Posted by: Andy on April 7th, 2008
Category: General eBusiness, e-Mail Marketing
Viewed: 1,482 times
On opening my email inbox this morning I was shocked to see over 100 emails from “System Administrator” with a subject line similar to “Undeliverable: Returned mail: see transcript for details”; Looks like my email address has been hijacked by spammers.
Spam is a multibillion dollar industry. According to Paul Judge of CipherTrust Inc “Spam, or unsolicited e-mail, has become a tremendous problem in recent years, evolving from being a minor nuisance as late as year 2000 to today comprising on average over 80% of all enterprise e-mail traffic and costing billions of dollars in lost productivity worldwide.” According to Barracuda Networks 2007 Spam Report, 95% of all email was spam. “The study, based on an analysis of more than one billion daily email messages sent to its more than 50,000 customers worldwide, found that 90 to 95 percent of all email sent in 2007 was spam, increasing from an estimated 85 to 90 percent of email in 2006.”
Barracuda Central displays real time statistics on email threats. Here are their top 10 spam categories:
- Replica Products
- Online Pharmacies
- Casino and Gaming
- Other Spam
- Software Sales
- Illegal Advertising
- Penny Stocks
- Credit and Debt Relief
- Virus Phishing
- Bank Phishing
Spammers face a number of challenges in getting their advertisements to unsuspecting recipients. First and foremost they have to make their messages appear as though they are being sent from a “sterile” email – so they use a false reply-to address. They do this for three reasons, first in some countries sending out spam is illegal, and so the spammer would be pretty stupid if they sent email out with their own reply-to address. Secondly, if they used the same reply-to address then it would be very easy for system administrators to set up filters that deleted all email coming from that address. Finally, the spammer uses a “real” domain name in the hopes that it will lend some legitimacy to the email.
According to spamnation.info, this type of email that I received is called backscatter, which is “the name given to messages that are generated when a spammer uses your mail address or an invented mail address at a domain that you own in the 'From:' line of their messages. If the spammer's message can't be delivered for any reason, the receiving host will send back a non-delivery report to the address in the 'From:' line.”
Spam forgery can do a lot of damage to a company’s reputation, infrastructure, and mail server load. To most businesses however, it’s just a nuisance because there isn’t anything they can do to stop it. According to Spam Hunter Rob Vaessen “email forgery is simple and commonplace. Forgery of email header data makes it nearly impossible for the average email recipient to complain about or report spam effectively. If you can't figure out who really sent you the spam, you can't get them shut down.”
Vaessen offers these tips for anyone who is a victim of spam forgery:
- Notify your web and mail hosts. You don’t want your website shut down because of complaints from people who didn't realize that the spammer was forging your domain/email address.
- Put up an explanation page, describing the circumstances surrounding the incident. That way annoyed spam recipients that come to your website will understand what happened, and that you aren’t responsible for the spam message(s) he/she received.
- Collect evidence (printed and electronic copies of complete emails, including all headers) in case it becomes necessary to either pursue the spammer through the courts or convince a skeptic that you didn't send the spam.
So who is buying from spammers? “Fact is, spammers wouldn't send out junk e-mail if nobody — absolutely nobody — ever clicked through to buy anything”, according to USA Today Tech Columnist Kevin Maney, “spammers only send out spam because it is successful. They send oceans of it because e-mail costs almost nothing, and if one person in a million responds, that's good enough.” The simple fact is that spam works and all it needs to keep working is one sale, “purchasing just one product from a spammer bankrolls them with enough money to spam another million people”, says spamdontbuyit.org’s founder, Mike Adams. “Money you spend on products from spammers is reinvested in sending more spam” says Adams.
Who is buying from spammers? We all are, especially when spammers are mainstream well-known companies. Spamnation has a list of companies that use spam to advertise, see if you recognize any:
- Avon
- Bennetton
- Blockbuster
- Bowflex
- Dell
- Disney Online
- Marks & Spencer
- Pitney Bows
- Snapfish
- Vonage
- Xerox
So if Avon, Dell, Vonage, and Xerox are spamming us, then it’s no wonder we are buying from less credible companies.
