What counts as misleading or fraudulent content?

Misleading content gives recipients false impressions about the sender, the offer, or the required action. This includes: impersonating other brands or individuals, claiming false urgency (\"Your account will be deleted\") to manipulate action, promising rewards or prizes that don't exist, misrepresenting products or services, and using fake social proof (\"10,000 people just bought this\" when they didn't).

Fraudulent content goes further into deliberate deception for gain: phishing attempts to steal credentials, fake invoices or payment requests, romance scams, advance-fee fraud, and impersonation of authority figures (banks, government agencies, executives). These constitute criminal activity beyond civil email law violations.

The legal standard is whether content would mislead a reasonable recipient. Marketing hyperbole (\"best coffee in the world\") is generally acceptable; factual misstatements (\"FDA approved\" when it isn't) are not. Subject lines promising content the email doesn't deliver, fake \"RE:\" or \"FWD:\" prefixes suggesting prior conversation, and bait-and-switch offers all cross the line. If you have to wonder whether something is misleading, it probably is. The question to ask: would I be comfortable if this email appeared in a regulatory investigation?