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 The FTC Hands Down New CAN-SPAM Rules |
| author: Bill Nussey |
| source: Silverpop |
| date : 5/20/2008 |
| In case you haven’t heard yet, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week enacted new rules intended to clarify the original provisions of the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act. The supplementary ruling, which goes into effect June 26, may have important ramifications for your email marketing program. I encourage you to seek the advice of your legal counsel about how these new rules may affect your programs. In the meantime, here’s a summary of the key provisions for discussion purposes: |
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The Lesson of Blue Security: Stupid Ideas Have Stupid Results |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 5/23/2006 |
While some in tech circles lamented anti-spam company Blue Security's demise last week, email marketers for once found common ground with some anti-spammers who historically have been their philosophical adversaries.
Both could applaud Blue Security's demise as fitting end to a terrible idea that did nothing to make the Internet safer for legitimate e-mail, marketing or otherwise.
The company closed itself last week after a series of attacks—suspected to have been committed by a Russian spammer known as PharmaMaster—crippled its site and thousands of other sites, mail servers and blogs hosted by the same service. |
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In "Tuesdays with Mantu," the Joke's on the Scammers |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 4/18/2006 |
Rich Siegel isn’t the first person to turn the tables on Nigerian scam artists and publish the emails, but he certainly is one of the funnier ones and he’s put them into a book.
Warning: There are references in this article some may find offensive.
“Tuesdays with Mantu: My Adventures with a Nigerian Con Artist” begins with Siegel checking his computer—after commuting 53 miles to and from his job as a creative director at advertising agency, having dinner, reading the paper and putting his kids to bed—only to find an email with the subject line EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY from Mantu Ibrahim from Nigeria. |
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Email Marketing Myth #2: Permission Is a Free Pass to the Inbox |
| author: Michael Della Penna |
| source: Multichannel Merchant Magazine |
| date : 4/1/2006 |
Over the years there has been much discussion about defining various permission levels (opt-in, confirmed opt-in, double opt-in) as a means of promoting industry best practices and in order to further distinguish legitimate communications from spam. In fact, I can clearly remember the firestorm that took place almost three years ago now at the DMA (AIM at the time) over the lack of a definition of "spam" in the industry’s first-ever delivery best practices document.
Looking back as Chair of the DMA's Council for Responsible Email (CRE), I am proud of our decision, given the document's focus and the foresight and vision we had in understanding the consumer's perspective along with the recognition that we do indeed operate in a continuously evolving email delivery landscape. |
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What Spitzer’s Datran Media Shakedown Means to You |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 3/21/2006 |
Last week’s settlement between New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Datran Media sets a deeply troubling precedent that should outrage executives at any company using email for marketing.
New York’s would-be governor apparently believes that companies should be on the hook for the privacy policies of every firm with which they do business.
Spitzer’s office announced last week that Datran—a company that performs email marketing for companies such as Best Buy, British Airways and Pitney Bowes—agreed to pay $1.1 million to essentially make Spitzer’s investigators go away and leave Datran alone. |
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Open Letter to CT Lawmakers: Unspam Thinks You’re Stupid |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 3/7/2006 |
Dear Connecticut Legislature,
Matthew Prince, the chief executive of Unspam, thinks you’re a bunch of barnyard idiots. And he’s got good reason to think so. After all, he thought legislators in Utah and Michigan were fools, too, and he was right.
As a result of Prince’s intellectually insulting arguments, lawmakers in those two states implemented Unspam’s misnamed child-protection do-not email registry. I say misnamed because far from protecting kids, these registries may actually help facilitate predators getting kids’ email addresses. |
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Wisconsin Introduces Child No-Email Bill |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 2/26/2006 |
Add Wisconsin to the growing list of states considering legislation that threatens to wipe legal, adult-oriented commercial content out of email.
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a bill that would set up a so-called child-protection do-not email registry similar to those in use in Utah and Michigan.
Wisconsin is one of five states known to be considering children’s do-not email registries. The other four are Connecticut, Hawaii, Georgia and Iowa. |
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Email Marketing in the CAN-SPAM Era |
| author: Warren Corpus |
| source: Adotas |
| date : 2/15/2006 |
| The Federal Trade Commission recently released their first assessment of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. The 2-year-old effort has given legitimate email marketers a set of guidelines to live by, detailing what should not be done when sending commercial email, such as using false header information, using open relays for transmission of email, and using deceptive or false subject lines. While a study by email security firm MX Logic found that only 4 percent of all commercial emails sent in 2005 are compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act, the FTC cites that overall spam levels have decreased. Also, compliance is high among legitimate marketers, and the amount of sexually explicit spam has dropped significantly. |
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Spam, Marketing and the Consumer |
| author: Isaac Scarborough |
| source: iMedia Connection |
| date : 2/15/2006 |
Chapell & Associates' Isaac Scarborough on email certification and what it means for legitimate marketers.
You know, I'm pretty sure I know spam when I see it, and it would seem most people did as well. Defining exactly what it is, though-- that's a harder task (didn't Justice Stewart once say something like this about another dark corner of the internet?) Congress did pass CAN-SPAM in 2003, which provided regulatory guidelines as to what legally constituted spam, but what the law says isn't necessarily how consumers see things. From their perspective, spam can often mean any unwanted email-- whether it's commercial or not. |
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Does 'Enhanced White List' Mean Anything to You? |
| author: David Baker and Deidre Baird |
| source: MediaPost |
| date : 2/6/2006 |
THERE HAS BEEN QUITE A rumbling in the industry since AOL announced that it will be "discontinuing" its enhanced white list and instituting a paid-for service that has a relative "postage" fee for e-mail delivery provided through Goodmail Systems. But it's difficult to understand the impact this could have if you didn't understand the benefits of the enhanced white list in the first place.
