Tired of Bogus Spam Complaints? United We Stand ....

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If you are distributing material to an opt-in email list, you need to know about a fledgling, grassroots organization callede-Crucible.
The organization is committed to "opposing by anyethical, politi... If you are distributing material to an opt-in email list, you need to know about a fledgling, grassroots organization callede-Crucible.
The organization is committed to "opposing by anyethical, political, and legal means available the vigilanteactivities of "anti-Spam" fanatics and the unfair and unjusthandling of 'Spam' complaints by certain Internet ServiceProviders."According to the Executive Director, John Botscharow,e-Crucibles is in the process of acquiring non-profit status so itcan exist as a legal entity.But first, a little background.As an online publisher, you already know what I mean by bogus spam reports. Either in error or with mischievous intent, asubscriber decides your ezine is spam.
Quicker than you can say,"Hey, you subscribed!", s/he sends hostile, rude and oftenabusive emails to every web site or email address listed in yourezine. In some cases, the complainant includes a worm or viruswith the email for added impact.
Or maybe s/he reports you toSpamCop, CAUSE or a similar vigilante group.The bad stuff hits the fan. You're deemed guilty and there is no wayto prove your innocence.
Without contacting you,SpamCop emails your ISP, your web host, your advertisers andeven the writers whose articles you have published. At best,you spend the next few days explaining and pleading yourinnocence to the people involved.
At worst, your website hostand your ISP shut you down. Your business is interrupted untilyou can make other arrangements.
If you live in an area of theworld where you have only one ISP available, this canmean the end of your Internet business.This story is but one example of many. Frank Garon is awebmaster who publishes an opt-in ezine with a subscriber baseof 12,000 (http://www.InternetCashPlanet.com).
His ezinecontains clear unsubscribe instructions. Sometime in April,2001, a subscriber allegedly sent the entire ezine to SpamCopwith the instructions to "shut down this American *&%^spammer."Garon reported that SpamCop contacted every email addressand web host address contained in the ezine.
One victim wasa writer whose article had been published in the 'zine. She hadthe usual resource box at the end of her article, including a linkto her site.
The writer's email account was shut down, and atlast report, her web site was in jeopardy. Remember that thiswriter did not send a single email.
Common sense dictates thatshe could not possibly have been guilty of spam.Garon and the writer sent an appeal to SpamCop. The responsefrom SpamCop's "deputy" included the following:"..."If theadmin of this ezine would like to pursue punitive action againstthe SpamCop user for filing a false complaint, we will need tosee proof of opt-in confirmation.
Otherwise, we will simplyconsider this matter closed..."Now here's the kicker. SpamCop did not reveal the nameand email address of the complainant.
Without identification,how can Garon prove that the subscriber had opted-in?Worse, without the email address, how can Garon removethe subscriber from his list? What's to stop the same subscriberfrom filing the same complaint repeatedly? Again, it defiescommon sense.As Garon wrote, 'To have to spend every day wondering ifTODAY is the day some creep is going to falsely accuse you ofSpam and cost you and your entire family everything you haveput years of hard work into is MORE than a little scary."To make the story even more bizarre, e-Crucible members statethat they have reported real spammers to SpamCop with no results.If you're an email publisher, the shark attacks come from threesources: odious subscribers, vigilante organizations and ISPsand web hosts who shut you down without giving you achance to defend yourself. As an individual, you can do littleto change the situation.Please consider signing up for the free e-Crucibles mailinglist and help strengthen this little organization with the big goals.Sign up at http://www.topica.com/lists/e-Crucible/or send email to mailto:[email protected] note: e-Crucible is NOT pro-spam.
They are opposedto spurious spam complaints that put legitimate marketersin jeopardy. Article Tags: Bogus Spam, Email Address Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .