I recently completed my own study of how the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 has affected my online business and my email in box.... very interesting results as follows: I have tracked the amount of SPAM (not conforming to the Act’s guidelines) received in my email accounts over the past 30 days. My results are as follows: TOTAL Non-Conforming SPAM received 7/5/06 thru 8/4/06: (Deceptive, Fraudulent or Unfair SPAM) Hotmail Accounts: (2) 115 received Verizon Accounts: (3) 266 received LFCHosting Accounts: (4) 161 received TOTAL = 542 SPAM emails received over the past 30 days. ***Legitimate emails*** offering a product of service during the same 30 days = ***(-0-)*** This really ticked me off as I am a site owner attempting to grow my online business. So...I created/mailed a letter to my Senators and Representatives... I have created a web page with all the information and the letter if you have an interest in viewing it.... and .... helping to "Level the Playing Field" for all the small business owners working to grow a site. Yes, I have tried other means of growing my business.... NONE have been worth my effort, time, or money spent.... have details if you want to see them. URL for viewing: http://www.sportsonlyauction.com/can-spam.htm I look forward to your comments... Pro or Con... I am open minded.
I don't see what is unfair about this: Looking at your numbers, it's pretty clear that you spammed 16,000 people (you don't say they opted into your list). Most people don't report spam, they just hit delete, so I think it's fair for the ISP to assume that 3 complaints is just the tip of the iceberg of annoyed people. And people have been told over and over NOT to unsubscribe to anything they haven't actually signed up for, primarily because unscrupulous spammers use the unsubscribes to collect valid email addresses. I understand your frustration at being penalized for only a small number of complaints, but an ISP can terminate your account for any reason it states within its terms of service. They aren't a government organization, they are businesses, so they can forbid you to have the color orange on your web site if they so desire, and it doesn't obligate them to allow you to send out anything you please using their servers. The trouble with your system is that only a tiny fraction of people complain to the ISP about unwanted email. They don't want to be associated with annoying emails, even if people aren't actively complaining about them. Also, with a warning system like you outline, a spammer will have had the opportunity to send out millions of unwanted emails by the time the number of complaints roll in to shut the account down. It's also an unfortunate fact that spammers have retaliated against some people who complain, so it would be a bad idea for the ISP to send the email address to the email sender (and it doesn't really solve the problem to remove the complainers if people are still annoyed). You might consider generating an opt-in list instead. That way you could be sure that more than 2% of the recipients would be interested in your message.