To clarify this matter, I asked Deidre Baird, president of e-mail optimization firm Pivotal Veracity, for an update about what this means to you. She was kind enough to explain every last detail.
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Ad, Watchdog Groups Want Utah Email Law Struck Down |
| author: Staff |
| source: MarketingVOX |
| date : 1/26/2006 |
| Six leading advertising associations and civil rights watchdog groups have applied to file an amicus brief in a lawsuit challenging Utah's "Do Not E-mail" registry and say in their application that the case is important "to all parties with a vested interest in free and unfettered availability of email as a communications channel," MediaPost reports. The lawsuit was filed in November by The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment trade organization that wants Utah's Child Protection Registry Act invalidated. |
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Where Did Your Privacy Policy Come From? |
| author: Ken Schafer |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 1/24/2006 |
Let me play David Blaine for a moment and channel your inner thoughts.
Think about your privacy policy.
Imagine the first line of it. Read it silently to yourself in your mind and I’ll see if I can make out what it might be.
Are you thinking “Your privacy is very important to us”?
I had a client recently who provided me with the copy for their privacy policy page and it looked very sophisticated - and included privacy coverage for things we weren’t planning on doing on the site. And that got me to wonderin’… |
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Consumers Increasingly Hitting “This Is Spam” Button |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Multichannel Merchant Magazine |
| date : 1/18/2006 |
Rather than unsubscribing from the lists of emailers from whom they no longer want to hear, consumers say they have dramatically increased their use of the “this is spam” button, according to a recent survey by Return Path.
Almost 34% of consumers in a postholiday survey said they dealt with increased volume in their inboxes by reporting email they no longer want as spam to their Internet service providers. This is up from 23.4% the previous year, according to the New York-based email deliverability consultancy. |
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When Does Email Become Spam? |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 1/17/2006 |
When speaking to marketers and their agencies I often hear different interpretations of what constitutes spam. There is the textbook definition, the legal definition as covered in the US CAN-SPAM laws and other interpretations. Often a person’s own definition of spam relates to how they are using email and if they are a sender or recipient of marketing email.
For me, and for most recipients, spam is any unwanted or irrelevant messages, even if I’ve signed up.
Marketers (senders) can always justify (at least to themselves) why their products or services, and therefore their marketing email, are relevant and even wanted. However, they have a narrow opinion of what is spam. Most marketers that have compiled large permission lists take the high road and follow legal and “best practices” definitions. Those that don’t have large lists or want to get their messages out quickly will often “bend” these definitions to suit their actions. I know of Fortune 500 companies that “technically” send spam based on how they originally acquired email addresses. |
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Can-Spam Still Fresh After Two Years |
| author: Elizabeth Glagowski |
| source: Pepper & Rogers Group |
| date : 1/12/2006 |
Two years ago this month, the CAN-SPAM Act went into effect, setting guidelines to distinguish legitimate email marketers from the bad guys. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission gave its annual report to Congress about the law's progress. The gist of the 116-page report is that the law, along with improved technology and strategy, is making email marketing a formidable business vehicle, and consumers are gaining more control over how they are communicated with.
According to the FTC, the act has been effective in achieving two desired outcomes. First, it has mandated adoption of commercial email best practices that legitimate online marketers can follow. Second, it has provided an additional tool for law enforcement or ISPs to use when bringing a suit against illegal spammers. On the negative side, spam that is getting through has a higher likelihood of including malware designed to harm the recipient, and spammers are staying ahead with more complex plans to hide their identities. |
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Permission: Standard or Best Practice? |
| author: Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 1/4/2006 |
We believe permission is the engine driving the e-mail marketing train. So, it's a rude shock to wander back into the dining car and find people still arguing opt-out as an acceptable strategy.
Permission -- opt-in, double opt-in, confirmed opt-in, whatever form you use -- is no longer one of several options for responsible e-mail marketers. It's even evolved beyond being a best practice, something to shoot for or debate at conference workshops.
Permission is now a required practice and is critical to your e-mail program's success. Sending e-mail without permission hurts three critical facets of your e-mail program: deliverability, customer brand experience, and ROI...
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Permission: Standard or Best Practice? |
| author: Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 1/4/2006 |
We believe permission is the engine driving the email marketing train. So, it's a rude shock to wander back into the dining car and find people still arguing opt-out as an acceptable strategy.
Permission -- opt-in, double opt-in, confirmed opt-in, whatever form you use -- is no longer one of several options for responsible email marketers. It's even evolved beyond being a best practice, something to shoot for or debate at conference workshops.
Permission is now a required practice and is critical to your email program's success. Sending email without permission hurts three critical facets of your email program: deliverability, customer brand experience, and ROI (define). |
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From the “Do as I Say, Not as I Do” File… |
| author: Staff |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 1/3/2006 |
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist apparently wants to protect his state’s residents from spam. Unless, that is, it comes from him.
Crist has been aggressively prosecuting people he alleges have run afoul of anti-spam legislation in his state and issuing press releases touting his efforts.
However, the Republican candidate for governor has been obtaining Floridians’ e-mail addresses and sending them messages touting his campaign and asking for donations, the St. Petersburg Times reported recently. |
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AOL Says it Blocked Half a Trillion Spam Emails in 2005 |
| author: Staff |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 1/3/2006 |
America Online blocked an average of 1.5 billion spam e-mails a day last year for a total of 556 billion in 2005, the company announced yesterday.
