Slashdot Mirror
DMA to Control Spam by DMA Members
SiliconLawyer writes: "The Direct Marketing Association, the major U.S. tradegroup for companies using direct marketing techniques, will reportedly issue guidelines for how its members may and may not use e-mail as a marketing tool. Hopefully, this will influence other marketers toward more responsible use of e-mail. Details are on CNET here."
This has to be a hoax. Next thing I know you'll be posting a story about how Microsoft is going to "specialize in computer security".
Har de har har.
Most of the spam you get isn't from the established businesses that would be members of the DMA. It's mostly from trailer trash. So this isn't really a big deal.
- Have a picture
Maybe I'm in the distinct minority, but most of my SPAM doesn't come from any real reputable marketing firm. Email sent from a company that uses forged headers so I don't know who they are doesn't seem very likely to be an upstanding member of the Direct Marketing Association. It's like saying "Look, we've outlawed guns, now criminals won't shoot people"... but that's a whole other can of worms.
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
DMA member Amazon.com said such rules are already in practice at the online retailer. Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said the company gives customers a myriad of choices related to receiving company communications.
"It sounds like we currently comply with all these rules already," she said.
Generally speaking, I bet most DMA members already have an acceptable spam policy - that, or a policy that needs only minor tweaking to make it policy-compliant.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
Their "do not call" lists might be scams, but the state government Do Not Call Registry does work. I'm on the NY one and if a telemarketer calls we simply inform them that we're on the registry and they'll be fined $2,000 if they ever call back. Sure there are loopholes (anyplace you've ever done business with can call you), but it's better than nothing. You'd be surprised how quickly some telemarketers react when they hear "...on the Do Not Call Registry..." :-)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I recently spent a few weeks trying to persuade my company's marketing bimbo that no, we could not send unsolicited emails to potential customers.
I used the simple expedient of repeating the reasons against spam over and over again until they began to sink in. I even threatened legal action... ie: I told them that people were starting to successfully prosecute spammers for big money.
Even than, I had to answer the question... "Why would this be illegal? I get this kind of thing all the time."
The sad thing was, until I finally convinced the executive VP to bring the hammer down on the project, I was forced to compose graphical HTML-ized spam emails. Thank god they never saw the light of day.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Second, who trusts the removal links?
Third, what prevents me from grabbing the removal database and using as a verified sucker database?
What would work is that DMA provides an email service that allows a member to submit a list and email to send to them, then they will test the address and if it is ok, then send it.
Fight Spammers!
Two ideas for handling spammers, inspired by User Friendly:
1. Next time you get a "501 compliant spam" that starts off with something like "This is not unsolicited bulk e-mail. Buy me.", flood their server with messages stating "This is not a denial of service attack."
2. The following poem seems to work well:
I got your mail and wrote you back
just so that you'd have no doubt
that if you spam me ever again
your router shall cease to route
I can just see those guidelines now:
"You done taken a wrong turn."
-Bill McKinney, in Deliverance
What do you think that means?
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
All that this will do is demonstrate to Congress that we don't need government regulation; that the private sector will take care of itself...
... the trouble is, in this case, the private solution will be pitifull; it is, after all, being proposed by a group which claims that their right to call me during dinner time to sell me a time share vacation EVERY NIGHT FOR ABOUT A MONTH is protected by the first ammendment...
Even if the DMA are honest, their service can still be used to get good addresses. Consider the following scheme:
- Sign up with e-mps.org for $100.
- Get one of these 25,000,000 email address CDs
- Filter it through e-mps.org
- Diff the filtered results against the unfiltered input.
- Send out spam to the difference list.
This gives you a list of live addresses -- ones which get less spam than average, and hence which are more likely to read your tasty marketing message.Great service guys!
I mean, my wife gets e-mails telling her to enlarge her penis and I get e-mail telling me to enlarge my breasts....
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
What's the point? A rough guess that 99% of /. readers believe this will do nothing to stop spam. I'm sure reading the article, most of you already knew what the responses would be. So why was the story submitted in the first place?
Who is SiliconLawyer anyway? Well, well, well, wouldn't you know, he's selling something on his website.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
So one of the ingenious ways they have of preventing spam is by posting a list of addresses on their website... anyone else see a problem with that? It is obvious to me that they don't really care about the spam problem, they just want to look like they are self-regulating so that congress doesn't interfere with their marketing plans.
