Spam Vigilantes

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.