The figure represents a slight increase over 2004, the Internet-service-provider unit of Time Warner reported.
AOL also said that about 80% of the e-mail sent to its users is blocked as spam, and that spam reaching its users’ inboxes has decreased 75% since its peak in 2003. |
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Still Waiting for That Email Avalanche |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Multichannel Merchant Magazine |
| date : 12/7/2005 |
By now it’s clear that those who two years ago predicted an onslaught of legalized unsolicited commercial email resulting from the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003 were spectacularly wrong.
Remember antispammers’ dire warnings in 2002 and ’03? Since Can-Spam didn’t outlaw all unsolicited email, companies that previously had refrained from spamming would begin carpet-bombing consumers’ inboxes with spam as soon as it was legal to do so. |
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FTC: ISPs Better at Blocking "Harvesters" |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Multichannel Merchant Magazine |
| date : 11/29/2005 |
Spammers are as busy as ever harvesting email addresses, but Internet service providers block the vast majority of their attempts to flood consumers' inboxes, according to a report released this week by the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC report also found that consumers who post their Internet addresses on the Internet can prevent them from being harvested by using a technique called masking. |
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Loose Cannon: The Gold Standard for Letters |
| author: Richard H. Levey |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 11/28/2005 |
I don't usually share mail without first obtaining permission from the writer, but I'm making an exception with this column. What follows is a note from a correspondent in Sierra Leone whom I suspect has sent this letter to other folks. I've left her syntax and grammar intact, as I have enough trouble with my own.
Readers, if you don't see a column next week, you'll know that I've taken Mrs. Christina Coulibaly up on her offer, and am practicing my charitable instincts from Barcelona.
I've interspersed some of my thoughts -- in bold -- with hers. Enjoy.
My Dearest Richard Levey. (Warning bell number one: Usually when I get a letter that starts out like this, the next line is "I hope you have a good lawyer, because...") |
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New E-Mail Registries Could Hurt E-Zines |
| author: Ken Magill |
| source: Chief Marketer |
| date : 11/23/2005 |
Warning, e-zine publishers: Depending on your content, you can get in trouble for mailing to kids in Michigan and Utah.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has signed a reworked version of the state's children's protection registry act, putting Michigan's controversial child protection email address registry into effect immediately, according to officials. |
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Business Cards And Permission |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 11/9/2005 |
Reading Chip’s Deliverability Tips over the weekend got me thinking about spam, permission and privacy. It especially made me consider the tendency for people to believe that if they have someone’s business card it means they have “implied” permission to communicate with them.
From a privacy perspective and Canadian PIPEDA privacy laws we know that anything contained on a business card, or in a business directory, is information that is open for use by others as it is published information. But taking this information and adding it to an email list will always constitute spam. |
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FTC: State Email Registries Put Kids at Risk |
| author: Staff |
| source: MarketingVOX |
| date : 11/4/2005 |
| States that set up "Do Not Email" child-protection registries actually put kids' contact info at risk, according to a letter by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) addressing proposed child protection legislation in Illinois, but also apparently aimed at warning other states that already have or are planning to set up such lists, writes ClickZ. Utah and Michigan have passed legislation to create such lists, and the Illinois bill was nearly identical to those states' but has since died in committee. |
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Business Card in Hand Doesn’t Mean “Opt-in” |
| author: Chip House |
| source: Chip's Deliverability Tips |
| date : 11/1/2005 |
The business card has long been an important instrument to a salesperson attempting to build their network, and in turn, their success. This was true long before email marketing came to be, though the collision of the two hasn’t always been pretty. Big surprises are ahead for the unwary salesperson (and their company) who don’t carefully manage their contacts derived from business cards.
What’s the problem? |
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Helping Consumers Fight Spam |
| author: Dawn Anfuso |
| source: iMedia Connection |
| date : 10/26/2005 |
A new organization has formed to involve consumers in fixing email. The group's founder explains its goals and activities.
Stephanie Jordan, editor of Messaging News, launched FixingEmail.org in September. The group is dedicated to the mission of safeguarding consumers from spam and email fraud. |
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Phishing Hits Banks |
| author: BRIAN QUINTON |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 10/1/2005 |
THERE'S GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS FOR BANKS ABOUT phishing, the scam in which identity thieves masquerading as trusted companies send out email to induce recipients to click on a link, go to a Web page and give up their personal information.
The good news? More people are becoming aware of the threat. The bad news: This awareness may be leading recipients to delete authentic email communications from their banks on the suspicion they're fraudulent. |
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Email: Don't Walk the Privacy Line |
| author: G. Simms Jenkins |
| source: iMedia Connection |
| date : 9/19/2005 |
BrightWave's Simms Jenkins shares 10 things that will make sure your privacy policy keeps you out of hot water.
Online privacy policies are something most marketing managers disdain or, even worse, overlook. But they are crucial on many fronts. Just like buying a house, the paperwork piles up and one wants to move on to the more exciting part of the transaction. But a website without a privacy policy is a dangerous thing to build.
Even if your website has a privacy policy, does it cover key things related to your email communications? Many websites do not contain privacy information related to this key component of their customer and prospect communications. |
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Labels won’t reduce spam, FTC concludes |
| author: Staff |
| source: Internet Retailer |
| date : 9/1/2005 |
The Federal Trade Commission’s conclusion that labeling unsolicited commercial email won’t reduce spam has struck a chord with email marketers. “It’s consistent with what people are thinking about email these days,” says Keith Wardell, CEO of Exmplar. “The spammers or bad players in the industry would not comply.”
