How to track an text only email or a participant using text client?

Question

I am implementing an custom email tracking system where in an HTML email I will embed an image, when the user loads the image a request is send to the server based on that the particular email will be tracked as read/open.

Question: If this email is received by a person how is having an text only email client, then what can be done to track it?

Thanks for your suggestion.

Answer 1

There is probably nothing you can do, since text only emails don't have any active/dynamic part that could be used for tracking.

Even the beacon (hidden image) is questionable, since most email programs don't load external content for exactly that reason.

This would allow spammers to validate their bulk mail is actually read.