Metrics
What is Spam Score?
A numeric rating of how spammy a message looks, summed from rule hits by a content filter such as SpamAssassin.
A spam score is the total of weighted points a filter assigns a message for matching its rules, covering content (spammy phrases, image-heavy or link-heavy bodies), formatting, header anomalies, and authentication results. In SpamAssassin the default threshold is 5.0, at or above which a message is tagged as spam, with individual rules adding or subtracting fractions of a point. The score is filter-specific and is only one input the largest mailbox providers weigh alongside reputation and engagement.
Why it matters for cold email
Cold emails frequently self-inflict spam-score points with link-heavy bodies, tracking pixels, trigger words, or broken authentication. Running a draft through a SpamAssassin-style check before sending catches these mechanical penalties, though a clean score alone will not save mail sent from a poor-reputation domain.
Related terms
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