The CAN-Spam Act directed the FTC to study whether putting specific characters such as “ADV” in the subject lines of unsolicited commercial email would make it easier for Internet service providers to identify and screen out spam. In its report, released in June, the FTC says that state laws requiring such labeling had failed to reduce spam and that it doubts a federal law would have any impact. |
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A Tale of Two Anti-Spam Strategies |
| author: Isaac Scarborough |
| source: iMedia Connection |
| date : 8/31/2005 |
Contributor Isaac Scarborough analyzes the difference between consumer security and consumer confidence when it comes to email marketing.
The problem with spam is simple, right? There’s just too much of it. But it’s a problem for different reasons to different people. For consumers, it’s a problem because it clogs up their email programs. If they’re not careful, it snares them in scams or identity theft. For marketers, though, spam is a problem because it makes consumers wary of any and all email marketing. |
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MI & UT Registries: Right Idea, Wrong Laws |
| author: Chip House |
| source: Chip's Deliverability Tips |
| date : 8/22/2005 |
Michigan and Utah aimed to protect children from objectional email content with their new "Child Protection Registry" laws, initially scheduled to take effect on August 1st, 2005. Problem is, these new state laws are fraught with security and compliance issues that likely will increase spam for children -- not slow it. Plus, as usual, this will harm legitimate businesses only (both in terms of time and money), but won't touch spammers who ignore laws anyway.
This article in USA Today agrees: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2005-08-21-email-children_x.htm
First, let me say I love the idea of being able to protect minors from email content regarding alcohol, tobacco, porn etc., because we all know they see too much of it these days... |
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Courts Convicting Spammers and Accomplices |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 8/19/2005 |
Yesterday, Jason Smathers, the 25-year old former AOL employee who admitted to selling 92 million AOL screen names and email addresses, was sentenced to 15 months in prison. In addition to the jail term the judge also sentenced him to pay restitution of three times the USD $28,000 he sold this data for.
Reports indicate that as many as 7 billion (billion with a “B”) spam emails were sent to this list. AOL says their direct costs may have been $300,000 or more and may be asking for increased damages. |
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Canada Needs a Spam Law! |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 8/8/2005 |
Why doesn’t Canada have a law that makes spam illegal?
The US has their Can-Spam Act of 2003. Sure we have our privacy policy called PIPEDA, but technically it is not against the law in Canada to send spam. Maybe that’s why spammers can be found in Toronto, Montreal, Kitchener and everywhere else in Canada.
Canada has its National Task Force on Spam that recently submitted their final report which includes a recommendation for a Canadian spam law. This includes the need for opt-in, unlike the US spam laws which just require senders to remove people if they request it (opt out). However, reading a recent comment by Michael Geist, a member of the task force, I don’t hold out too much hope that we will have such a law in place any time soon. |
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“Excuse me, ma’am, can I see your licence for that inbox?” |
| author: June Macdonald |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 8/5/2005 |
It must be human curiosity, but when the latest spam report came out from computer security expert Sophos I headed over to see, ‘what are people falling for now?’
The top spam categories are still medications (Viagra and its cousins account for 40%), and mortgages, but a growing concern is the rise in “pump and dump” schemes. These types of spam promote purchase of a stock with misleading or false information, sometimes ‘enhanced’ with real publication quotes to lend an air of legitimacy. Their aim is to target small companies with limited resources to combat such a campaign, elevate the stock price so that the spammers can cash out and leave investors high and dry and the company facing a PR crisis and worse. |
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Phishing: A Call to Authenticate! |
| author: Chip House |
| source: Chip's Deliverability Tips |
| date : 8/1/2005 |
I recently saw these stats on the impact of Phishing (spammers fraudulently coaxing consumers into providing credit and other information). The time for email authentication technologies, such as Sender ID, SPF and DKIM has clearly arrived and is necessary to keep the email from its steady erosion in the eyes of consumers.
"--Survey: Phishing Increase In 2005 Is Eroding Confidence of Online Customers
The Gartner survey of 5,000 online buyers found that... |
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Beat Spammers At Their Own Game |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 7/21/2005 |
A recent Associated Press story on Yahoo! uncovers a new solution for recipients of spam to fight back…and beat spammers at their own game.
Blue Security has a solution called Blue Frog that works by using a “do-not-spam” list they call “Do Not Intrude”.
Here’s a quick overview of how it works:
1. Users add e-mail addresses to a “do-not-spam” list and Blue Security creates new addresses (“honeypots”) designed to attract and catch spam
2. When a honeypot address gets spam Blue Security tries to contact the spammer and then triggers the Blue Frog software on the user’s computer to send a complaint.
3. If enough people complain it will knock out the spammer’s website and hopefully encourage them to stop sending emails to the “do-not-spam” list.
Simple enough! But fundamentally flawed, I think. |
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Has CAN-SPAM been effective? |
| author: Chip House |
| source: Chip's Deliverability Tips |
| date : 7/19/2005 |
I think there is some evidence indicating that CAN-SPAM is bringing down spammers. These cases, however, haven’t been as publicized as much as they need to be, giving spammers the feeling that they are untouchable. I agree with Trevor Hughes of the Email Service Providers Coalition – until the evening news shows these virtual thugs being carted away in handcuffs, no tangible deterrent is in place for spammers.