Its only $5 if you want to do it over the net. If you print out the form and snail-mail it, its free.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Add the following to your sendmail.mc file:
/etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/sendmail.cf
FEATURE(dnsbl,`bl.spamcop.net')dnl
then run
m4
Works for me...doesn't block it all, but it seems to help a great deal.
--It's Pimptastic!--
The problem with this is that the majority of the spam mailers do not belong to the DMA. They don't need to follow the rules under this organization. The ones that do belong to this typically (I didn't say always) have an easy opt out policy. Secondly, the corporate spammers have an entity that could be potentially held liable for spam whereas the individual spammers can move and hide easily.
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
Why sign up? I enjoy verbally abusing telemarketers. I espically enjoy the ones that give me the 800 number to their fax machine and send them a 600 page document from my computer or a bit of real fun... send them the contents of /dev/random... nice pages full of line noise.
yes, I'm wierd and probably a part of a tiny minority. but I gladly abuse any company that has the gall to call me at 10:30pm and wake my daughter.
I have always wondered.... is telemarketing a part of a companies life cycle when they no longer can attract customers legitimately so they have to try this just before death?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
They only send me stuff I would want to see, I get it no more than maybe 1-2 times a week, and it often includes a $5 off coupon or something.
Most of my bad spam is for absolute random crap or porn, with the same old line on the bottom informing me that the reason I'm being informed about all these Internet Cum Sluts is because I specificly requested to be spamed on their site or one of their partner's sites.
Plus, the latest thing is dating the message 3-4 days back, so you have to scroll back on your inbox to read/erase the spam. It stops the instant deletes by hiding it.
A DMA representative said the organization plans to announce the new rules governing commercial e-mail next week. The trade group, one of the largest in the United States with 5,000 members, includes such retailers as Amazon.com, Land's End and Eddie Bauer.
So what? Now Amazon and others will be able to send us email and claim they are within the guidelines set forth by the DMA. These guidelines are nothing more than a mechanism to allow them to legitimize their spamming operations.
I Heart Sorting Networks
How about not making it illegal to spam but make them buy a "license" to spam, and renew it every year... something like $100/yr even would weed out alot of the real clowns, but it wouldn't be so prohibitive as violating their rights.
OK, it's just an spur of the moment thought, so take it easy on me.
I Heart Sorting Networks
- Until I ask to be added -- don't contact me.
- When I ask -- presume it was not me and e-mail me a confirmation request.
- Only, when such a request comes back affirmative can you add me.
DMA, which wants to spam you, does not need to invent its own guidelines. They are already there -- by people, who know more about the Internet and e-mail, than, perhaps, the entire DMA put together...In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
No, the DMA's position is that they will spam you until you ask them to stop.
From the article:
> "give consumers notice and choice before sending commercial e-mail "
Translation: "To continue receiving exciting offers from us, you need do nothing! Or you can opt out by jumping through hoops..."
> "...or before selling, sharing or renting their e-mail addresses to a third party"
All that means is that on the web site, or in the spam, there'll be a link to a "Privacy policy" that says "We reserve the right to work with partners to offer you goods and services we think may be of interest..."
> " In addition, commercial e-mail must clearly identify the sender, represent the subject line accurately, and provide contact information."
We won't forge headers. But we'll still spam you.
> " Above all, the marketer must let consumers opt out of further communications in every e-mail. "
"We received your request to be opted out of the FORD-OWNERS93133 mailing campaign."
But tomorrow, you'll get spam as part of the "FORD-OWNERS93134" campaign. You weren't interested in that 2002 Ford Escort with air conditioning, maybe you'll be interested in a 2002 Ford Escort without air conditioning.
Sorry, this is more of the same DMA dreck -- opt-out, not confirmed opt-in. It's spam. And they can shove it up their asses until it carves its initials in tomorrow's turd.
And that's precisely why we're seeing the DMA tout its own do-not-call registry.
Because they're scared shitless that Congress will be deluged with complaints from citizens who've seen through the scam, and will actually do something about it.
This article about the DMA "please don't spam me" list is more of the same -- they're on the run, and they fear Congress will do to their email spamming dreams what it's threatening to do with their telemarketers by means of an FTC-mandated and government-enforced national Do Not Call registry.
Write your Congressman and tell him that you don't want the fox guarding the henhouse, and to support the FTC's anti-telemarketing proposals.
This might be of interest:
RFC-3098 How to Advertise Responsibly Using E-Mail and Newsgroup
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc