Straight Talk - An Open Letter To You

SpamCop and FFA boards - How To Deal With The Dreaded Problem

by John Glube, © 2003, all rights reserved of
Head's Up - A Copywriter's Journal

Okay, you signed up as a pro-member of an FFA service and start receiving your leads on a daily message.

All excited, you start to prepare your confirmation message, the one which introduces yourself and offers the person a free gift for joining your mailing list.

You figure out a great headline and set up your disclaimer and start to send out your message.

Now, you start to get a few subscribers, so things are going along ok, when suddenly 'out of the blue' you get an email message from your ISP provider telling you someone has filed a spam complaint against you.

You are confused and bewildered. The FFA directory you are a member of told you they filter out all bad email addresses, only accepting postings from people with valid email addresses who have confirmed their willingness to receive offers and specials from members.

In your message, you followed all of the steps. You included your name, telephone number, address and return email address in your message. The opening paragraph tells the reader the message is being sent as a confirmation. In your disclaimer you go through the steps of telling people at the end of the mailing you purge your data. You even included an unsubscribe link.

Okay, you calm down and check out the link provided and start to scroll down the material on the SpamCop site and you get terrified all over again. Holy molly you think, I am going to be blacklisted, now what do I do?

All right, calm down and take a deep breath. Here is what to do at first:

1.Write to the administrator of your FFA directory and put them on notice of the claim.

2.Pick up the phone and call the ISP provider in question, introduce yourself, thank him or her for giving you notice of the claim and tell them you will address the problem immediately.

3.Confirm your conversation in an e-mail with the ISP provider.

4.In dealing with a reputable FFA directory, you will find they are as concerned as you are and want to help. You should get an email message telling you they have records of every submission, which is time and date stamped, along with the name, and ISP and email address of the person making the submission.

5.Write to SpamCop, identify yourself, provide a copy of the email in question and request the anonymous email address of the complainant.

Why do I suggest this approach in dealing with SpamCop.

Although the posture of SpamCop is helpful the reality is somewhat different.

* The administrator at SpamCop takes the position that FFA directories and members are 'fair game' for spam complaints, despite the precautions put in place by your directory.

(As an aside, based on comments made, it appears SpamCop considers all providers of 'free' services, including e- zine publishers, fair game for spam complaints.)

* SpamCop encourages people to make complaints to your ISP, even when you include your name, telephone number, address and email address in your message, along with a way to unsubscribe, claiming this is the guidance given by the governmental authorities in dealing with spam.

* Although SpamCop claims it will prosecute malicious claims, the reality is it can't and won't. Why? Each complainant is given an anonymous mail box. SpamCop has set up the system so it cannot access these mail boxes and does not know the details of the person who subscribed. Rather, it throws the onus on the commercial providers to dig up the email address information from the limited header it provides.

Therefore you have to go through your mail logs, or have your Auto-responder service do this for you, (who may want to charge you for the time spent), making it difficult to refute the claim, except by dealing directly with the anonymous complainant. Of course, were the claim malicious, the complainant is not going to come to the table.

Despite what SpamCop states in its copy, there is some good news:

1.SpamCop does not keep records or statistics of complaints beyond 30 minutes after the complaint is received and does not publish a black list of offending names, except:

* listing the header of the message which is the subject of the complaint for a period of 30 days, (refusing to withdraw the information even when the complaint is groundless and the person filing has admitted as much.)

* those companies where there is a history of spam complaints and the weighted average of complaints in accordance with statistics compiled by SpamCop justifies a listing.

2.For the consumer, SpamCop in reality is merely a facilitator - providing people with a mechanism for filing anonymous 'spam' complaints and sending notice to your ISP. (Great - gee, thanks a lot!)

The second point is of some value in dealing with ruthless spammers, but in my view holds no value in dealing with reputable email marketers and unfortunately tarnishes the value of the service.

(SpamCop uses the method of allowing people to file anonymous 'spam' complaints to generate 'statistics' which it then markets for its own purposes.)

What to do? You will have to write directly to the complainant.

Here is a suggested first letter:

"Dear Sir or Madam,

Recently you made a spam complaint about an email message you received from me. A copy of the message in question follows at the end of this message for your benefit.

Let me explain my understanding. I am a member of [insert Name of FFA directory]. This service allows people to post their url and brief ad in the directory.

In exchange, people who post their link will receive a confirmation email containing an offer or special. Prior to posting the link, you have to verify your email address and confirm your willingness to receive a message containing an Offer or special from the board member to whose site your link was posted, along with all other pro-members of this service.

To protect both members and users, the [insert name FFA directory] keeps a record of all validations, with the name, email address and ISP, which are timed and date stamped.

The email in question deals with postings which occurred on [insert date or between dates -depending on how you send out your messages].

You sent a complaint stating what you understand to be unsolicited commercial email came from an email address I use for people to inform me when they think there email address has been improperly used.

Given your complaint, would you be so kind as to provide me with the email address in question, so I and [insert name of directory], who takes this matter very seriously can track down the offending party, who improperly used your email address.

I look forward to hearing from you with the requested information At your convenience.

Here is my contact information in case you have any questions:

Name Telephone Address Email address (use a free based email service here which you regularly monitor - I would not suggest you use your personal Email box - in case you are dealing with someone who is just Making trouble)

Again, thank you for bringing this matter to my attention and I look forward to working with you to finding out who wrongfully Used your email box.

Kind regards,

Etc.

Why do I recommend this approach?

Because, you want to gain the person's confidence and by taking this stance, your are simply expressing the truth, (presuming you are working with a reputable directory service), as in reality this is the only way your message could have been unsolicited.

Should the person refuse to respond, send a couple of polite reminder letters.

Ultimately, it will become apparent whether the person made a false claim or not through his or her actions in responding or not responding to your correspondence.

When the person provides you with the email address, you can then forward it on to your FFA directory service. Should it turn out the person was mistaken (which can happen), you will then have to politely point this out to the person, providing him or her with complete proof.

Of course, some people won't listen and will continue to yell and complain. In dealing with all customer service complaints, remember the customer is right, even though he or she may be wrong. Be gentle, responsive, understanding and patient in your handling of the customer.

Given the way SpamCop is set up, to protect yourself:

1.Only use a free email service both in the return address in your auto-responder and in the email address for people to make complaints about wrongful use of their email address.

2.Use separate or different addresses.

3.Deal with the problem dispassionately and calmly. Simply request the anonymous box of the complainant from SpamCop so you can deal directly with the complainant. In dealing with the complainant, remember you are dealing with a customer of your service. The customer is right, even though you may know otherwise. Be patient, responsive, understanding, open and forthright in your dealings.

4.Do not expect any assistance from SpamCop. The individual behind this service seems to have taken upon himself an avenging angel role and despite claims in the copy on the site, will not deal with 'malicious complaints', believing all email marketers providing free services are fair game for 'spam complaints'.

Trusting these comments, (based on an experience of the writer with SpamCop - where it turned out the complainant was mistaken) are of assistance as you build your business.

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