The other day, I received an email that provided a brief news story about IBM and its Rational software division, where I used to work. The message, IBM, TCQA Partner to Boost Nigeria, however, wound up in my Gmail's Spam folder.
There has been a long-running email scam, sometimes called the Nigerian Scam or the 419 scam. Basically, it requests that the receiver send money as part of a plan to free a large sum of money that's been held in an account in a bank in Nigeria.
While it's a good idea for spam filters to try to catch these kinds of illicit and dangerous pitches, it's less good when any mention of Nigeria in an email is enough to cause a message to flagged as spam.
I should note that Gmail's spam filtering is, overall, remarkably good. Very few spam messages sneak in (maybe three or four a year) and there are also very few false positives (legitimate messages marked as spam). It's still a good idea to review messages to make sure that the good and bad stuff aren't getting mixed up.
There has been a long-running email scam, sometimes called the Nigerian Scam or the 419 scam. Basically, it requests that the receiver send money as part of a plan to free a large sum of money that's been held in an account in a bank in Nigeria.
While it's a good idea for spam filters to try to catch these kinds of illicit and dangerous pitches, it's less good when any mention of Nigeria in an email is enough to cause a message to flagged as spam.
I should note that Gmail's spam filtering is, overall, remarkably good. Very few spam messages sneak in (maybe three or four a year) and there are also very few false positives (legitimate messages marked as spam). It's still a good idea to review messages to make sure that the good and bad stuff aren't getting mixed up.
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