In the meantime I’m up to my elbows in bounced emails that used my forged email address, and so I set up filters in Outlook to move messages that contain the following to my junk folder:
- From contains Mailer-Daemon
- From contains postmaster@
- Body contains Status: 5.1.1
- Subject contains Returned mail
- Subject starts with Delivery Status Notification
- Subject starts with Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
- Subject contains failure notice
Now I have to check my Junk folder every-so-often to ensure I’m not missing anything important, and my inbox is looking a little less cluttered.
Tags: backscatter, email spam
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Posted by: Nathan on April 17th, 2007
Category: e-Mail Marketing
Viewed: 1,958 times
Since so many small businesses now do a substantial part of their marketing on the Internet, it is not surprising that many have resorted to doing e-mail marketing to advertise their products or services, since it costs next to nothing to send out zillions of e-mail messages, other than the cost of acquiring the "mailing lists."
You can't help but be aware of this kind of marketing blitz, since everyone on the planet with an e-mail address seems to receive dozens of e-mail ads every day for such necessities of life as those wonderful herbal supplements that will supposedly enlarge certain critical parts of your anatomy.
In recent years, most of us are have grown tired of receiving these unwanted, unsolicited junk e-mail messages ("SPAM"), which now make up something like 80 percent of the e-mail volume we receive , even after SPAM filters have done their work. That has led to pressure on governments around the world to do something to stem the tide of SPAM. However, many of us who run small businesses may have privately thought about using such e-mail campaigns ourselves to market our own products or services. Or maybe we are doing it already, unaware of the possible legal consequences. Since we receive such a huge volume of SPAM in our e-mail inboxes every day, it isn't hard to jump to the conclusion that, since everyone does it, SPAM must be legal, as long as you aren't selling or promoting something like weapons-grade plutonium or some type of sleazy scam.
Right?
Wrong. In fact, most of the SPAM you receive on a daily basis (even "innocent," non-fraudulent SPAM) is illegal under U.S. laws, but since most of the illegal e-mail solicitations originate in places that don't crack down on SPAMmers, or even encourage them, there is very little most Western governments can do about it.
However, many small businesses who have heard about the new federal anti-SPAM law may be unnecessarily refraining from doing e-mail marketing, for fear of the legal consequences. Such caution is certainly warranted, but you should not assume that all e-mail marketing is illegal. It is still possible to legally send unsolicited e-mail to potential or existing customers — but only if you meet a number of very specific federal guidelines.
Before embarking upon an e-mail marketing campaign, you need to be aware that, even though you and your business may be perfectly ethical and you may be advertising a useful, legal product or service, you must be extremely careful to avoid both criminal prosecution and, even more of a realistic risk, being sued for private damages by Internet service providers (ISPs) that provide Internet access and who are now authorized to sue the pants off SPAMmers — for statutory legal damages.
Thus, if or when you decide to do any e-mail solicitations for your business, you first need to know what the legal ground rules are, to avoid incurring fines or massive legal liability to ISPs, either of which penalties could put you out of business in a hurry.
Does Canada have anti-spam laws?
No. The distribution of unsolicited promotional and product information over electronic networks per se is neither illegal nor regulated in Canada. However, fraudulent practices and misleading representations are illegal, and privacy laws require an individual's consent to the collection and use of their e-mail address where it can be traced to them.
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) requires that organizations obtain the knowledge and consent of individuals to the collection, use or disclosure of their personal information, except in specified situations. E-mail addresses are generally considered "personal information" since they can be associated with an identifiable individual. The federal Privacy Commissioner has found unsolicited marketing e-mail to violate PIPEDA in two reported cases. However, these findings are not legally binding, and there is no penalty associated with them.
In addition, the Criminal Code prohibits fraud, and the Competition Act prohibits misleading advertising. To the extent that spam is either misleading or fraudulent, it can be captured under these laws.
Does the US Have Anti-Spam Laws?
Yes. The U.S. Congress has enacted legislation, effective in 2004, in an attempt to stem the flow of unwanted, unsolicited junk e-mail ("SPAM") and "porn mail" on the Internet, by enacting the "CAN-SPAM" Act [15 U.S. Code Sec. 7701]. This law imposes hefty penalties of up to $250 per violation (limited to $2 million total) on SPAMmers who engage in any of these practices:
- Sending out e-mail with deceptive "headers" or subject lines, which disguise the nature of the commercial message within.