CAN-SPAM has primarily been an academic, often heady, debate that occurs in the conference rooms or chief counsel’s office of legitimate businesses. However, that debate has... |
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FTC Proposes E-zine Relief |
| author: RAY SCHULTZ |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 7/1/2005 |
WEBSTER MIGHT NOT AGREE with the Federal Trade Commission's definition of the word “sender.” But direct marketers now have every reason to be happy about it.
The FTC has determined that multiple advertisers in an email newsletter can't all be held responsible for the letter's compliance with the Can Spam Act. Instead, the commission would allow the advertisers to designate one sender.
Published in the May 12 issue of the Federal Register, the proposed rule change clears up a niggling holdover from the passage of Can Spam, and was welcomed by email vendors and trade groups. |
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Email Marketers Likely Unprepared for State Laws |
| author: Staff |
| source: MarketingVOX |
| date : 6/30/2005 |
| Email marketers might find themselves in a quandary this Friday, when "Child Protection Registry" laws, intended to protect underage email users from adult material, take effect in Michigan and Utah, ClickZ reports. Marketers who send commercial email to inboxes in those states will have to monitor registries and ensure compliance, or face significant fines and even jail time. Anyone may place any email address in the registry, while schools and child-focused organizations may register their entire domains. |
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Hotmail Demands Sender ID |
| author: Paula Skaper |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 6/22/2005 |
As of this morning, Hotmail users will receive a security warning when they try to open commercial emails that are not associated with a Microsoft Sender ID. Microsoft has also advised senders that it will begin delivering unauthenticated emails to the junk folder around November of this year.
Because Sender-ID authenticates the “from” address of your email messages, email marketers need to take steps to insure the authentication of their domains and those of their clients happens properly. |
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Permission: Use it or lose it! |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 6/16/2005 |
Recently I was contacted by a reputable company in the financial industry that had many email addresses of customers and prospects but had never used them. In this case, some email addresses were collected, with permission, over a span of two to five years!
The good news is that they captured permission when collecting the email addresses. The bad news? Since these addresses were never used or validated, and some are as old as five years, there is the likelihood that many of these email addresses might not be valid anymore.
With email and permission marketing, the old phrase ‘use it or lose it’ resonates loud and clear. |
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Permission: Use it or lose it! |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 6/16/2005 |
Recently I was contacted by a reputable company in the financial industry that had many email addresses of customers and prospects but had never used them. In this case, some email addresses were collected, with permission, over a span of two to five years!
The good news is that they captured permission when collecting the email addresses. The bad news? Since these addresses were never used or validated, and some are as old as five years, there is the likelihood that many of these email addresses might not be valid anymore.
With email and permission marketing, the old phrase ‘use it or lose it’ resonates loud and clear. |
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Opt-out Compliance -- Is 3 Days Enough? |
| author: Chip House |
| source: Chip's Deliverability Tips |
| date : 6/8/2005 |
In their latest “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (NPR) the FTC contemplates CAN-SPAM’s current 10-business-day unsubscribe policy and, based on comments from emarketers and the anti-spam community alike, recommends we move it to three (3).
Is three business days enough time? It’s hard to say. But let’s look at the issue from three different vantage points: that of the technologist, the anti-spammer, and the Fortune 500 marketer.
The technologist says: “Yes, of course three days is enough! The bulk of unsubscribe requests we, and the lion’s share of marketers receive, come via the web nearly instantaneously. |
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Canadian Task Force on Spam Presents Final Report |
| author: Stefan Eyram |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 5/24/2005 |
On May 17 the Canadian government’s Task Force on Spam presented its final report titled “Stopping Spam: Creating a Stronger, Safer Internet.”
Our own One Degree contributor Amanda Maltby is on that Task Force.
Some findings presented in the report (surprise, surprise):
- Spam is more than a nuisance. It is increasingly being used to carry viruses and worms, to commit fraud, to steal personal information, and to invade privacy. Not only do these activities drive up the costs for both consumers and businesses, but they also threaten the integrity of the Internet as a platform for communications and commerce... |
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Observed: Phishers Can’t Spell (Yet) |
| author: Bill Sweetman |
| source: One Degree |
| date : 4/11/2005 |
I’ve yet to be duped by a fraudulent email scam, despite the fact that the email con artists are getting better at their ‘trade’ all the time. My secret weapon? I can spell.
Is it just me, or does every single phishing email contain at least one spelling or grammatical error? Whenever I’m trying to determine if a message is legitimate or not, the appearance of a typo is usually the most obvious sign that the message is bogus.
Don’t these criminal ‘masterminds’ proof their messages before they send them out? Don’t they take pride in their work? If they’re going to break the law and wreak havoc around the world, shouldn’t they at least know proper punctuation? |
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FCC Wireless Domain Rules Take Effect |
| author: Chip House |
| source: Chip's Deliverability Tips |
| date : 3/14/2005 |
Wondering what's next with CAN-SPAM? If you didn't know, the FCC was compelled to make rules regarding sending messages to wireless devices/domains. And rule they did! On 2/7 they posted a list of domains to which no unsolicited commercial email should be sent. The catch -- the FCC gave marketers just 30 days to comply, meaning that if you're still sending to these domains as of 3/9/05 you are violating CAN-SPAM.
You can find a full list of the excluded domains at: |
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Email List Auditing Service Planned |
| author: JIM EMERSON |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 3/1/2005 |
Efforts are under way to launch an email list auditing service to ensure addresses released for rental comply with the Can Spam Act.
