Re: Is it spam if it's targeted?

From: Frank Catalano <frank_at_frankcatalano.com>
Date: Thu 02 Nov 2000 15:48:00 -0500

BRAD JENSEN <brad_at_elstore.com> WROTE:
> Your ISP is trying to cover their own butt, which is
> normal. Plus they have no way to know whether you are
> actually spamming or not.
>
> Right this minute I am running a program that goes out
> to a list of sites of a certain type and gets their
> 'mailto' addresses.

Let me get this straight: You're advocating LYING to
the ISP to get the company out of a jam? Who is the ISP
going to believe after it has dozens or hundreds of
complaints who all insist the advertiser had no
existing business relationship with them?

As to the practice of harvesting mailto: addresses on
Web sites for a mass mailing -- that's a bad idea.
Those addresses are for the convenience of potential
customers. Some sites even use special mailto:
addresses on Web sites only for tracking purposes --
and believe me, if I get bulk UCE sent to one of those
addresses, it goes right to SpamCop.net. It's a bad way
to start a business relationship, or solidify a
company's reputation.

Frank Catalano
Principal, Catalano Consulting
Co-author, Internet Marketing for Dummies
frank_at_catalanoconsulting.com
www.catalanoconsulting.com





Received on Thu Nov 02 2000 - 14:48:00 CST