So I'm sending out emails to a group of members of an association, as Bcc's and I'm starting to get a few reports that some people aren't getting some of the emails. These people are using Hotmail and Yahoo addresses.
So thinking that the Hotmail and Yahoo spam filters are catching my email and identifying them as spam because they're being sent blind to a group, I decide to try and help those people find their bulk mail folders and and mark my emails as "not spam".
I decided that the best way, for non computer types would be to send a screen shot attachment of Hotmail and Yahoo pages to show them exactly what to click on.
I signed up for a Hotmail account and was able to send something fairly easily that ended up in the "junk mail" folder. I took some screen shots showing where to click so my emails would be considered safe and go directly to their inboxes.
Then I logged on to Yahoo, using one of my disposable yahoo accounts and discovered that it was difficult to send an email that would show up in Yahoo's "bulk mail" folder.
That's when I decided to try and get some real spam sent to the address. I replied using the yahoo address to some of my own spam that had accumulated recently. Couldn't reply, these spams were designed to have links clicked on to confirm my real email address and I didn't want to do that.
So I did a search on Google and found a site where someone was inviting people to sign up for their spam. I can't imagine anyone who would be stupid enough to do this, but I did. I clicked on a couple of dozen areas of interest and sat back expecting the my yahoo bulk mail box would become flooded. A few hours later and only two emails, neither of them ending up in the bulk mail folder.
I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to get some spam sent to me.