Spam Laws, Giving Up Friends' Email and Opting Out of Lists

[LarryC]

Every so often I see a promotion that asks you to list, say, 3 of your friends emails in exchange for some gift or reward. I would never consider making such an offer --or giving away other people's emails who probably don't need any more junk mail in their inbox. Isn't this a violation of spam laws? How can *I* sign up someone else to a list by giving up their email without their consent? This seems like a violation of the whole opt-in concept. Yet this is frequently done by some mainstream marketers. Anyway, I'm certainly not going to risk losing a friend (even a Facebook or Twitter friend, lol) in exchange for some dubious reward.

On a somewhat related note, some marketers don't provide an easy way out from their lists. You have to actually go to their site to opt out. I'm not sure if it's mandatory to offer an opt-out with every email, but it's appreciated, at least by me. I remember one company, Big Daddy (not to be confused with Go Daddy), that was virtually impossible to opt out of. I only escaped their emails when I changed my email address.

Other sites seem to keep sending me email even after I opt out. To me, making it easy to opt-out is a sign of professionalism. If they don't want to let you go, it just makes them seem desperate.

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by LarryC

Every so often I see a promotion that asks you to list, say, 3 of your friends emails in exchange for some gift or reward.. Isn't this a violation of spam laws?

No.

This seems like a violation of the whole opt-in concept.

There is no opt-in requirement for sending emails, only opt-out.

On a somewhat related note, some marketers don't provide an easy way out from their lists.

You only need to provide a method to opt-out, nothing says it has to be easy.

More info:
FTC - SPAM - Home Page
The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers

[LarryC]

Thanks for clarifying that.

In my opinion, the tactics I mentioned are still annoying and give me a lower impression of the sender, but apparently they are not illegal. Though I do get many spams every day that do violate the rule of not using deceptive subject lines.

Btw, I'm not someone who bothers to report spam -I'm not a big believer in lots of rules. I'm really more interested in the politeness and image aspects of it. I sure would not want people giving away my email to marketers without my consent, legal or not, and I wouldn't do it to anyone else.

[Paul Myers]

Kirk,

Actually, there are requirements on how difficult the opt-out can be. Even some of the traditional mailing list management scripts are over the line, as I read it.

Larry,

Tell-a-friend scripts are a fantastic idea, except that they're so badly abused. Marketers putting the 'referred' addresses onto lists and multiple follow-ups being the worst of the usual abuses.

The ones that really annoy me are the ones with the "tell your whole address book" feature. You give the script access to the addressbook at some webmail system, and it spams everyone you know online. (Yes, spams. It's unsolicited bulk email, so it's spam. The spammer is the person who gave it access to their addressbook.)

These ugly creatures often have contest features built in. "When 3 of your friends confirm, we'll give you access to..."

I have friends who use the things. I refuse to have anything to do with those sites or lists.


Paul

[Kirk Ward]

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

These ugly creatures often have contest features built in. "When 3 of your friends confirm, we'll give you access to..."

I have friends who use the things. I refuse to have anything to do with those sites or lists.

Paul

Paul,

I believe that if any inducement is offered in order to get the referror to send an email to their friends, then it is either in violation of the can-spam or the FTC regs. Not sure which, but I'm 110% positive I've seen it in a code section somewhere.

Kirk Ward