Re: Dealing with Spam and other canned meats

From: Pesach Lattin <info_at_adspyre.com>
Date: Thu 01 Aug 2002 09:53:40 -0500

     Cliff Kurtzman, although he doesn_t read my newsletter anymore, is a
very smart cookie (and I understand an amazing salsa dancer). He is correct
in saying that most of these unsubscribe links do nothing more than
unsubscribe you and not anything all that nefarious! That they are somehow
verification methods is silly, because email marketers can track opens much
easier with a 1x1 pixel and by removing bounces. No need for manual methods
in this age of computers.

      I think that Steve does a really good job in bringing up an important
point, but is missing something. He says that _unsubscribing_, or as our
friend Cliff has newly coined, _unsubbing_ doesn_t do any good, because you
will be added to another list of the subscribers. The fact is that 95% of
the _spam_ that you will get will be because you didn_t bother to read the
find print on the site that you signed up for. If you are part of the male
population on the internet, it was more than likely when you signed up for
porn. Most of these sites have in their privacy policy that they have
permission to share the information and sell it! That is where the real
trouble lies.

       So, imagine that you sign up on TREELOOT, a virtumundo company. You
better be prepared to get about 100 offers in the next 3 weeks, from
different people, because they have an optout box that basically says, _I
agree to allow you to sell my address to as many people as possible, and in
turn get email marketing to my address for the rest of my life._ Or
something similar... They will then turn around, give these names to the 25
or so people who are asking to buy them for a cent or so, and you_ll be
bombarded from them.

       But, as someone who sells lists, I can tell you, that this isn_t all
that happens! Some of those companies that bought those lists will then in
turn sell them to others and so on. Let_s make this clear _ it is unlikely
that anytime in the next 2-3 months you will be free of emails. It_s because
you _opted-in_ at one point, and now everyone believes you are ready to face
the consequences. If you think that this is unheard practice, then think
again _ almost every major contest site on the Internet does this, as does
99% of the _optin_ email marketing companies. I can name more than one
public company that is engaged in this.

       As for using SPAMCOP, give me a break. No one actually uses that
service first of all, and secondly, it is very useless. Even the _ethical_
email marketers change their IP addresses and change their servers every so
often, so it_s unlikely that this will do anything. On top of that, many of
them have secret contracts with the major ISPs that you don_t even know
about. We_ve been told a little about these in the past, but I_m know for a
fact they are still going on.

       However, the real solution to this is not to put your email address
out there, and stop signing up for porn sites (you know who you are). If
they can't get your email address, you can't get emails sent to it. As for
the constant spewing of sending UCE's as being illegal, give me a break. A
few states have laws against it, and almost every major consitutional lawyer
has said they are more than likely unenforcable laws, if ever seriously
challenged. There's a reason we don't see email marketers in jail along with
the IRS evaders. On top of that, I never bought the argument that it is
somehow a "burden" on the person receiving the emails. This should be the
least of your worries in life!

     I think that most of the people who complain about spam forgot that
they signed up for something in the first place. It_s pretty understandable
considering the thousands of ways you can give you email address. I think
this phenomena is in the same category as all the people who sign up for
_young teen pussy_ sites and then complain to their credit card company that
they never did it, but instead it was some credit card thief. I_m amazed
that most of the credit card thieves don_t buy TVs with the cards, but
instead wank-off to porn.

       Actually, since I am rambling, maybe I should point out the real
problem here. It_s the companies that allow marketing this way. If the
NetFlix and Classmates of the world wouldn_t get such great results, they
wouldn_t hire these email-marketing companies to send out the emails. The
fact is, email marketing, whether or not you think it is spam or not, really
works. That_s the real problem: if the companies would stop allowing their
offers to be sent via these methods, we_d find 90% less UCE_s.

       Take care,

       THE ADBUMB
       http://www.adbumb.com
       #1 advertising newsletter for drunk monkeys






Received on Thu Aug 01 2002 - 09:53:40 CDT