Spam Laws*

CAN-SPAM stands for "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing." The act was put into place by the Federal Government January 2004 to set out requirements for those sending out commercial emails, establish penalties for spammers, and give consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law covers email that's primary purpose is to advertise or promote a product, service, or website. Personal emails and email updates and advertisements that have been consented to are not covered under this law. Also not covered are "transactional or relationship messages," which are emails that pertain to agreed-upon transactions or emails that update a customers in an existing business relationship. That is because these types of emails are not technically spam - they are a result of previous consent or a business relationship. However, if these types of emails contain false or misleading information they are in offense of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The CAN-SPAM Act is enforced by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Justice has authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law in their jurisdictions, and internet service providers can also sue violators.

Requirements and Prohibitions of the CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act has four main provisions:

• False and misleading header information is banned - This means that an email's "From," "To" and routing information, including the originating domain name and address, must be accurate and identify the sender.
• Deceptive subject lines are prohibited - The subject line cannot mislead the receiver of the message to open it under false pretenses, thinking it's something else. The receiver must not be mislead as to the contents or subject matter of the email.
• Opt-out methods must be provided - A response mechanism must be provided for the receiver to opt-out of any future commercial messages from the sender. In addition, opt-out requests must be processed for at least 30 days after the initial commercial email was sent, and senders have 10 business days after an opt-out request to stop sending messages to that address. Messages cannot be sent to the opt-out requestor on behalf of the sender by any other entity.
• Commercial email must be identified as an advertisement and it must include the sender's valid physical postal address. The receiver must be clearly informed that the message is an advertisement or solicitation, he must be told he can opt-out of future mailings, and a valid physical postal address must be included in the message.
• Receivers must be warned of sexually explicit material - For any message that contains sexually explicit material, the warning "SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT" must be contained in the subject line.

The FTC is also currently looking into establishing a National Do Not Email Registry that would prohibit senders of commercial messages from targeting anyone who puts themselves on the list.

Penalties for Violation of the CAN-SPAM Act
Violation of the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act are subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial emails are also subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising. Additional fines are also charged to commercial emailers who break the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act and also:

• "Harvest" email addresses from websites or web services prohibiting the use of their directories for sending unsolicited mail
• Generate email addresses using the "dictionary attack" (combining names, numbers, and/or letters in multiple ways to come up with email addresses)
• Use automated ways to register for multiple accounts to send commercial email
• Relay messages through a computer or network without permission

Imprisonment is possible for commercial emailers who:

• Send commercial email through a computer they are not authorized to use for that purpose
• Relay or retransmit multiple messages to deceive recipients about the origin of a message
• Falsify header information
• Register for multiple email accounts or domain names with false identities
• Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple IP addresses used to send commercial messages

Given the existence of the CAN-SPAM Act, it's important that you report spam in your inbox rather than just deleting it so that the spammers can be prosecuted and fined under the law. If we all do this, it can help reduce spam in the future. You can report spam by going to www.spamlaws.com/reporting-spam.

 

There are also state laws that email marketers need to obey. For instance, see Ohio Spam Laws if you live or work in Ohio, or if your SMTP server is located in this state.

 

What is Spam?

Receiving spam is a common complaint of many Internet users. In fact, spam email has become an increasingly bothersome problem as individuals spreading spam email find easier ways to invade users’ email accounts, leading to the necessity of such tools as spam filters and spam blocker features.

But, while spam is on the rise, many Internet users still have limited knowledge as to what constitutes spam and what a spam email looks like. So what exactly is spam, how common is it, and what are some examples of common spam emails?

The term spam refers to submitting the same message to a large group of individuals in an effort to force the message onto people who would otherwise choose not to receive this message.

There are Two Types of Spam:

1) Cancelable Usenet Spam refers to spam email in which a single message is sent to two or more usenet groups. This type of spam is directed at "lurkers", or individuals who read newsgroups but who either do not or infrequently post or give their email addresses away. Cancelable usenet spam reduces the utility of newsgroups by forcing through advertising, and as such decreases the ability of administrators and managers of newsgroups to manage accepted topics. This spam is run at a low cost to those sending out spam.

