Guide
My AI SDR sent emails without my approval: how to prevent it
An agent that acts on its own is only useful if it is right every time. Here is how to keep a human yes in front of every send.
Short answer
Choose a setup where sending requires your yes, and test it before you trust it: read the default, run a campaign to yourself first, and cap the daily volume. Wrong or unwanted email is not a minor annoyance. Google warns that accounts that exceed sending limits might be suspended [1] and that accounts that send spam might be permanently restricted [2]. If the email goes out from your own Gmail, the consequences land on your own address.
How it happens
- Autopilot is the default. Some tools treat approval as an optional extra, or as a step with a timer that approves for you when you do not answer.
- The approval is for the list, not the emails. You approve who will be written to, then the tool writes and sends on its own.
- Edits and re-writes after approval. A tool that rewrites a template later sends something you have never seen.
- No visible brake. Nothing tells you that a campaign is running until a reply arrives.
What it can cost you
If the emails go out from your own mailbox, every unwanted one counts against your account. Google says: "If a user exceeds their sending limits, their account might be suspended." [1] And: "User accounts that send spam might be permanently restricted from sending email." [2] Spam reports also move your standing with the mailbox provider, which says that "if messages from your domain are frequently reported as spam, future messages from you are more likely to be marked as spam" [3].
A checklist to prevent it
- Find out what is approved. The list of prospects, the template, or each email? Ask before you connect a mailbox.
- Refuse timers that approve for you. If an email goes out because you did not answer, it is not approved.
- Read real sample emails. Look at several, each next to the facts it relies on, before the campaign starts.
- Test with yourself. Send a seed email to your own address and check the headers and the unsubscribe link.
- Cap the volume. A low daily cap keeps a mistake small. See warming up your own Gmail.
- Know where the stop button is. You should be able to pause or stop a campaign in one click.
- Decide per-email or per-campaign. A new campaign deserves per-email review at first; a proven one may only need approval of the campaign.
- Look for a trail. A tool should record who approved what, and when.
If it has already happened
- Pause the campaign and revoke the tool's access to your mailbox in your Google account settings.
- Read the Sent folder. Reply to anyone who was wrongly emailed with one line of apology, and add them to your do-not-contact list.
- Honour any opt-out at once; see how fast to honour a request.
- Watch your bounces and replies over the next days. If the volume was high, slow down before you start again.
How Honest Intros does it
Nothing is sent before you approve. Before a campaign starts you see who it will write to and sample emails, each next to the sentence on their site that backs it. You approve the campaign once; after that, each new draft still passes the automatic checks before it can be sent, and drafts that fail are set aside. If you want more control, turn on approving each email and nothing goes until you have said yes to it, with undo until it has left. You can pause or stop a campaign. Sending allows up to 100 a day from day one of the two-week free trial, then 50 a day. A circuit breaker pauses sending after bounces or a spam complaint. Honest Intros is free and sends from your own Gmail.
Questions
Why did my AI SDR send emails without asking me?
Usually because the tool's default is autopilot, or because approval covered the list of prospects but not the emails. Check what exactly is approved before you connect a mailbox.
How do I make sure an AI SDR never sends without approval?
Choose a tool where sending requires your yes, refuse timers that approve for you, read sample emails before the campaign starts, cap the daily volume and know where the stop button is.
Is approving the campaign once enough?
It can be, if you have read real sample emails and the tool checks every new draft before sending. For a new campaign, approving each email at first is safer.
See what it would write for you
Paste your website. Honest Intros learns what you sell and shows who it would write to, and what it would say.
Free to start. Nothing is sent until you approve it.