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Unsolicited Email Newsletters

by Yogini
8 replies
I am wondering if anyone else is getting these and if this practice is a violation of basic e-mail marketing. In the last week I've received 5 html e-mail newsletters that I've never signed up for announcing workshops in my area. I even received one from my congressman (his wasn't on a workshop but basically about his campaign)!

There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom but nonetheless shouldn't these only be sent out if someone opts in? I don't know any of these people and it seems to be a way people are trying to save on mailings.

Several are for local yoga workshops and they got my name from a website I have on yoga. Of course, I do write people and tell them they can lose their webhost for this practice and mention that their pages need optimization etc but is this practice even legal? Just curious as this seems to be increasing more and more.

Debbie
#email #newsletters #unsolicited
  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Debbie, contrary to popular opinion, there is nothing illegal about sending unsolicited email as long as the sender follows the rules for doing so (no spoofed sender, identified as an ad, physical contact address, opt out option are the big ones.).

    As for your Congessman, well, let's just say he's a special case. I don't want to get started as I'll risk getting your thread killed and my behind banned for going political...
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    • Profile picture of the author ExRat
      Hi John,

      there is nothing illegal about sending unsolicited email as long as the sender follows the rules for doing so (no spoofed sender, identified as an ad, physical contact address, opt out option are the big ones.).
      Do you have a link to some definitive resource regarding this please? I'm genuinely interested, thanks.
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      Roger Davis
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      As for your Congessman, well, let's just say he's a special case. I don't want to get started as I'll risk getting your thread killed and my behind banned for going political...
      I think you can safely say that they exempted themselves from many of the rules. Politicians and charities got exemptions under CAN-SPAM.
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      • Profile picture of the author ExRat
        Hi,

        The most important thing to point out, it appears, is what Yogini pointed out about hosting accounts. For example, my usual host has a 'zero tolerance policy' for any UCE and will instantly terminate accounts.
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        Roger Davis
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  • Profile picture of the author Yogini
    Yes I also would like to know the rules on this in terms of can-spam. I had thought that double opt-ins were very important and the ones I am getting are not from aweber but constant contact and other companies.

    Debbie
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  • Profile picture of the author Yogini
    It looks like there are certain restrictions from webhosts that may require the opt-in. For example, I found this from one hosting company:

    Running Unconfirmed Mailing Lists Subscribing email addresses to any mailing list without the express and verifiable permission of the email address owner is prohibited. All mailing lists run by xyz customers must be Closed-loop ("Confirmed Opt-in"). The subscription confirmation message received from each address owner must be kept on file for the duration of the existence of the mailing list.

    I am not sure how common this is or if it's enforced but it does seem to be a policy of a number of webhosts.

    Debbie
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