- Sending e-mail with false return addresses ("spoofing") or false IP (Internet Protocol) addresses;
- E-mail solicitations sent to "harvested" addresses (gathered automatically from Internet web sites by special robot software) or to "dictionary lists" of e-mail addresses created by mechanically generating large numbers of target addresses, such as: abc1@xyz.com, abc2@xyz.com, abc3@xyz.com, etc.
- Sending e-mail solicitations to recipients who have requested that the sender (or all senders) cease sending messages to that recipient, more than ten business days after such a request
Tags: eMarketing, email SPAM, email marketing, SPAM Laws
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Posted by: Andy on August 9th, 2006
Category: e-Mail Marketing
Viewed: 2,046 times
I spend almost 10% of my workday dealing with email in some way, and I don’t own a Blackberry. If I’m not reading my email, answering my email or referring back to an email I got a few days ago then I’m sending out an email as my primary method of communication.
Don’t get me wrong, I love email and couldn’t live without it. Email is quick, convenient, easily archived, addressed to a number of recipients, is inexpensive and allows file transfers. Email etiquette encourages an informal style that is quick to write, and it often takes less than a minute to deliver to any geographic location. Email reduces interruptions. Messages can be read, and responded to, at any Internet enabled location, at any time. Messages sent and received can be saved and indexed for future reference. Communication can be easily sent to any number of recipients at once. The cost is much lower than postage or long distance charges associated with post mail, telephone and fax. Email goes beyond facilitating messages because it allows the transfer of other mediums such as documents, presentations, graphics, or other electronic files that can be sent to any number of recipients.
There is, however, a darker side to email. On a daily basis employees have to deal with issues such as information overload, misinterpretation, privacy and security, viruses and hoaxes. Email stress is adding to an already increasing workload caused by layoffs and cutbacks.
I personally have two pet peeves when it comes to email. The shear volume of information combined with the copious chain letters, virus alerts that turn out to be hoaxes, and funny jokes.
The informal and convenient nature of email may lead to users receiving more communication messages than they are prepared to deal with (also known as, information overload). This can lead to frustration and added stress as employees are forced to sift through the information and seek out only what is relevant.
Hoaxes are chain letters asking users to spread the message to everyone they know. Some warn users of viruses or the dangers of using a particular product, some will ask to sign a petition and others offer a free product or get rich scam. Forwarding such messages clogs email systems and reflects poorly on the sender.
Email Overloaded, a blog by Itzy Sabo on Email Productivity has a great article on email overload called Spherical Cows Don’t Suffer From Email Overload. It’s well worth the read.
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Posted by: Christina on December 22nd, 2005
Category: e-Mail Marketing
Viewed: 1,182 times
A new survey has been conducted by EmailLabs concerning B2B e-newsletters.
“Almost 70% of B2B e-mail newsletter subscribers have a preview pane in their e-mail program and always or frequently use it, making it crucial that publishers and marketers consider how their mailing looks when previewed.â€
49.1% of subscribers only read the first few lines of their emails to decide whether or not they should read further and 25% don’t even download images in their preview pane with 20% who rarely do; that leaves even less of a chance that subscribers will continue on reading since newsletters don’t look as attractive with a bunch of text and empty image boxes.
A few tips to help would be to email yourself your newsletter and see how it looks in your preview pane, remove any administrative information from the top to the bottom and replace it with “In This Issue†information. Also, remove any image headers and replace with 2-3 inches of text/html only.
> Read more on e-newsletters at www.e-bc.ca
> To read more visit eMarketer
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Posted by: Andy on June 14th, 2005
Category: e-Mail Marketing
Viewed: 1,084 times
Unless you do business on Gilligan’s Island, it’s difficult to overstate the importance of reliable, up-to-date contact information. writes Christopher Elliott on how to “Handle your business contacts like a pro.”
In an earlier entry in May, I had introduced contact management and a couple references for implementation and benefits of it.
Well, as per requested by many of you, I have followed up on that topic with thisarticle which suggest 6 valuable strategies in managing your contacts. In addition, this article provides tips accompanying the strategies in implementing these strategies in Microsoft Outlook 2003.
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