|
SBL Policy
|
|
|
Sending bulk email which is not fully Closed-Loop (Confirmed Opt-in) contravenes the Acceptable Incoming Email Policies of all users of the Spamhaus Block List (SBL).
If you wish to deliver Bulk Email to SBL users, you need to ensure that your mailing operation is fully Closed-Loop.
|
|
 |
|
Solicited Bulk Email is an important mechanism for keeping consenting customers informed of products or service news. When Bulk Email is Solicited it is valuable to the recipient and therefore also to the sender. When it's Unsolicited it's purely Spam, an unwanted and unwelcome nuisance to the recipient, unfairly forcing the recipient to assume the cost of receiving, storing and removing the unwanted adverts.
The difference between senders of legitimate bulk email and spammers couldn't be clearer, the legitimate bulk email sender has verifiable permission from the recipients before sending, the spammer does not.
|
Spam
|
| Opt-Out |
All bulk email sent to recipients who have not expressly registered permission for their addresses to be placed on the specific mailing list, and which requires recipients to "opt-out" to stop further unsolicited bulk mailings, is by definition Unsolicited Bulk Email, a/k/a "Spam". |
| Unconfirmed Opt-In |
If an Opt-in request is unconfirmed, then it can not be verifiied. If it can not be verified then the Bulk Email Sender can simply say "You opted-in" which is why almost all spam claims "You opted-in to this list".
According only to the Bulk Email Sender, the Recipient has somehow unverifiably initiated a request for the address to be subscribed to the Bulk Email Sender's mailing list. The Bulk Email Sender has subscribed the address to a mailing list without verifying if the address owner has in fact granted permission or not.
In most cases the Bulk Email Sender has simply harvested the address from the Internet or purchased the address from another spammer and "opted it in" himself.
Unconfirmed Opt-in means that anyone can subscribe any address regardless of whose it is, therefore anyone can subscribe "President@Whitehouse.gov" and according to the list owner the President has 'opted-in'.
Unconfirmed Opt-in is an excuse for spammers to harvest lists and simply claim "Opt-in" where there was none and is therefore Unconfirmed Opt-in lists are known as "dirty lists" in the respectable bulk email industry.
|
In the event of "spam" accusation:
The Bulk Email Sender has no verifiable proof that the recipient consented to be placed on the bulk mailing list and is therefore liable for having sent Unsolicited Bulk Email a/k/a Spam. Action can be taken against the Sender. The sending of Unsolicited Bulk Email is against all ISP Terms of Service worldwide, is illegal in many countries, and is against Spamhaus SBL policy. |
|
| Also See |
| How to switch to Confirmed Opt-in |
COI: a way to turn a horribly performing bloated list that demands a specialist ESP to mail and manage, into a high-performing list that a small business with a one-man IT department could handle.
- Bill Cole |
|
|
|
|
Legitimate Bulk Email
|
| Closed-Loop Opt-In |
Known as "COI" in the legitimate bulk email industry, also known as "Confirmed Opt-in", "Verified Opt-in" or sometimes "Double Opt-in".
With Closed-Loop Opt-in the Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all responsible Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed, from a working address, and with the address owner's consent.
|
In the event of "spam" accusation:
The Bulk Email Sender is fully and legally protected because the reply to the Subscription Confirmation Request received back from the recipient proves that the recipient did in fact opt-in and grant verifiable consent for the mailings. |
Spammer-speak Tricks
Spammers and some Direct Marketing entities often attempt to confuse the Bulk Email issue to their advantage by using variations on the above terms, which have very different meanings from what consumers expect, these tricks include:
| Spammer-speak |
Spammer's meaning |
| "Opt-In" |
Term often used by spammers to mean the recipient "has not opted-out, therefore they are opt-in". Usually means any address the spammer can get hold of. |
| "Double-Opt-In" |
Term often used by spammers to imply the recipient has "opted-in twice". The first time, says the spammer, was when the address was obtained and "opted-in" by the spammer without the recipient's consent and the second time was when the recipient failed to 'opt-out' after receiving the first spam. |
| "Mailing Legal" |
Term used by spammers to mean that the spam they're sending has not been specifically outlawed in their country or state (by local laws or by the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act) and is therefore legal in that country or state. |
|
