Yesmail (an ESP - Email Service
Provider) was recently sued by the FTC for violating the CAN-SPAM act.
Apparently they did not honor an unsubscribe request within ten
business days (a CAN-SPAM minimum) for one of their client email
campaigns. Apparently, they used a "reply to this email and we'll remove you"
kind of link as their unsubscribe mechanism. One of their recipients
replied, but their message was accidentally picked up by Yesmail's
spam-filter on their email server (big doh).
Something
to consider for marketers who don't use a one-click unsubscribe in
their emailings. The mistake cost them over $50K in fines. (ouch)
From ComputerWorld...
"November 07, 2006 (IDG News Service) -- Marketer Yesmail Inc. has
agreed to pay a $50,717 civil penalty to settle Federal Trade
Commission charges accusing it of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail
after recipients asked it to stop.
The FTC alleged that Yesmail, doing business as @Once Corp.,
violated federal law by continuing to send unsolicited e-mail more than
10 business days after recipients asked that the e-mail stop.
In an ironic twist, Yesmail’s spam-filtering software filtered out
some unsubscribe requests from recipients as spam, resulting in Yesmail
failing to honor unsubscribe requests, the FTC said. Yesmail sent
thousands of e-mail messages to recipients after they requested it
stop, the FTC said when announcing the settlement yesterday."
Full Article...