It operates by applying a diverse set of rules that check various aspects of email content, such as header fields, the body of the message, and the frequency of certain words or phrases that are commonly found in spam. Each of these rules adds or subtracts from a total score, which determines whether an email is classified as spam.

How does it work?

To show you how this works, I put together a simple email below:

Look for the bold words; those are our spam bait.

You can make million dollars by using our 100% GUARANTEED system. When our stock screener finds a stock worth investing in, we will send out a stock alert to take action on. Disclaimer: We are not a registered investment advisor.

When Campaign Cleaner cleans your campaign, in the campaign analysis, look for the Spam Keyword Ratio section. You’ll find an entry specifically for SpamAssassin, click on See Results, that will pop up in a modal window revealing the results from SpamAssassin.

The Results

For the example email above, the results are below.

SpamAssassin Results

The report from SpamAssassin has highlighted five specific items—it’s pinpointed the exact keywords we planted as spam indicators. By tweaking or eliminating these problematic words, you’ll significantly boost your email’s chances of making it to the intended inbox.

Video Overview of SpamAssassin Scoring