January 13, 2006
The Importance of Using BCC for Bulk Mailing
Recently my cousin, whom I love dearly, invited myself and some others to a gallery opening he was planning. Unfortunately he made the mistake of sending the invitation via email with all the recipient addresses showing in the CC field instead of using the BCC field to hide them.
My first complaint with using CC when BCC should be employed is many times another recipient will Reply to All with a dumb comment that can result in many more replies back and forth to the entire list. This can quickly become annoying as the number of emails multiply and even the original recipients who are not involved in the conversation have a clogged inbox. This however is just a minor inconvenience compared to what else can happen.
The big problem with not hiding the addresses in BCC is someone else on the list may harvest the other addresses to spam them with whatever they are trying to promote. This recently happened to me when my address was harvested as a result of my cousins mailing. Below I'll quote the conversation back and forth between myself and the organization sending the spam.
From: Joshua McFarren
To: The Surfers Path
Subject: Re: Monday Morning Wave (Apologies! We had a tech hitch)
To whom it should concern,
I find it highly unethical that you harvested my business email address from [my cousin's] list. Since you do not list a mailing address you are in clear violation of CAN-SPAM and any further emails to this address will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Please remove me immediately. You can be subject to a maximum fine of $11,000 USD per future violation.
Learn more about CAN-SPAM:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/business.htm
This has also been CC'd to your domain registrant and DNS service. Please note that any future violations from these servers will also be reported to the Spamhaus project for listing in their database of know spammers.
Regards,
Joshua
To which I received this reply:
From: Alex Dick-Read
To: Joshua McFarren
Subject: Re: Monday Morning Wave (Apologies! We had a tech hitch)
Hi Joshua
Well, apologies for the intrusion, although it seems very strange that you received a Monday Morning Wave at all without asking for one.
I doubt very much that we took your address from [your cousin's] list. We don't operate like that.
I'm not the tech expert but it sounds far more likely that someone signed you up for the MMW. This, and signing yourself up, are the only ways you can receive a MMW.
We've set it up like that because we take the issue of spamming people very seriously and want to make sure we are NOT intruding on in-boxes where we're not requested.
It might be good to see if anyone you know has signed you up. Might have been [your cousin], a friend of mine.
Meanwhile I'll check with the tech experts that there is indeed no way we would have 'harvested' yours, nor anyone's emails.
All the best
Alex Dick-Read
Editor
I felt this needed a retort since the circumstances of the mailing were so suspicious and my cousin said there was no way he signed me up. That pointed back to The Surfers Path.
From: Joshua McFarren
To: Alex Dick-Read
Subject: Re: Monday Morning Wave (Apologies! We had a tech hitch)
Alex,
Thank you for getting back to me and looking into this. I would appreciate a follow up after you check with your experts. I am sure there is a log of how my address was added to the list. If it was subscribed though the subscription form on your website, then your sever logs will be able to reveal the IP address of the machine that was viewing the site at the time.
Indeed it is very odd that I started receiving this mailing just after [my cousin] sent out his invite. However, the circumstantial evidence goes beyond this coincidence. I might like to submit that not only does the timing coincide but also the marketing potential cross-over between the lists. Add to that the fact that not only have I received your email at this address but my other email address as well--both of which were included on [my cousin's] list.
Thanks,
Joshua
Finally, some answers from someone who has the balls to tell me what happened. I give Drew some credit even though he's still missing the principle.
From: Drew Kampion
To: Joshua McFarren
Subject: Re: Monday Morning Wave
Hi Joshua,
Sorry about that. It was probably me that sent your address to the gent who manages our MMW e-listing.
Since the PATH doesn't use the MMW list for solicitation (nor do we sell or give away any of these addresses), and because "everyone" seems to love getting a wave shot on Monday morning, I figured you'd enjoy it.
There's a simple link in that email -- UNSUBSCRIBE FROM MONDAY MORNING WAVES -- that eliminates you from the list. You can do this or I can do for you, but ... are you sure you don't want to see a beautiful wave at least once a week?
Your wish is my command,
Drew
Of course I need to explain the point a little more clearly:
From: Joshua McFarren
To: Drew Kampion
Subject: Re: Monday Morning Wave
Drew,
Thank you for being honest about the origin of this problem. I hope that the managers of the MMW take this as a lesson and put in place a policy that prevents addresses from being added to the list in bulk so that the only way someone receives a mailing is if they sign up themselves.
The problem with signing up others is even if they unsubscribe, its highly likely that they can be re-subscribed again in the future with out their knowledge or consent. This would appear to the recipient as a broken un-subscription mechanism and leave the organization responsible for the mailing subject to HUGE fines, server blacklisting as a spam origin--which could cripple all business emails sent out--and of course a huge headache for the recipient.
I have taken the necessary steps to remove my addresses from the list. Please ensure that this does not happen again to myself or others.
Thanks,
Joshua
And one last email which I'm not sure is relavant or not, but I will include for the sake of objectivity.
From: Drew KampionTechnorati tags: email, etiquette, email etiquette, bcc, spam, bulk email, rant
To: Joshua McFarren
Subject: Re: Monday Morning Wave
Thanks, Joshua.
One point about the way our program is set up, re para 2 [above] -- In fact, we have the opposite problem: when someone has inadvertently unsubscribed and has requested to be resubscribed, our system requires the resubscribe through a different email address; it will not allow an unsubscribed email address to re resubscribed.
The point of this whole thing from the beginning (aside from disseminating beautiful wave pics) was to be noninvasive, so I trust you won't be hearing from us again. If you do, please let me know.
All the best!
Drew
Posted by joshua at January 13, 2006 9:44 AM | TrackBack