Black On Stuff

The general term we’re using the word “spam” today refers to … … … No, I cannot find a suitable definition, accepted by anyone. But in my opinion a spam email message is a repeated unsolicited commercial email, a message that tries to sell me something I might not be interested in, a message that tries to get me to a website that I don’t care about, a junk message that doesn’t interest me.

According to some EU reports, spam makes between 50 to 80 percent of all the emails we’re receiving in Europe and 2/3 of what we receive from outside EU. That’s huge and if you’re not on the net since yesterday, you might confirm that this could be true. I mean I have my daily sessions of deleting spam, but still taking a short look at the message so I will not delete any false positives (thanks to Mozilla spam filter!).

Getting back to my definition, how can you really define spam? I’m part of an online business that requires mostly communication via email and lots of cold calls to get in touch with your potential partners. What is the difference between a cold call and a spam message? Because in order to have a number of replies you need to send lots of emails (mass mailing?). There might be times when one potential client will be offended by your email and send you some “greetings” about his feelings. This will not happen if you’re making a phone call or send him a fax, but we all know many online businesses today do not have such information. So is it the message content that offends or is it just the fact that no one requested that email (duh!) ? Anyway, I personally do not consider this a spam (see my definition above). If I will get lucky and the message will be read by the intended recipient and not deleted by a secretary, my task will be almost done: we’ve made contact.

This topic came to me when I’ve found out a “story” about a so called spam message that degenerated into something really ugly. I have a friend that owns a software download portal. Any software author can submit their software and after a short review this can be listed in a directory. The software listing will then automatically updated if there’s a new version available. On each update, the software author can receive a short notification email with the direct product link and login information to update his settings on the portal. Even stop these update notifications. One author, having 4 products listed in this website felt offended by the message and without any comments went directly to the domain registrar (!?), in this case Go Daddy, reporting the email as spam. Go Daddy reacted immediately by sending one email requesting immediate answer (24 hours) about this issue, having quoted the terms of service in their online agreement.

The hostmaster replied immediately with more information, explaining what is that email notification, how it can be stopped, how it is generated etc. Go Daddy requested more information:

* Time/Date of opt-in/subscription/consent.
* IP address of the web server the complainant used to connect to your site.
* Referral URL.

Having this incident for the first time, the requested information was not available so it could not be provided. It seemed that they’ve not read the email content (the spam) but reacted only because someone report it as spam. After this, the following message came:

“Go Daddy has a strict anti-spam policy, as the registrant of DOMAIN.COM you are ultimately responsible for the use of your domain name, any email mail advertisement that is driving traffic to, or creating revenue for, your website or domain name is your responsibility. This also applies to the actions of any party generating this traffic or revenue on your behalf. This includes, but is not limited to, 3rd party marketers, business partners, mailing list providers and affiliates.

Please keep in mind that it is not our intention to cause anyone’s business to suffer and we do appreciate you cooperating with us on this matter. Because of your cooperation and willingness to resolve this issue thus far, your services have not been interrupted, but this situation remains unresolved.
We present to you the following solution to resolve this issue:
First, reply to abuse@godaddy.com with a statement that you (or your employees, affiliates, 3rd party marketers, etc.) will no longer send messages to individuals that did not ask to receive information specifically from your domain name. (Like being in school and writing on the black board: I will not miss school again, I will not miss school again, 1000 times)

Second, include in this statement authorization for GoDaddy.com to charge a $199 non-refundable administration fee to the credit card on file for your account (you may want to log into your Go Daddy account and confirm that the card on file is valid and has not expired).

Go Daddy believes this solution to be a fair one that will ensure that you will correct the problem on your end, and prevent any future violations of Go Daddy’s Anti-Spam policy. Additionally your services are not interrupted and your customers and affiliates are not inconvenienced. If you reply with this statement and agree to pay this fee, Go Daddy will accept this, in good faith, as proof of your commitment to correct this problem. If not, your domain name may be immediately redirected and your service suspended.

Please be aware that Go Daddy will continue to monitor this situation. If in the future it is determined that this problem persists, your domain name may be immediately redirected. We do realize additional complaints resulting from this mailing may come in and we will of course consider this, and contact you before taking any action.

Is this for real or what? The message is clear: we’re even but you owe me 199 bucks as a protection tax, like a crime syndicate. I can forgive you, but it will cost you. This message is quite unbelievable, coming from an respectable US company. How can they charge you for nothing? Is this legal? Because it seems that they are playing with my rights and speculating on my probable fear when I hear the word “spam”. I mean, we’re talking about a civilized world here, we’re talking about a honest business, no p0rn, no w@r3z. Even more, this is how they treat their own customer. Any spam notification from anyone could turn to be really costly. It’s the attitude: you’re small, I’m big, I have more rights than you do. But the message is good: it begins with “we love and respect you” then it hits you (in good faith) and then it hits you again: this tax is just for now, if we’ll catch you at a later time, your doomed again!

Crazy, I tell you! And I had my first post telling you from where I’ve purchased my domain. Shish! But probably this is the price you’re paying for purchasing a domain at a low price.

What happened next with this situation? I don’t know yet, but if interesting information will come up, I will surely share it.