Major Source of Online Scams and Spams Knocked Offline (Washington Post)
“We looked into it a bit, saw the size and scope of the problem you were reporting and said ‘Holy cow! Within the hour we had terminated all of our connections to them.”

And have you ever wonder how spammers make money anyway? And how much?

Study shows how spammers cash in (BBC News)

“After 26 days, and almost 350 million e-mail messages, only 28 sales resulted…the response rate for this campaign was less than 0.00001%…these conversions would have resulted in revenues of $2,731.88—a bit over $100 a day for the measurement period,” said the researchers.”

So how do spammers send so many emails, anyway? If they can do it, there must be some legal loophole allowing anyone to do it, right? So that means we can all buy emal lists and blast out spam. Right?

Um, no. Spammers have to hijack computers to do their dirty work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet (scroll down to “Formation and Exploitation”)

If spammers can get away with this, then so can I, right?
They don’t. And no, you can’t:
Authorities Shut Down Spam Ring (NYtimes.com)

I’ll quote some of what we got from ESPC, and add the “so what’s this mean to me” text below each…

The new rule provisions address four topics: (1) an e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender;

MailChimp users, you’re okay. We include a one-click unsubscribe link that immediately removes people from your list if they want off. This reminds me. The other day, I got subscribed to a mailing list (a university alumni group) without my permission, then when I tried to unsub, it required a password. I had to create an account, get a password, then unsubscribe from their mailing list. Not only is that stupid, it’s going to be illegal.

(2) the definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements;

If you send a campaign that is mostly an advertisement from a sponsor (let’s say you rent your lists) then who is legally required to comply with CAN-SPAM and honor unsub requests? You? Or the sponsor? I don’t know what they decided. But I hope the answer is “you and the sponsor, dammit.”

(3) a “sender” of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act’s requirement that a commercial e-mail display a “valid physical postal address”; and

This is a nice modification, because we’ve run into quite a few small businesses who only use P.O. boxes (such as from the UPS Store/Mailboxes Etc.).

(4) a definition of the term “person” was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM’s obligations are not limited to natural persons.

MailChimp users who are robots, alien life forms, or the living dead—you are now required to follow CAN-SPAM. Seriously, I’m guessing this would cover botnets and automatically generated email campaigns sent by your computer or something.

If you’re interested in this kind of stuff, and if you’re a major email sender, we highly recommend you join the ESPC. They cover legal issues like this (from each and every state, too) and they invite high profile ISPs and anti-spam company speakers for roundtable discussions all the time. We’re always learning what AOL or Goodmail or Yahoo or Cloudmark or Roadrunner or Microsoft or the FTC has planned just around the corner, so MailChimp customers can be prepared.

Here’s one of the most creative email footers I’ve seen in a long, long time, from Photojojo (which is one of the few email newsletters I actually look forward to receiving):

This is a nice, neat packaging of an unsub link, CAN-SPAM required mailing address (love the “earth” reference), privacy policy link, subscribe link (in case the email was forwarded), a feedback survey link, a del.icio.us link, and a link back to their website.

Besides the creative email footer, Photojojo is an email newsletter that anybody who sends email marketing should subscribe to. Their content is actually useful, quick, and fun to read. Read some of the testimonials from people who hate email newsletters, but love Photojojo’s email newsletters.