Media auditing giant BPA Worldwide and San Francisco-based online auditor I/Pro Inc. are working together to establish auditing standards they hope will expand the email list rental market. I/Pro's research indicates that Can Spam, the federal law regulating unsolicited commercial email messages, has created doubts for potential buyers and sellers about which list vendors are reputable and follow legal and industry best practices. |
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Spam Wars: The Second Front |
| author: Keith Wardell |
| source: Multichannel Merchant Magazine |
| date : 3/1/2005 |
| The release of AOL 9.0, with its new personalized adaptive filters, and similar services from other Internet service providers (ISPs) has opened a new front of the spam wars. These filters are designed to learn from and adapt to the types of email that each recipient considers to be spam. It has long been known that the more relevant the email, the higher the likelihood a consumer will open and read it. These new filtering approaches reward relevant e-mail that consumers are likely to read and penalize email that fails to address individual interests. |
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Eight Steps to Ward Off Spam Complaints |
| author: Raj Khera |
| source: MarketingProfs.com |
| date : 8/5/2003 |
Anti-spam firm Brightmail has found that about 50% of all emails are unsolicited junk mail. Spam complaints are on the rise, and (according to a report from Nucleus Research) it is costing employers millions and millions of dollars.
Because of the increase in spam, many legitimate companies and organizations unwarrantedly get slapped with the “spammer” label. An organization or company may offer its Web site’s visitors registration to an email list or newsletter. Inadvertently, visitors forget that they registered for the service and report the email as spam.
Here are a number ways email list managers can avoid spam complaints: |
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Earthlink's New Spam Tech: Strains Out Non-Humans |
| author: Tig Tillinghast |
| source: MediaPost |
| date : 5/27/2003 |
Call me an optimist, but Earthlink’s new anti-spam “technology,” just might work. Its soon-to-be-implemented requirement that each email sent to one of its accounts requires a human-confirmation of intent might just solve much of the spam problems for its subscribers.
The general idea is that each time a subscriber gets sent an email, the message doesn’t get delivered into the main in box until the sender responds to an Earthlink-sent confirmation message. That message may have a graphic of a number that the original sender needs to type into a message to the confirmation engine. Only after that confirmation is received will the message become blessed by the system and delivered. |
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Loose Cannon: Getting Up to Dickens With Consumer Data |
| author: Richard H. Levey |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 5/4/2003 |
For direct marketer Ebenezer Scrooge, watching television before retiring to bed had become a bad habit. Last Wednesday, he drifted off after watching 60 Minutes II, which had aired a story on consumer data entitled "Your Private Life Up for Sale."
The segment featured correspondent Scott Pelley gawking at a compiling firm’s record of the purchase price of the house he’d recently bought. The piece was as laudatory of the data industry as a lump of coal in a stocking. |
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Group Devises a Spam Solution |
| author: KRIS OSER |
| source: Direct Magazine |
| date : 5/1/2003 |
EMAIL MARKETING is in danger of dying in a vat of spam.
Anyone who doubts that should consider this: Unsolicited commercial email is well near half of all email sent — 42%, up from 8% in 2001, according to anti-spam vendor Brightmail Inc.
Sure, that means direct marketers are struggling to make their email stand out among all the unsolicited commercial messages clogging the inbox. But that's a problem only if their email ever arrives.
Roughly 15% of all marketing messages did not get through to recipients' inboxes in the fourth quarter of 2002 because they were halted by Internet service providers — incorrectly — as spam, according to a survey by email monitoring firm Assurance Systems Inc. in Superior, CO. The price tag? About $10 billion this year, studies report. |
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Experts warn spam could ruin email |
| author: Reuters |
| source: CNN |
| date : 5/1/2003 |
| Spam must be stopped, according to lawmakers and Internet experts, but few agreed how to curb the unwanted junk email they say threatens to overwhelm the Internet's most popular application. |
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Will Spam Be CANned? |
| author: Ben Isaacson |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 4/28/2003 |
Over the past month, spam in my inbox has more than doubled. Yet a small light shines on the horizon.
In February, I outlined changes on the congressional landscape that could open the door for anti-spam legislation. On April 10, Sen. Conrad Burns introduced the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (S. 877). Since my stint as a congressional intern in 1995, I never wanted legislation to regulate e-commerce. But I must say this bill is a welcome breath of fresh air in a sullied corner of the Internet. |
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McAfee Unleashes SpamKiller For Small Businesses |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 4/21/2003 |
| In January, Network Associates acquired Deersoft, an application provider known for its SpamAssassin software. Network Associates made it clear at the time of the deal that the SpamAssassin brand name would live on, but that the technology would be put to work safeguarding Microsoft Exchange 2000 servers for small businesses. The first product of this union came to market this week in the form of McAfee SpamKiller for Exchange Small Business. |
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Shine a Light on Spammers |
| author: Hans-Peter Brøndmo |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 4/14/2003 |
The way to solve spam is to shine a big, bright light on all legitimate high-volume senders. Make it mandatory to prove you are who you claim to be if you want your e-mail delivered.
Last month, I described why defining consent standards won't solve the spam problem. I suggested seeking sender accountability is where we must direct our energies in a search for a solution to this plague. Only by shining a light on all high-volume e-mail senders and holding them accountable for what they send can we rid the digital ether of spam. Why? As cockroaches don't like light (it makes them vulnerable), spammers won't survive illumination. They will no longer be able to hide. |
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Permission to Spam? |
| author: Al DiGuido |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 4/10/2003 |
Ask most respectable marketers, service providers, or legislators to define spam, and you'll typically hear something like this:
Spam: bulk e-mail sent without recipients' permission or a prior business relationship.
