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A recent incident put
my organization "close to the flames" due to the irresponsible acts
of an Internet service provider and a mass E-mail marketer. Following
is a recount of the incident, which will guide you in the implementation
of responsible Internet-based marketing programs.
The problems originated
with an Internet service provider located in Miami who arbitrarily
decided to use the domain name of "webconnect.com". This "webconnect"
has no relationship whatsoever to WebConnect, which is the Internet
advertising venture of Worldata's ownership. So, the first problem
identified was on the misuse of the "WebConnect" name, which is
officially registered and owned by Worldata. They should have checked
first to see if the name was in use.
The second problem was
that the Miami-based ISP was hosting the activities for "Bubba"
who is in the business of promoting pornographic, triple-X chat
lines and products. Bubba promoted his services by spamming unsolicited
E-mail addresses. The combination of these two problems resulted
in the "real" WebConnect to be the recipient of volumnous flame
mail, since individuals incorrectly assumed that "webconnect.com"
was the parent company of the ISP. For those of you unfamiliar with
the term, a "flame" is an irate response to a spam (unsolicited
broadcast E-mail), an action in a chat room, or a posting in a newsgroup.
It is centered around a breach of "net-etiquette." As one angry
recipient writes "As you can see from the full headers I have included,
this message was received at my abcxyz@company.com account. I use
that account only for reading and posting to USENET. It is very
safe to assume that this user {Bubba} is either running a robot
that strips E-mail addresses out of USENET groups, or this user
purchased a list of E-mail addresses from someone who does run robots
that strip E-mail addresses out of USENET groups. I don't recall
at any time that my posting to USENET groups implies consent to
receive E-mail from this user. Don't you agree that I should be
able to post to USENET groups without being harassed by this user?
I did not request the information I received. I do not appreciate
this E-mail."
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There are several programs
that are becoming popular that literally "steal" E-mail addresses
from commercial on-line services and newsgroups. I recently received
an E-mail solicitation for such a product. I'll dissect key components
{my comments will be in brackets} of the message, since there is
a wealth of information on what we, as professional direct marketers,
should avoid.
{Subject text} ROCKET
Your Way To Wealth In Cyberspace. Using Mass E-mail provides great
rewards for very little effort, time or money IF YOU KNOW what you're
doing. If you don't know what you're doing, This is what will happen:
Your Internet provider will SHUT YOU DOWN {Exactly, a responsible
ISP will halt the batch processing of unsolicited/non opt-in E-mail}.
Your 800 phone bill WILL SOAR with nuisance calls {Yes, you'll get
complaints!} Your E-mail box will EXPLODE with mail bombs {That's
correct -- responsible individuals will use the "reply" feature
and ask you to STOP!}
Product XYZ also has
built in "E-mail Cloaking" to allow you to use your own local ISP
for sending your mail with, avoiding having to search for bulk friendly
ISP's or other undesirable means to accomplish mass mailings. {A
legitimate marketer should not have to "cloak" themselves.} Generate
AOL addresses from captured AOL chat rooms. AOL has over 300,000
new members signing up a month, there is no other way of obtaining
all these new members addresses than this {Theft, in clear and simple
terms}.
It is very easy for
marketers of all levels to get drawn in from the promises of quick
cash and easy money. E-mail recipients are sensitive to what they
receive, which is evident from our receipt of over 1,000+ flames
sent due to the Miami ISP/Bubba incident.
The bottom line is that
you must be very careful on the methodologies used for performing
E-mail marketing. Personalized messaging to your installed-customer
base and to "opt-in" E-mail lists make sense in avoiding the "flames"
and negative PR that can come with irresponsible marketing activities
in cyberspace.
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