Now lets move on to help some spam victims. If you're doing
business online, there is a good chance that one day you
will be accused of spamming, even if you are not a spammer.
The anonymity of the Internet promotes the attitude of
accuse first and get the facts later. (I know this all too
well after my recent experience.)
Anyway, when it happens to you, you'll need some letters to
send out to both the spam victims and the company
responsible for the spam. Here are the two you should save
for future reference...
Letter to spam recipients:
Thank you for contacting us. Here are the details of this
unfortunate situation.
The spam you received originated from the domain
. Rest assured you have NOT been added
to any email lists at our site. We do NOT use nor do we
condone the use of unsolicited bulk email and we too, are
innocent bystanders in this situation.
We are in no way affiliated with the offending website and
along with your address, our addresses were on their spam
list. Any further actions you wish to take should be
directed to them. More details on our policies and this
incident are available at the following URL:
And here's a letter you can use as a model when you need to
contact the party responsible for your grief...
Dear Offending Website Owner Name,
CC to:legal@yourdomain.com
I have copied the headers of an email message sent by your
user, which confirms email activity on . This
email has resulted in numerous complains to our email
addresses. Please take the following actions
immediately:
a) explain of how this incident took place and why
b) take measures to insure that this NEVER happens again
c) notify each address on your list that our domain was not
responsible and was an innocent bystander in this
unfortunate situation
Please reply to this email message before the close of
business on or we will be forced to
pursue further action. We will also expect a full letter of
explanation mailed or faxed to our offices.
Thank you for your cooperation.
And closing today's column, here are a few additional tips
to help you avoid trouble with unsolicited email...
- If you have an opt-in list, keep EVERY opt-in request you
ever receive. I keep opt-in requests dating back years. On
several occasions I have been able to provide proof of
signup to someone who forgot they joined and accused me of
sending unsolicited email. These email "receipts" also come
in handy with ISPs and web hosts.
- Keep your email addresses from being harvested at your
website by using a tool that encodes your email addresses.
It's a great way to cut down on spam and avoid situations
like the one I ran into! See the following URL for a free
encoding service: www.siteup.com/encoder.html
- At your site, state your policy on unsolicited email very
clearly. It's also a good idea to post reports of any
incidents at the same area of your site. See
http://www.bizweb2000.com/privacy.htm for an example of how
you can set this up.
Well, this closes a rare, not-so-fun chapter in online
marketing. Hopefully today's tip will help you avoid trouble
or save you a bit of time if and when trouble
does arrive.
About the Author
Visit Jim at http://www.bizweb2000.com where he shares
exactly how he makes his living from the Internet. And get Jim's free weekly email newsletter,
BizWeb eGazette by sending mailto:optin@bizweb2000.com