Did spam filter cost schools $250K?

The scenario is familiar: A co-worker or friend sent you an e-mail, only there's no trace of it in your in-box. The culprit? On overeager spam filter, trapping regular e-mail along with the Viagra pitches and Nigerian bank fraud letters.

Most times, the situation is easily resolved. In the case of the Cobb County school system in Georgia, however, a spam filter is causing a political dust-up.

Officials say a bid to provide telephone services to the system was gobbled up by the filter, and the bidder was subsequently disqualified, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The term "long distance" was apparently what triggered the block.

The school system had requested an e-mail as a follow-up to the formal bid, which had previously been submitted on paper. When they didn't see the reply, officials dismissed the bidder and awarded the contract to another--more expensive--contractor. Now the bidder and the school system are arguing over whose fault it was.

Blog community response:

"After all that, though, the school district is still blaming the vendor, saying a good bidder knows it needs to outwit spam filters."
--Techdirt

"I've watched with amusement as people go from complaining that they're getting spam to complaining their friends forwarding chain letters are getting flagged as spammers."
--Pointman's Page

"If it can happen to a business communication, you know it can happen to 'Please Donate to Save The World'. There are a lot of reasons e-mail might not reach its final destination. Keeping abreast of the red flags a popular application like SpamAssassin uses to judge messages is well worth doing if newslettering is in your job description. Really, take a look. You might be surprised what pisses off a spam filter."
--DemocracyinAction.org