Recently, I’ve been a victim of spam by several local businesses.? I am pretty sure these small local businesses are not really cognizant of the fact that they are, in fact, spamming.? Somehow these business got the email addresses from the local Chamber of Commerce and they must think its “okay”.? Its not okay- it is spam and most of them have been in violation of the FTC’s CAN-SPAM Act (U.S. law in effect since January 2004).

For those with “fuzzy” definitions of what spam is, here is a reality check.? The definition of spam:

spam noun?
electronic junk mail: an unsolicited, often commercial, message transmitted through the Internet as a mass mailing to a large number of recipients

to spam transitive and intransitive verb?
to send unwanted e-mail: to send an unsolicited e-mail message, often an advertisement, to many people

Are you a spammer?? When you send commercial or advertising?email are you following the CAN-SPAM legal requirements?? For more information on spam, and what you can do if you receive it, see the Federal Trade Commission’s website.

I am often asked about email newsletters or mailing lists, how to manage them, or what software is needed. You can find several articles on newsletters in general in the ‘Conversion” category of my Article archives. I have also intended to write more in depth reviews of the mail list service options, but haven’t yet had time. Since the question came up again this week at a networking group, I am going to post some of the options now and worry about the in depth information later.
Here are some links to newsletter or mail list services:
Constant Contact – You can run the trial unlimited with under 50 subscribers, but it starts to get pricey after that. I’ve gotta say, its probably the most user-friendly service though.
Express Email Marketing- this is one you can buy through the YNot Shop(under Marketing tools). There’s now a $9.95 per YEAR (not per month like Constant Contact) option (under 250 emails) which you can upgrade to the $29.95 per year for 5000 html newsletters (has templates etc). For a strict newsletter, its a really good deal.

I’d actually recommend AUTORESPONDER services instead because they do OH sooo much more. These are my top three of those:
AWeber Unlimited Autoresponders . I use this one for my “YNot Succeed Online” Newsletter and other things. Unlimited autoresponders and mail lists, has html templates, lets you bounce subscribers from list to list, have up to 10,000 subscribers. They have a trial offer and the yearly price is really good.

My second choice was: GetResponse. Aweber eeked by them with one minor feature I wanted for my list, but probably would not concern most people. GetResponse is actually somewhat cheaper than Aweber for some really cool features. They also have a trial offer.

Here’s a new One I haven’t been able to check out as much yet, but has good reviews and was recommended to me:
Email Aces. Its $8.95 per month for up to 2500 subscribers/1 list which is better pricing than a lot of them. Believe it or not, most these types of services charge $20 per month and UP (waaaay up).

Then here’s the list of other companies I send for comparisons, as they each have features or pricing that may work for someone in certain circumstances:
Internet Mail Manager-pay per email sent
MailOut- okay prices for bigger than small list but not big lists
MailChimp- cool name, pay per email sent- They have email templates to download no charge!
MailerMailer – pricey except you get 200 emails per month No Charge in their trial (where Constant Contact limits to 50 subscribers but doesn’t count how many times you mail them)
Trident- has a kind of funky ‘points’ system, but may work for some needs.

** See our 2007 update on Mail List Services and rates.

This is my plea that when you receive an email urging you to do it, please don’t send it “to everyone you know.”

Emails that urge the recipient to pass the message on to everyone they know generally fall within 3 categories:

1. Chain Letter
2. Internet Hoax
3. Warning/Safety issue which may actually fall into category 2.

1. Chain Letters.? These may be cute, they may be inspirational, but I bet you still might want to carefully consider who you send these out to.

2. There are hundreds of hoaxes and urban legends spread like wildfire by email.? Some of these hoaxes have been around nearly a decade, yet it seems impossible to kill them.

PLEASE check stories, warnings, sounds-too-good-to-be-true offers out on one of the many Hoax listing sites before you have that knee-jerk reaction to “send this to everyone you know.”

My favorite Hoax listing site is the CIAC’s Hoaxbusters at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/I particularly encourage you to read the section titled The Risk and Cost of Hoaxes.  You can also check out the list maintained by Trend Micro.

3. Warnings/Safety issues.? These messages?try to appeal to you that “you may be saving the life of a loved one.”? Alot of times these fall into the #2 category, because they have been floating around for so long, the issue has been resolved or the concern no longer valid.??Be sure check the above hoaxbusters sites and perhaps just do a quick Google search to try to determine the age of the warning.? Again, some of these make the rounds for years when they are no longer relevant issues. How can you tell when a message that gets forwarded just says “last week there were 3 reported cases…”.? When was “last week”?? When a message continues to make the rounds on email it is impossible to tell.

So think hard before you add to the problem of the email avalanche we face today.

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I’ve been seeing an increasing trend in a phishing technique used to trick you into giving your eBay login account information.

The email comes disguised as a “Question from eBay Member”. eBay allows bidders and sellers to communicate somewhat anonymously by offering this tool for legitimate use. The spoofers are creating a lookalike email to the ones created using the legitimate mail. Often they say something like “I’m still waiting the package to arrive What happened? Please mail me ASAP or I will report you to ebay.” or simply “What happened with that item?. Please respond I’m desperate!”

Basically, they are just trying to get you to use the “Respond Now” button in their email which takes you to what looks like an ebay login page but is a forgery of ebay on the senders own server (in a country like Taiwan). Instead of logging you into ebay, they are just collecting your ebay user account and password if you type them in on this forged page.

The phishers send this to any email address they have in their spam database, they are not necessarily the address someone has used for ebay (that makes it easy to spot). They may send it to people who never use eBay. The point is, if they spread a wide enough net, they will get it sent to someone who DOES sell on eBay and who would WANT to respond to someone who is threatening to report them as a ‘bad seller’.

Always check the true domain name of any links or buttons in an email message (if you hold your cursor over a link in Outlook, it will often pop up the URL destination.) Or better yet– create and use your own bookmarks for online services you use– whether its eBay, Paypal, your credit card company, etc. Then if you receive a message that appears to be from a company you have dealings with, just don’t use the link in the email. Go out to your browser and use your OWN bookmark to access the login page, etc. Any notices or messages that were legitimately sent to you by the company should be available within your account.