In order to do any kind of business on the web, it is absolutely
necessary to send out emails of many kinds. It is a virtual necessity to
create an email newsletter if you want return traffic to your website, and
you almost have to use autoresponders if you want to sell a product. In
addition, you will certainly find yourself sending and receiving emails on
an individual basis from hundreds of people each month (at a minimum). If
you are very serious, you should also be reading and posting to newsgroups
and elists (such as Egroups and Yahoo Clubs) on a consistent basis.
It does not matter how well you do your job as regards spamming, at some
point you will find yourself accused of being a lousy spammer. It is as
inevitable as a politician lying or a psychiatrist sleeping with his
patients.
This happens and the only thing that you can do is be prepared to handle
the consequences.
How does it happen that legitimate emailers who are following the rules
perfectly find themselves accused of spamming?
- They may accidentally post an off-topic message to a newsgroup. Some
newsgroups get quite upset when this happens.
- Many newsgroups are now "protected" by automatic robots
which check each posting for certain keywords. When these are found, a
complaint is sent to the ISP of the poster.
- Someone could receive the newsletter or email and forget that he
opted-in.
- The email might appear to be spam if it is from a free mail host (such
as Yahoo or Hotmail).
- They may also be including typical spammer terms such as "this is
not spam".
- Some newsgroups are very quick to send complaints to ISPs. It pays to
lurk (read messages) around a newsgroup for a time to ensure that your
messages will be welcome.
- Someone may decide he just does not like you.
One of the problems with spam vigilantes is there is not a trial and it
can be difficult to defend oneself. Oftentimes the person reporting the spam
is assumed to be honest and accurate, with the result that an ISP will
cancel an account first and talk later. Remember, you will be presumed
guilty until proven innocent.
So what do you do to protect yourself from this kind of thing?
- First and most important, look over how you are doing business and be
sure that you are not sending spam in any way, shape or form. The best
prevention is to be sure that you are doing everything right.
- Next, be sure and include a privacy policy on your website which clearly
and accurately describes how you use email addresses. Reference this
from every page on your website.
- Don't use your primary ISP email address for your mailings. In fact,
you should use a third party such as Bravenet or Onelist as these
companies are used to handling this kind of thing all of the time.
- Go ahead and use Outlook Express (or whatever) newsreader to read from
newsgroups, but post from Dejanews
or some similar service. This way if you do post something that annoys
someone they can get your Dejanews account canceled, but that will be
easy to recreate.
- Always, always, always lurk for a week or so before posting to a
newsgroup. And never, never, ever post a blatantly commercial message to
a newsgroup, even if those are allowed. If you can find it, read the
newsgroups FAQ before posting.
What do you do if you have been incorrectly accused of spamming?
- If you have received an abuse report from your ISP or host,
immediately contact them and talk to someone in their abuse department
(if you can get to them). Describe what you received and indicate that
the report is not accurate. Provide them with all of the information you
need to prove that you are not a spammer. This is where your privacy
policy, email policies and other written procedures come in handy. On a
first offense, it shouldn't be difficult to convince them of your innocence,
especially if you've prepared in advance.
- If you know who has reported you, send them a nice, polite email
asking for additional information on why they believe you sent spam.
Assure them this was not your intent and apologize for inconveniencing
them. DO NOT USE your primary ISP email account or your Host email
account for this communication. DO NOT use a free email service such as
Yahoo, MSN or Hotmail. At this point you do not know the intentions of
the person who reported you so it is a good idea to give them as little
data about yourself as possible.
- Remember there is a possibility that the complainer was signed up for
your newsletter or whatever by someone else. In this case, they really
did receive unsolicited email, although it is not your fault.
- Be sure and immediately remove the person (if you can identify him)
from any and all of your email lists. If he is interested in your
services after your communications, he can re-add himself.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.
