After hearing recent reports from a few advertisers regarding genuine client enquiry emails going to their junk folder, we felt it was important to write this blog to remind our advertisers to be vigilant when it comes to checking your spam folder. 

Emails can sometimes be marked as spam by your email provider. Unfortunately from time to time there will be what is called a false positive, and your provider may start sending legitimate client enquiries to your spam folder. This can happen out of nowhere, the reasons for it are complex, and are determined by the algorithm of your email provider.

For escorts this situation can be very stressful, as many legitimate enquiries can be missed and bookings lost. Genuine clients who wanted to make an arrangement were not replied to, because their email enquiry was sitting in the junkmail folder. One escort that we know of lost potentially hundreds of dollars worth of bookings, as she only found the emails in her junk folder after her tours to those cities had finished.

Fortunately this situation does not happen often - however it can happen to you, and should not be taken for granted. Even one email lost to junkmail can be one important ongoing client lost. It is critical in order to ensure that you do not miss out on client enquiries that you are aware and vigilant about spam, and how it works.

The number of emails sent worldwide are astounding, and the numbers are estimated at over 200 billion per day. Out of these emails, approximately 50% of them are spam - which is, mail that is unsolicited. About 2% of emails sent are malicious, such as those that include malware or phishing scams. Now 2% may not sound like much, but out of over 200 billion emails per day, it adds up to over 4 billion. That is a lot of bad emails.

In order to try and protect your computer or device against these nasty viruses, scams and malware, email providers are in a constant battle to try and keep the junkmail at bay. This is done with spam filters which are very complex, and each email provider will have a different procedure for how they sort your mail.

They do a good job, but they can get it wrong - and often they do. When this happens, the result is legitimate emails going to the junk folder instead of sending them your inbox.

The decision about whether an email goes to the inbox or junk folder is controlled by your email provider. A common example is gmail, which is owned and controlled by Google. Google is known for making their spam filters more strict than other email providers, which means that a large number of legitimate emails can go through to the junk folder. 

Although you may not be able to prevent it entirely, there are things that you can do to decrease the odds of missing a client enquiry.

1 - Check your junk folder daily

2 - Add Scarlet Blue's email address to your email address book, or safe senders list

3 - Send yourself a test email from your profile page on our website, and ensure that the email is received in your inbox - not your junk folder

4 - If you ever receive a genuine email in the junk folder, ensure that you mark the email as “not spam”, which notifies your email provider in future to accept emails from that address

5 - Never mark a Scarlet Blue client enquiry as spam. If you are using the email Webform and you mark it as spam, it means that all future client enquiries may go the the junk folder

6 - Again - check your junk folder daily

The most important thing that you as a user can do to prevent genuine client enquiries from being lost is to check your junk folder regularly. If you have found that a legitimate email has gone to spam, it is very important that you mark it as “NOT SPAM”.

The Scarlet Blue website is all about choice, and we provide our escorts with options of how to receive their client enquiries. By default we use an email Webform, but our escorts also have the option of displaying their email address in their profile instead. For our advertisers, we know that it is important to choose the email option that best suits your needs.

What is the difference between the two, and the benefits:

- Will always tell you that the enquiry came from Scarlet Blue

- Prevents internet robots from spamming our advertisers, as your email address is hidden from the profile page 

- The email webform can be customised, so that clients must fill in important information before sending you an email. Such options include the client’s location, the date and time of the booking, as well as the client’s telephone number and any special requests

- All Webform emails will come from Scarlet Blue’s email address. This is why it is very important to add Scarlet Blue to your email address book or safe senders list, to ensure that you receive your client enquiries

- Will often tell you that the enquiry came from Scarlet Blue, but not always, as many clients copy and paste your email address into their browser

- Client emails will come directly from the client's email address, not from Scarlet Blue

- Clients will see your email address visible in your profile

- Spam prevention techniques cannot be used, such as stopping spambots sending you bulk spam emails 

You can change your email settings at any time by clicking on My Account Settings, and scrolling down to Email Options.

No matter which option you choose to receive your emails and even when following the best procedures, unfortunately nothing with email is guaranteed. Legitimate emails can always end up in the junk folder, which can lead to distress and financial loss. Again - the most important thing you can do to prevent this from happening is to regularly check your junk folder.