2) Email Spam refers to spam email that is directed at individual users with direct addresses. Email spam lists are usually created by scanning usenet postings, sterling Internet mailing lists or searching the Web for addresses. A variant of this form of spam is sent directly to mailing lists and email discussions that are used by public and private forums. Email spam costs individuals submitting spam email money; for example, ISPs and onine services need to pay to transmit spam directly to subscribers. In addition, there are three main components to all types of spam:

    a) Anonymity: the sender’s identity and address are concealed

    b) Mass Mailing: spam email is sent to a large number of recipients and in high quantities

    c) Unsolicited: the individuals receiving spam would otherwise not have opted to receive it. Common forms of spam include commercial advertising, usually for dubious products, such as get-rich-quick schemes, quasi-legal services, political messages, chain letters and fake spam used to spread viruses. For information regarding security risks, see our BLOG.

How Common is Spam?

Spam is very common, with most if not all individuals receiving spam email at some point in their Internet-using lives.

However, the effectiveness of spam is not comparable. Only 14% of people read the spam they receive, with a mere 4% of individuals buying products from spam messages.

*As provided by SpamLaws.com, which is a very good source for more information.

 

Anti-Spam Policy

iNamics practices only permission-based email marketing. In this regard, we have implemented the following policies: 1) iNamics encourages permission-based marketing and does not purposefully send unsolicited emails. 2) Customer accepts full responsibility for responding to all complaints relating to any unsolicited emails sent using our services. The following is also noted:

Spam is Unsolicited Email Spam is unsolicited commercial email, junk mail or bulk mail that has not been requested by the recipient. In addition to being perceived as intrusive, irrelevant and often offensive, it is also typical that spam emails do not contain an option to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Simply put, spam is the opposite of permission-based emails -- those that are requested, anticipated, personal and relevant.

Preventing Unsolicited Emails

Customers must abide by a strictly enforced Terms and Conditions Agreement. In the "Responsibilities and Limitations" section of the Terms and Conditions Agreement, it clearly states our policy with respect to spam: "You may not use iNamics’ products or services provided to send unsolicited bulk email, for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Unsolicited bulk email is defined as email sent to more than 10 individuals without their permission." Also, customers understand that an unsubscribe option will be on every email sent via iNamics bulk email marketing service. This is not an option. In the event that a user violates any one of our usage rules, or for any other reason deemed inappropriate by iNamics, iNamics reserves the right to suspend or terminate, without notice, access to the customer’s account and all related data.

Encouraging Permission-Based Marketing

iNamics encourages its customers to create and manage "opt-in" subscriber lists. By building and using an "opt-in" subscriber list, users can be certain that they are sending emails to recipients that have expressly given their permission to do so. It is also important to note that subscribers receiving email campaigns from iNamics will only see their names in the header -- all other email addresses are not viewable which makes them safer from unsolicited email abuse via other recipients of the same email campaign.

Responding to Unsolicited Email Complaints

If a complaint is received regarding unsolicited emails being sent from iNamics on your behalf, you must address this complaint immediately. If the customer does not respond or act properly as defined in our terms and conditions, the following notices will be sent to the customer:

• Initial Warning - The customer is first notified that an unsolicited email complaint has not been responded to properly and they are: (a) Reminded of the terms they accepted in the Terms and Conditions Agreement. (b) Reminded that the complainant's email address will automatically be flagged for suppression if the complainant did unsubscribe. (c) Requested to manually remove the complainant's email address from their subscriber list if the address was not automatically suppressed because the complainant did not unsubscribe.

• Follow-up Warning - If the complainant persists, or if there are multiple complaints, a second warning is issued. The customer is again reminded of the Terms and Conditions Agreement. Additionally, the customer is advised that if they are unable to abide by these terms, they’re contract will be canceled.

• Final Notice - If notifications of unsolicited emails continue and remain unaddressed after the follow-up warning, the user's account privileges will be suspended and terminated.

Using iNamics makes sure you're compliant with current Spam Laws when sending out bulk emails. To learn more, see our Bulk Email Marketing Plans.