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Three Faces of SPAM
by Sandi Moses
Like everybody who will ever read this, I get spam in my e-mail. Mine
seems to fall into one of three categories. The first is the Nigerian scam
about helping some poor, pathetic soul collect megabucks, supposedly from
someone who has died and left a fortune. I’m not sure what is worse: that
there are people desperate enough to believe those messages, or that there
are people despicable enough to prey on the desperate. The net result is
the despicable con the desperate into sending money which the desperate
will never see again.
The second type comes from people who sound innocent enough. They have a
product or a business or a service or something else that is perfectly
legitimate. They surf the web, find one of my sites, find the “contact us”
link, and send me information about whatever they have to offer. I
suppose, in their minds, it isn’t any different than walking down the
street or going through the telephone book writing down addresses, and
then sending out bulk business mail with the same offer. They could get
the same information for more money and less time by buying a mailing
list. THAT is perfectly legitimate. Harvesting e-mail addresses off of web
sites is NOT. Spam is officially defined as “unsolicited commercial
electronic mail.” The key word is “unsolicited.” If I didn’t ask for it
and you send it anyway, it is unsolicited. When people harvest e-mail
addresses off of web sites and then send commercial messages, that, by
definition, is spam. I report them to my ISP and you should, too.
The third type isn’t so innocent. These people, like the second type of
people already discussed, surf the web, find sites, and harvest the e-mail
addresses from the “contact us” link. Instead of starting out by sending
you what they have to offer, they get devious, sneaky, and just plain
under-handed. They send you a message asking for more information about
whatever you have to offer on your site. When you graciously respond, it
turns out they couldn’t care less about what you have to offer. The ONLY
thing they want is to confirm your e-mail address so they can start to
dump offers on you, hoping you will buy something from them. Nasty trick.
Let me give you an example from one that once came across my screen. It
seemed to be from a nice lady with homey graphics and nice colors in her
e-mail. If my memory serves me well, she even stated that she was disabled
and looking for ways to earn a living off the internet. In my mind, that’s
a hard combination to resist. A great deal of effort was put into this to
make it sound as if she had built an internet community around her site
and services. Maybe she did; I don’t know. Anyway, I was naive enough to
respond with the information she had requested. Soon solicitations for
this, that, and whatever business offer, etc. began arriving in my inbox.
I finally put two and two together and realized that they were from her,
but I was still reluctant to report it as spam, so her messages went
quietly into the trash. I mean, she seemed SO NICE! Then I got this huffy
message, apparently broadcast to her entire mailing list, about how if
people didn’t want to receive her messages, why didn’t they just
unsubscribe, etc. It seems quite a few people had reported her as a
spammer and she was getting into trouble. It was time for me to respond,
so I told her, bluntly, that what she was sending out WAS spam. It was
unsolicited. I never signed up to be on her mailing list, and no doubt the
people who had reported her never signed up to be on her mailing list,
either. I only responded to a request FROM HER for information and that in
no way implied that I wanted to be on her mailing list or that I wanted to
receive her offers. She must have gotten the message because I have
received nothing else from her.
So how about you? Are guilty of sending out e-mail to people who did not
specifically request to receive offers from you or about a business that
you represent? If you go around looking for e-mail addresses to harvest
for your own purposes, you are guilty of sending SPAM. Instead, post your
offers on your web site and market them legitimately. It’s the right thing
to do. When people fill out your form, they are giving you permission to
send them information. Keep a record so you can defend yourself if they
ever forget what they did.
If you are on the receiving end of unsolicited offers, go ahead and report
them as spam. Don’t feel guilty; you are not the guilty party. Just make
sure you really didn’t sign up for a newsletter or something and then
forgot! It is sooooooooooooooo not cool to report spam that really isn’t!
About The Author: Sandi Moses has been involved in internet
marketing since November, 2003. Visit her sites at
http://www.123iwork4me.com/ and
http://www.123-home-based-business-works-4-me.com/
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