Why is "***SPAM*** ALERT:" added to incoming subject lines?
Bolt
Enthusiast - Level 3

I subscribe to email news items from Patch.com -- they are NOT spam.  Verizon's spam filter doesn't move them to the SpamDetector folder.  But they invariably arrive in my inbox on webmail (and, of course, then on my resident email client, Thunderbird) with the words, "***SPAM*** ALERT:" inserted into the subject line.

Here's an example subject line (copied from a message directly out of my webmail inbox):

***SPAM*** ALERT: Snow, Icy Roads Forecast in Friday Evening Commute (12:01:40 PM)

Now I don't think Patch is mailing them marked this way, so unless I'm overlooking something, Verizon must be adding the inserted words in  the subject line.

Has anyone else encountered this?  What is going on?  And how do I stop it?

Thanks.

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Re: Why is "***SPAM*** ALERT:" added to incoming subject lines?
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

They certainly never added such in the past.  Are you sure its not your antivirus program or email program.

I suppose its possible that the changes they are making to move us all to AOL does things differently.

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Re: Why is "***SPAM*** ALERT:" added to incoming subject lines?
Bolt
Enthusiast - Level 3

No, it really can't be any security program resident on my computer that is adding this to the subject line because it appears in the subject lines of Patch.com messages in my online Verizon webmail inbox -- software on my computer can't affect online listings arriving directly from Verizon's servers.  If this only happened in messages on my resident email client (Thunderbird), then, yes, that would identify it as something added by software on my computer -- but that's not what's happening.

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