The first time it happened, I could not imagine why in the world the winner would not reply to my email to receive her $50 prize. Before sending her a check from www.funnyphotoscontest.com, she had to verify her mailing address. So why wouldn’t she respond? But when it happened a second and third time with other winners, it finally occurred to me that the recipient’s email program had probably filtered out my message as Spam.
When I initially opened my email account, funnyphotoscontest@gmail.com, it never occurred to me that it had all the markings of “junk” email. But the word contest most likely looks like some company offering a bogus chance to win something for nothing. As for the word photo, it could possibly imply a pornographic site. Although this might not be the explanation, I decided it would be wise to change my email address.
But, the problem persisted. Although many winners immediately answer the email that lets them know they won, several others don't respond at all. Thus, creating a new email had solved only part of the problem. Luckily, I learned by sheer coincidence that the words I typed in my subject line, “congratulations” or “your photo won”, may also cause the Spam filters to reject the emails I sent.
Now that I’m using a new email address and simply typing “your entry” in the subject line, I’m hoping I can lay the problem to rest. But you never know with computers. Humans are suppose to be smarter, yet with all this frustration and with all the hair I’m pulling out of my head, it won’t be long before I’ll have to purchase a wig !