Ask the average consumer what she thinks spam is, and you'll most often get this:
Spam: anything in my inbox I don't want or don't remember requesting. |
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Spam: We're Losing |
| author: Rebecca Lieb |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 4/4/2003 |
The bad news for those of us combating spam is... we're losing. Despite an ever-escalating hue and cry from consumers, legislators, businesses, marketers, ISPs, and a burgeoning number of anti-spam coalitions, organizations, and task forces, the problem has grown worse -- much, much worse.
Mutterings that spam could kill e-mail as we know it (certainly marketing as we know it) are escalating into a new fear voiced in ISP and other tech quarters. There are mutterings spam could put an end to the Internet as we know it. |
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In the Year 2005, Will Your Anti-Spam Arsenal Be the Same? |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/31/2003 |
Anti-spam solutions are gaining visibility these days as big name vendors start to make more of a splash. Trend Micro issued an anti-spam announcement this month and Computer Associates (CA), Symantec, and Network Associates are expected to follow in the near future with announcements of their own.
Most commercial products actually on the market, though, are still from smaller, specialized start-ups. Meanwhile, some administrators are trying to save money for their organizations by turning to free solutions. A couple of years from now, will you still be relying on the same anti-spam strategy you're using today? |
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Picking Your Anti-Spam Poison: The Spam Series, Part 2 |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/31/2003 |
Everybody suffers from spam, but which approach to fighting spam is best for your organization? Experts emphasize that choosing the right product or service can make a big difference in spam protection. "Anti-spam technology isn't exactly rocket science -- but in a way, it kind of comes close," quips Jeff Brainard of Mirapoint.
"Anti-spam products are very complex. Products have their own unique characteristics," concurs Maureen Grey, research director at GartnerGroup. "Fighting spam is not an easy undertaking." |
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Target Email: From Spam to Choice, Part 6 |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/31/2003 |
It is irrefutable that a well designed and executed targeted e-mail campaign produces results with a very positive return on investment (ROI). Frequently, organizations fail to see the bigger potential and assess the endeavor from a long-term strategic perspective. Targeted e-mail is an opportunity for a mutually beneficial two-way flow of communications between the corporation and its clients, customers.
All too often customer responses are not dealt with in a timely and efficient manner in areas of support and fulfillment. This results in erosion of the relationship and can become self-defeating in the efforts of the organization to build stronger loyalty from the customers. |
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Whitelists and Filters |
| author: Ben Isaacson |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/31/2003 |
E-mailers love being whitelisted by ISPs. A whitelist is an ISP-sanctioned list of mass e-mailer IP addresses. An ISP allows messages sent from these addresses to pass through their systems (theoretically). A whitelist is a badge of honor to e-mailers, testifying to their legitimacy. It means their e-mail is delivered to recipients. Yet that badge may be plastic, not gold.
Not a Panacea
I'm not saying whitelists don't work. If you're a mass e-mailer, by all means, contact top-tier ISPs to ensure you're taking the right steps to get your e-mail delivered. But I see three problems with whitelisting as we know it. |
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Anti-Spam Directory |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/31/2003 |
| Anti-spam products offered to ISPs are no longer mere ports of enterprise systems; most companies now build specific products for the ISP market. There are many options available, and each ISP should be able to find a suitable product. |
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Don't Call Yourself A Permission Marketer When You Are A Direct Marketer |
| author: Chen Allen |
| source: Opt-in News |
| date : 3/28/2003 |
| Permission Marketing is similar to dating: the subject in this case is your customer. Like you would your date, permission marketers treat their customers with respect, and invest ample amount of time and energy to the development of the relationship. Most Internet marketers, however, favor the brute force approach to marketing. Instead of building relationships with their customers, they thoughtlessly push products as frequently as possible to reach short-term results. This is analogous to making a marriage proposal to a stranger on a first date — even if some customers say "yes", the frail relationship will soon end on a bad note. |
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Who Will Pay to Send E-Mail? |
| author: Ben Isaacson |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/17/2003 |
There's been too much talk about solving spam by forcing e-mailers to pay to send e-mail. Let's stop talking and examine the options for making this actually happen.
Before we conduct this exercise, bear in mind anyone can get a block of IP addresses, set up some servers, and become an ISP or a bulk e-mailer. Costs are minimal. There are no specific taxes or legal restraints to online operations. |
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Stomping Out Spam: The Spam Series, Part 1 |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/10/2003 |
Spam is jamming up mailboxes at increasing rates. More than just a bother for end users, unwanted e-mail can impact enterprise systems management by encroaching on bandwidth, storage space, and other network resources. While anti-spam legislation is on the horizon, experts agree filtering software is the most effective remedy at the moment. End user education doesn't hurt, either.
As spam continues to pour in, the market keeps exploding with more and more anti-spam products. In one recent report, GartnerGroup reviewed several anti-spam offerings and found that, "Of the 11 anti-spam products Gartner reviewed, five shipped credible versions for the first time in 2002. Another 14 were too new, untried or incomplete to include, and more products emerge each week," according to Maureen Grey, research director at Gartner. |
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Targeted E-mail: From Spam to Choice Part 5 |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/10/2003 |
A sound permission based e-mail strategy is not only a wise business decision, but also an integral component of marketing and customer care. Actually, as we look forward, it is but one piece of the puzzle to bring the enterprise into the future through business technology. The future belongs to the swift, the agile, and the nimble that cannot only offer first-rate products and services, but can do so with deft precision at high speed.
