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7 Ways to Be Mistaken for a Spammer
ancientribe writes "The "This is Spam" button popping up on many service providers' email services can be empowering for a user, but it can also be the kiss of death for a legitimate business that gets canned with a click of that button. Dark Reading has a story on seven common missteps that can lead to a case of mistaken spammmer identity for a legit business trying to send its marketing email, newsletters or other correspondence."
1. Ignoring "unsubscribe" requests.
2. List "repurposing."
3. Providing unclear privacy checkbox instructions, and ignoring users' responses.
If the "legitimate" emailer is doing any of these, that's not "being mistaken for a spammer". That's good old fashioned spam, pure and simple.
1) and potentially 3) are violations of the CAN SPAM Act and will land the "legitimate" marketer in legal trouble (well, they would, if someone was actually enforcing the CAN SPAM Act).
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
No. If an old friend or potential client or someone simply interested in your work emails you, that is not spam, even though you didn't ask to receive it. What makes it spam is when it is both unsolicited, and in bulk.
(I appreciate it, but this really doesn't deserve an informative mod.)
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
My email server, my rules. Anyone who has a legitimate internet presence has access to a correctly configured mail server in a static IP block. I'm surprised you didn't run into it before, actually, because blackholes for dynamic IP blocks are very common.
You don't have to own your own netblock, you just have to have an IP in a range that isn't marked for dynamic addresses. That's what the "business level" DSL and hosting services your ISP provides are for. If you are in such a block, send your email via your ISPs mail server. That's what it is for. You don't need to receive email that way, only send it. If you're smaller than "small business", like a couple guys working out of an apartment, trying to look bigger, then you need to be aware of stuff like this. If you really are a small manufacturer, get better hosting.
What he said. ;)
On a more general note, in my opinion, spam is this:
Unsolicited Bulk Email.
It doesn't matter if it is commercial. It doesn't matter if you have a business partner I once bought a chia pet from.
I did not solicit your email, and you sent it in bulk to many people. It IS spam, no matter how legitimate your business is.
Many 'legitimate' companies have been put on my spam lists because they have sent me emails when I never gave them my email address. Yes, this would be a much smaller problem if other companies weren't selling my email address. However, there are some where I literally do not have a choice, and I know some of my credit cars are selling some of my info, and have little control over what is done with it once it is sold.. and I like getting payment reminders and the like by email.
I once attended a seminar on buying businesses. One of the methods of getting capital is to sell the customer list of the business you acquire. It doesn't matter what the original owners promised their customers, you own it now and there's nothing they can do about it.
Only in the absense of data protection laws. Try this in the EU and the fines will be a lot more than whatever you might have made by selling the list.
That's something to remember, even the current owners promise that they won't pimp you data, it doesn't prevent future owners from doing so. ANd even then, management changes or business starts take a downturn, it's amazing how "privacy policies" that "are subject to change at anytime" do so.
Even without such a clause these things are pointless. They only exist in the absense of laws to either protect personal data or punish liers.
Marketing does not necessarily mean lying or even misleading. There is misleading marketing but marketing is not inherently the spread of false information.
Consumer Reports is an invaluable resource and the purchasing agent should always do due diligence on the product or service. But, businesses and consumers must be made aware of the options that should be researched. That awareness is done through marketing whether it is done actively through a newsletter or passively through a web site.
It's just life, and stupid users.
I have a list that is mailman based, double opt-in of course and unsubscribe information at the bottom of every email (plus I'll do it manually if they're too clueless to click a link). Every now and then someone reports it as spam, because they couldn't be bothered unsubscribing or even sending a 'please unsubscribe me' email.
Heck, mailman even auto-unsubscribes after a small number of bounces, so it's not like it tries too hard...
90% of ISPs can spot the induhvidual immediately and just ignore them (or maybe send to the x-unsubscribe-email). There are a few where they blacklist the entire mailserver without even checking... then I get the inevitable 'I'm not getting list email any more!' message..
Only in the absense of data protection laws. Try this in the EU and the fines will be a lot more than whatever you might have made by selling the list.
It's more than that Firstly (at least in the UK) it's a criminal offence, for which you get a record, and the fines are unlimited (for a large breach you can write off your company there and then). Plus they can serve you with an enforcement notice - preventing you from processing personal data (wave byebye to your customer database) and that's backed by criminal law too.
See the out-law summary
Needless to say here we take the DPA *very* seriously.