Craig Walsh Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 In another posting in the SpamCop lounge, this comment was made about the company we've used to send out our small e-mail campaigns: You went through campaigner.com AKA campaignerpro.com AKA gotcompany.com AKA gotcorp.com AKA gotmarketing.com and that outfit is blocked by so many on the web it is a wonder they can still email. I don't want guilt-by-association, so I asked our contact at Campaigner (now called GotCorp) if their mail was being blocked. She replied today: Dear Craig, I am terribly sorry for the delay in my response. 1) We haven’t experienced many problems with webmasters considering us to be spam so it’s nothing to worry about. 2) If you click on a locked list the reason is stated. We lock lists because of 1 of 3 reasons a. There are many hardbounces b. There are many spam complaints c. One or more of the email addresses in the list contains the word spam. Yasmin I've done a search at this forum for Campaiger, GotMarketing, etc. but these searches have all led to my earlier posting. I'm trying to figure out if I should stop using these folks. We've used them since 1999, but if they're developing a bad reputation and if their mail is "blocked by so many on the web" that it's pointless to use them, then I'll leave. Is there any way to get information/statistics/etc. to either confirm that Yasmin is correct, or for me to go back to her and say, "Sorry, Yasmin, here's what I found . . . " ?? The purpose of this post is not to ascertain if we have been sending spam or not (we've gone through all of that in another posting, and I don't have the heart to go through it again --- we're not). I'm trying to find out if the company we've used for five or so years has a reputation for sending spam, or allowing it to be sent. The GotCorp website shows a stringent anti-spam stance, and they certainly have a list of venerable customers and partners. All of our dealings with them have been pleasant and professional. Their posted policy (part of it): Dealing with Complaints Got Corporation takes permission marketing very seriously. Notwithstanding the entire preventative measures outlined in the section above, occasionally we do receive complaints from recipients of a customer's email campaign. When a complaint is received the following process is followed: : Every complaint that is received gets read and acted upon to by one of our employees. : Where the email address of the complainant is known, it will be immediately unsubscribed from the relevant customer list by a Got Corporation employee, not left to the discretion of the customer. This is not negotiable. : When the email address of the complainant is known, they will be notified that their email address has been removed. If the complaint came via an ISP, they too will be notified of the action taken. : If the number of complaints is below a certain threshold based on number of emails sent and opened, Got Corporation customer support will review the list source with the customer and discuss ways to ensure that no further complaints are likely. The customer is noted as having been warned. : If the complaints continue on subsequent mailings or if the first mailing generates a certain percentage of complaints, the customer's account will be suspended or terminated. Our license agreement gives us the right to publish the names of any customer who has been terminated because of spam complaints. We share this information with other permission-based providers to reduce the probability that the abuser will simply take their business to another provider and get past their controls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 GotMarketing spammed our servers constantly so we placed them in our blocklists early last year. They kept pounding and pounding for months then probably around the middle of last year we dropped em in the firewall. I know at the time there were many complaints about them and they were in many blocklists. They currently are spread all over the place like UUNet, digex.com, interlink.net, Peer1 and many other places. Lots of IP ranges, some are listed and some are not. SPEWS currently lists almost all of their IP ranges (http://spews.org/html/S2022.html) and an untold number of email administrators have done what we have and just firewalled them or placed them in their companies blocklist. Depending on the IP that the mail goes out on it will probably be in different blocklists. They will NEVER be accepted on any of our servers. Untill we blocked them I was receiving email to a role account that was never used except for receiving the yearly domain notice from the registrar and this registrar did not sell my address. There is another address of mine they spam and it was created for just one site so I know where it was originally purchased from. If they tell you their crap is CANSPAM Compliant then all it means is their spam is not illegal (But it is still spam!) In the end it will not matter because people are now going after the spamvertised sites as well as the originator. There is even a new blocklist now that has spamvertised sites in it. So now many will wade through the redirects and find the source. No matter what service you use if you are not sending to addresses that you have a "confirmed opt-in" for then you are spamming them and you will be responsible. This should make for some interesting late night reading including stuff as recent as yesterday. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/news.a...rt=0&scoring=d& HAND Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Walsh Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 Thank you for taking the time to provide all that information --- it was very helpful. I've looked at the links you've kindly provided as well. They do not make pretty reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 I was right they were listed in Spamhaus at the time. Here is some even better reading: http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=gotmarketing+spamhaus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sommerfeld Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 If they tell you their crap is CANSPAM Compliant then all it means is their spam is not illegal (But it is still spam!) 23137[/snapback] Not necessarily. While "can-spam" makes certain conduct illegal, messages which are conformant with the requirements of "can-spam" may still violate *other* laws, Moreover, spammers have been known to lie about many other things -- why wouldn't they lie about whether their excrement is can-spam-compliant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Not necessarily. While "can-spam" makes certain conduct illegal, messages which are conformant with the requirements of "can-spam" may still violate *other* laws, Yes I agree. Most that are CAN-spam compliant are still spam. Moreover, spammers have been known to lie about many other things -- why wouldn't they lie about whether their excrement is can-spam-compliant? 23171[/snapback] Rules #1 and #2, I agree with that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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