False Positive

When discussing email spam filtering the term “false positive” refers to a permission-based email newsletter message that is incorrectly tagged or marked as spam and reported as such.

In some cases, these legitimate messages are, for an undetermined reason, rejected as spam by a spam filter program on either the server or client side and may also be returned to the sender as a bounce or reported as spam. These problems exist when filtering tools are set to a fairly low tolerance for anything resembling spam, which, should be done to be effective. The downside of course is this generates more false positives than should be occurring. It also limits the recipients’ received emails and may cause problems when doing business with a new client from an unknown sender.

However, keeping spam from doing harm is not nearly as difficult as limiting false positives. Reducing or eliminating false-positives is a challenge for email recognition and filtering technologies. Realistically, a useful spam filtering system will create false-positives when it comes to automated notifications, mass-mailed commercial newsletters and “legitimate” direct marketing messages.

The downside is that the delay or deletion of personal, business communication, a transactional confirmation, or receipt can often have significant negative consequences, such as missed appointments, lost opportunities and damaged business or personal relationships. The solution can be found only through experience and lessons learned on a live trial basis and are mostly unique for everyone and every system.