Internet service providers incorrectly block 17% of permission-based e-mail, according to a report from Return Path.
“As ISPs try to protect their users from spam, a lot of opt-in e-mail is victimized,” says Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path in Superior, CO, in a statement. “It’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is up to every company sending e-mail to make sure its campaigns are done appropriately so that they avoid triggering spam filters.” Return Path, provides e-mail forwarding and an e-mail change of address registry.
The 17% false-positive rate represents a 2% drop in delivery rates compared to fourth-quarter 2002, and a 5% drop compared to third-quarter 2002.
ISPs Mail.com and NetZero had the highest false-positive rates at 38% and 34% respectively. CompuServe was 31%, and AOL followed at 25% Yahoo had the lowest incidence of blocking and filtering, at 4%. BellSouth and Earthlink were the lowest—both at 7%.
The study tracked the delivery, blocking and filtering rates of 9,956 e-mail campaigns during the first and second quarters of 2003. The campaigns were sent by Return Path’s Assurance Services division. Blocking and filtering rates on the programs studied varied from a low of 1% to a high of 46%.
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