Be certain of this, your target audience, be it B2B or B2C, knows their needs more than you do. They are also much more sophisticated as consumers with very high expectations and requirements. In competing for their business, what was once a very fine line has become a razor's edge. |
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Why You Should Worry About State Spam Laws |
| author: Ben Isaacson |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/3/2003 |
In the beginning...
It all began on March 30, 1998. First, EarthLink was awarded $2 million in an e-mail "trespassing" case against the notorious Sanford Wallace and his company, Cyber Promotions. That same year, the states of Washington and California added new "anti-spam" bills to their dockets. These were the first hints of the coming tidal wave of anti-spam legislation that, five years later, has swamped the nation.
Today, according to spamlaws.com, 26 states have laws regulating spam on the books. Eight of these spam laws have the advertisement ("ADV") labeling requirement. Let me guess -- you forgot to add "ADV" to your subject line in your last acquisition campaign, right? Although most of those 26 states have so far not enforced these laws, there are very important precedents you should be aware of: |
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Why You Should Worry About State Spam Laws |
| author: Ben Isaacson |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 3/3/2003 |
In the beginning...
It all began on March 30, 1998. First, EarthLink was awarded $2 million in an email "trespassing" case against the notorious Sanford Wallace and his company, Cyber Promotions. That same year, the states of Washington and California added new "anti-spam" bills to their dockets. These were the first hints of the coming tidal wave of anti-spam legislation that, five years later, has swamped the nation.
Today, according to spamlaws.com, 26 states have laws regulating spam on the books. Eight of these spam laws have the advertisement ("ADV") labeling requirement. Let me guess -- you forgot to add "ADV" to your subject line in your last acquisition campaign, right? Although most of those 26 states have so far not enforced these laws, there are very important precedents you should be aware of: |
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Realtime Black-hole Lists: Heroic Spam Fighters or Crazed Vigilantes? |
| author: Staff |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 2/24/2003 |
In the continually escalating and increasingly frustrating battle against spam, email administrators are resorting to increasingly draconian measures. Some of my customers receive ten to twenty times as much spam as legitimate emails. One of the stringent measures admins are turning to is the use of Realtime Black-hole Lists (RBLs) to head off spam before it ever reaches your mailserver. RBLs are the aggressive bouncers of the Internet; anything listed in the RBL is unceremoniously bounced.
There are many different RBLs, with some blocking only connections from open relays while others also block known spammers. Those that handle lookups via DNS (DNSBLs) are the easiest to use. Most MTAs (mail transfer agents), such as qmail, postfix, exim, and sendmail, support DNSBLs; you simply need to configure your MTA to query the DNSBL. |
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Should You Opt in to Opt Out? |
| author: Jared Blank |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 2/24/2003 |
Permission or forgiveness? For marketers crafting an opt-in policy, it's a long-debated question. Companies are re-examining their opt-in policies and wondering, "Should we have an opt-out policy and collect piles of e-mail addresses with limited response rates? Or should we have an opt-in policy where we're sure we are engaging with truly interested individuals but cannot boast of a seven-figure house list?"
Privacy advocates (including many ClickZ readers) have called for marketers to agree on an opt-in standard. In many ways this makes sense. It's certain vast numbers of consumers unwittingly sign up for e-mail newsletters when marketers take the opt-out route. Many of these consumers view the e-mail they receive from these companies as spam. It's well known opt-in house lists perform better than those built from opt-outs. |
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Targeted E-mail: From Spam to Choice, Part 4 |
| author: Bruce McCracken |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 2/19/2003 |
In the February 2003 report, "What Works: Best Practices in Marketing Technologies," Kent Allen, research director, e-business/e-CRM for the Aberdeen Group of Boston, writes, "E-mail builds brand awareness (via rich media), helps acquire new customers (via viral marketing), improves customer relationships (by creating bi-directional dialogue), and creates consumable value (via newsletter marketing). And in most cases, e-mail accomplishes these and other objectives more cost effectively than does traditional direct mail."
In the March 2002 report, "Marketing & Branding Forecast: Online Advertising and E-mail Marketing Through 2007," Jupiter Research submits, "E-mail marketers will spend $1.4 billion in 2002, growing to $8.3 billion in 2007. Retention campaigns will dominate the volume of non-spam e-mail marketing messages over the next five years. Indeed, each online consumer will receive more than 1,500 retention-based e-mail messages in 2007." The figure below details the spending growth of e-mail marketing. |
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Targeted E-mail: From Spam to Choice, Part 3 |
| author: Bruce McCracken |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 2/3/2003 |
This is the third part of a multi-part series on permission-based targeted e-mail. In part two, we reviewed some fundamental strategic principles that can increase sales and enhance rapport with your customers. In part one, we discussed the problem of spam and the rise of permission-based e-mail marketing as valuable sales tool. This week, we take an in-depth look at e-mail formatting, in particular the pros and cons of HTML versus text-based formats.
HTML: Potential and Pitfalls
DoubleClick reported in November 2002 in its DoubleClick Q3 E-mail Trend Report that click through rates improved in the third quarter of 2002 over the second quarter of 2002 as illustrated in the figures below. |
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Is This the Year for a Federal Solution to Spam? |
| author: Ben Isaacson |
| source: Clickz |
| date : 2/3/2003 |
| In the past few weeks, I've had dozens of conversations about "the solutions to spam." They always turn into conversations about what's going to happe | | |
