Can you spot the spam? Take the 60-second quiz
You've deleted thousands of spam emails on pure instinct. But could you explain why your brain flagged them? More importantly, could a spam filter? Below are seven emails. For each one, decide: inbox or spam? Then hit reveal. There's no score-shaming here, and by the end you'll have quietly picked up the exact signals that decide where an email lands, which is handy if you ever send email yourself.
How to play
- Read each email.
- Decide: would it reach the inbox, or get filtered?
- Open "Reveal the verdict" to see what really happens and why.
- Keep a tally and check your rank at the end.
Round 1 — the "you won" email
Subject: 🎉🎉 CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have been SELECTED
Click within 24 HOURS to claim your $1,000 gift card…
Reveal the verdict
Spam — and it's not close. The sender domain is a lookalike ("amaz0n" with a zero), the subject stacks all-caps, triple punctuation and emoji, and the body runs on urgency and prize bait. Any one of these nudges the spam score; together they're an instant filter. Real brands almost never shout in your subject line.
Round 2 — the boring order confirmation
Subject: Your order #10428 is confirmed
Hi Marta, thanks for your order. Here's your receipt and delivery date…
Reveal the verdict
Inbox. This is the gold standard: a sender address on the company's own domain, a calm and specific subject, a real first name, and content the recipient is actually expecting. Transactional emails like receipts are among the most trusted mail there is. Boring is a deliverability superpower.
Round 3 — the all-image newsletter
Subject: Spring sale is here
[One giant image. No text. No unsubscribe link.]
Reveal the verdict
Spam risk — probably filtered. The sender looks fine, but an email made of a single image with almost no live text is a classic spammer trick (it hides the words from filters). Miss the unsubscribe link and you've added a second red flag. A healthy text-to-image balance and a visible unsubscribe keep legitimate newsletters out of trouble.
Round 4 — the fake "Re:" reply
Subject: Re: our conversation
Just following up on my last email — did you get a chance to look?
Reveal the verdict
Spam (and a bit sneaky). There was no previous conversation. Fake "Re:" and "Fwd:" prefixes are a cold-outreach trick to fake familiarity, and filters have learned to spot the pattern, especially from an unknown domain with no prior engagement. If you have to fake a reply to get opened, the strategy is the problem.
Round 5 — the real newsletter in the Promotions tab
Subject: This month: a new single-origin and a latte art class
Nicely designed, clear unsubscribe, one image and plenty of text.
Reveal the verdict
Inbox — just maybe the Promotions tab. Trick question. Landing in Gmail's Promotions tab is not spam; it's a marketing email sitting exactly where Gmail files marketing email. It's still delivered, still findable, still opened. Chasing your way out of Promotions usually matters far less than people think, engagement is what counts.
Round 6 — the "confirm or be unsubscribed" scare
Subject: Action required: confirm your account in 12 hours
Verify now or your account will be permanently closed.
Reveal the verdict
Spam, leaning phishing. Manufactured urgency, a vague "verification center" domain that belongs to no real brand, and a threat to force a click. This is the shape of a phishing attempt. When in doubt, never click, go to the real site directly. Legitimate senders don't hold your account hostage over a 12-hour countdown.
Round 7 — the small business that did its homework
Subject: Your 3 photos are ready to download
Personalized, sent from an authenticated domain, to someone who signed up.
Reveal the verdict
Inbox. Everything lines up: a real person at a real domain, authentication in place, a specific and honest subject, and a recipient who opted in. This is what "doing the boring things right" looks like, and it's exactly how a small sender earns the inbox.
How did you do?
- 6–7 right: You have a filter for a brain. You'd make a dangerously good deliverability manager.
- 4–5 right: Solid instincts. You'd rarely get fooled, and your own emails probably behave.
- 0–3 right: No shame, most people trust the wrong signals. The good news: you just learned the real ones.
The signals you were secretly learning
Every round above turned on the same handful of things that spam filters (and people) actually judge:
- Does the sender match? A real address on the brand's own domain, backed by authentication, beats a lookalike every time. See how email authentication proves you are who you say you are.
- Is the subject calm? All-caps, emoji pile-ups and fake "Re:" prefixes raise the spam score. Restraint reads as trustworthy.
- Is there real text? Image-only emails and missing unsubscribe links are classic filter bait.
- Did they ask to be there? Opt-in and engagement are the strongest signals of all, which is the whole idea behind avoiding the spam folder.
Want your own emails to pass this quiz every time? Our email deliverability guide walks through every signal above, step by step.
Frequently asked questions
Does landing in the Promotions tab mean my email is spam?
No. The Promotions tab is where Gmail files marketing email by design. It is delivered and openable, not filtered as spam. Engagement matters far more than which tab you land in.
What is the single biggest spam trigger?
Sending to people who did not opt in. Poor list quality drives spam complaints and hits to dead addresses, and those signals sink deliverability faster than any subject-line word.
Can one email really get me flagged?
A single email rarely ruins a good sender, but a single bad habit repeated, like a purchased list or an image-only blast, absolutely can. Filters judge patterns over time.
Mailpro and deliverability
Send emails that pass the test, every time
Built-in spam check, guided authentication and clear stats help your emails read as trustworthy to filters and people alike. Swiss-hosted, GDPR-native, since 2001.
