excellent Thunderbird as their email client.

I just received an email from a seasoned email marketer and that email was flagged as a potential scam by Thunderbird with a big, red message.

Why?

Because the HTML email contained a URL to click on but the actual destination of the link was different from the URL being displayed in the email.

So simple to avoid so check your emails!

Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Neil
#artist #avoid #email #emails #flagged #links #marketing #scam
  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    Neil,

    Pegasus Mail does something similar. Pops up a warning when you click on links that are different in the visible text than the underlying HTML.

    This is something a lot of people do to avoid showing the ugly tracking links many list servers use. It would be interesting to see real testing data on the impact of the practice.


    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      Pegasus Mail
      Jesus, I remember using Pegasus mail back in 1997!
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      • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
        John,
        Jesus, I remember using Pegasus mail back in 1997!
        I started using it in 1999, I think, when I switched from the Amiga to a PC. Current release date I'm using is December, 2011. Still one hell of a powerful piece of software.


        Paul
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        • Profile picture of the author Anonymous Affiliate
          Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

          John,I started using it in 1999, I think, when I switched from the Amiga to a PC. Current release date I'm using is December, 2011. Still one hell of a powerful piece of software.


          Paul
          Aaahhhh the Amiga, the greatest gaming computer ever. How many great moments of my childhood were spent playing the Amiga.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    I'm sure the ISPs have done that for a while but it was interesting to see it so explicitly criticized in Thunderbird.

    The solution would be to just create a "click here to visit wherever" type of link instead of displaying the URL itself.

    But then maybe that, in itself, would reduce clicks.

    You've got to be on the ball in email marketing, that's for dang sure!

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Coby
    Originally Posted by Neil Morgan View Post

    Because the HTML email contained a URL to click on but the actual destination of the link was different from the URL being displayed in the email.
    This is usually one of the first things I mention when people ask me "how to avoid the spam filters"...

    It's amazing how many marketer's don't realize that this makes their emails look like "phishing" emails when it's such an easy fix...

    Remember - your autoresponder cloaks your link so they can track them. So just hyperlink it and avoid the problem. Also, be sure to send a plain text version also in case they are using something like webmail.

    Cheers,
    Coby
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  • Profile picture of the author bobby_shahzad
    This mainly happens because of Phishing threats

    You know all phishing attacks try to show you a trusted URL like paypal.com on the front but behind it is a secret page on their own website where they collect your paypal or bank account username and passwords.

    They make it look like mail came from a legit source but actually its a trap and innocent people fall into the trap.

    Most Email clients including ALL major web mail services like gmail, yahoo and AOL realized this a long time ago and started warning their users about this potential phishing activity.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarcusJohnson
    Thanks for sharing. I am trying Thunderbird for my email campaigns, and those tips would definitely help me out since I am a real newbie of the software.
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