Big Sky Network

From a press release issued by the FTC and reported on by Findlaw: A U.S. district court has ordered a halt to the operations of a vast international spam network that peddled prescription drugs, weight loss pills and bogus male-enhancement products. The network has been identified as the largest “spam gang” in the world by the anti-spam organization Spamhaus. The Federal Trade Commission has received more than three million complaints about spam messages connected to this operation, and estimates that it may be responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages. The court has also frozen the defendants’ assets to preserve them for consumer redress pending trial.

One down, a million more to go. Lately it is the offers to help retrieve a multi-million dollar inheritance that are flooding my mailbox.

The release goes on to state: “Some security researchers believe that at one time, nearly one-third of the world’s spam e-mail came from a network of compromised computers, often referred to as a ‘botnet,’ that sent spam promoting the defendants’ Web sites. Their enterprise included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the United States.” 

Remember those ads advertising income by sending e-mails from your computer? Guess what those people were doing?  Breaking federal laws and contributing to the spam innundating the internet.

Legitimate e-mail marketing can boost your business. So how can you prevent your e-mail marketing from being tagged as spam?

According to the press release, the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act of 2003 by using false header information to hide the origin of the messages, failing to provide an opt-out link, and failing to list a physical postal address. Make sure you don’t violate these provisions if you engage in e-mail marketing.

e-Mail Marketing

Software such as Constant Contact can help ensure you send professional looking e-mails, newletters and surveys without violating the CAN-SPAM Act.