Why Do Companies Think They Can Do This

[ken_ichikawa]

Seriously why do companies think they can do this... I buy one thing from them and incessantly get spam from them. Be it from Amazon, Play, any motorbike or book shop online.

Every morning I get a ton of emails telling me about offers etc.....I don't want them and the unsubscribe button does not work either. Tenminuteemail.com. Tesco is particularly bad since I never actually bought anything from them.....

Does this sort of advertising actually work? In that I have a bit of a rule anybody or anything which needs to advertise to me is not worth buying their product and or service...

[cica]

There is a mechanism to help.

If it's spam, mark it as spam (depending on your email provider).

Gmail is very good. My work system with Outlook is very poor.

The thought that your emails may never again get through to customers definitely makes many retailers think twice (especially the smaller ones).

Does it work? It's highly unlikely that many people that receive spam react positively to it but it's worth it because it's almost zero cost to try it anyway.

[Redcellar]

Seriously why do companies think they can do this... I buy one thing from them and incessantly get spam from them. Be it from Amazon, Play, any motorbike or book shop online.

Every morning I get a ton of emails telling me about offers etc.....I don't want them and the unsubscribe button does not work either. Tenminuteemail.com. Tesco is particularly bad since I never actually bought anything from them.....

Does this sort of advertising actually work? In that I have a bit of a rule anybody or anything which needs to advertise to me is not worth buying their product and or service...

It's illegal under The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations to send unsolicited emails to individuals. If you bought a product and they didn't ask you about sending further direct marketing (including emails) not related to the sale (e.g. receipts are OK) then it's illegal too. There is usually a checkbox for it.

Even if you did approve at the time you can ask to unsubscribe in writing (every emails must include contact details), if they continue to send them (give them 28 days) then report them to the Information Commisioners Office and provide them with evidence to prosecute.

[Jason]

None of these things work.

I was going to start a thread of cold callers (to companies) have become increasing desperate of late. We're on the telephone preference list and get thousands of spam per day, but some spam still gets through. Some is clever and is from a different domain every time, but the un-subscribe never works.

Also, some suppliers like to send so called spam from the same email address as information you need so you can't block them as you will miss important info.

[rw42]

None of these things work.

I was going to start a thread of cold callers (to companies) have become increasing desperate of late. We're on the telephone preference list and get thousands of spam per day, but some spam still gets through. Some is clever and is from a different domain every time, but the un-subscribe never works.

Also, some suppliers like to send so called spam from the same email address as information you need so you can't block them as you will miss important info.

My problem is that a lot of unscrupulous companies just use the unsubscribe link as a way of confirming that the email address it was sent to is still valid/used.

[Britney's Piers]

I gave some money to a charity about 8 years ago and still get full colour, 20 page begging brochures through the door. The total cost of producing and distributing of all these is probably double what I originally gave.

Also I checked the reviews of the McCann's book "Madeline" to see what all the fuss is about, then left it at that. Now I get regular spam emails from amazon advertising this book. No other books, just "Madeleine". Are the McCanns in cahoots with them to promote their book or something?

[chronyx]

I gave some money to a charity about 8 years ago and still get full colour, 20 page begging brochures through the door. The total cost of producing and distributing of all these is probably double what I originally gave.

Snap.

[Riedquat]

Also, some suppliers like to send so called spam from the same email address as information you need so you can't block them as you will miss important info.

If they bury it in spam then they haven't told me as far as I'm concerned, and will treat said company as one that's failed to tell me something they should've done.

[Jason]

If they bury it in spam then they haven't told me as far as I'm concerned, and will treat said company as one that's failed to tell me something they should've done.

Try that one with the airline industry.

[winkie]

I gave some money to a charity about 8 years ago and still get full colour, 20 page begging brochures through the door. The total cost of producing and distributing of all these is probably double what I originally gave.

Also I checked the reviews of the McCann's book "Madeline" to see what all the fuss is about, then left it at that. Now I get regular spam emails from amazon advertising this book. No other books, just "Madeleine". Are the McCanns in cahoots with them to promote their book or something?

I don't give to large corporate charities anymore, only to local charities where I can see any money they receive is being used as it was intended.......not since I came across some guy on a mega salary working for a large charity his job was giving advise to the charity on how to go about increasing their donations....many people I know work tirelessly for free.....why should some bod with no more knowledge and good advise then the best of the voluntary workers get paid when if it is for charity they should be doing it for free like the rest.

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

The only way I've found to deal with this is to have a separate email address that I use only for transactions with online retailers. I accept that this is going to get spammed up, but also know that there will never be any messages of any importance sent to it, except during the period between having ordered something and it being delivered. So outside these periods I don't check it, and immediately before ordering something I'll delete its entire inbox unread. There are rarely less than 200-300 messages in it when I do so.

The bottom line - if you want to keep an email address spam free, the only way to do it is to ensure that the address never appears on the web in any way, shape or form. I have one address that is only for family and a few very close friends, and whenever I give it to anyone new (which is virtually never), I explain that it's my 'spam free' address and ask them never to pass it to anyone else or submit it to any website or online forum. So far, this approach has worked.

[corevalue]

I received an email the other day purporting to be from the courier DHL. As I had just ordered some goods online, I phoned the company involved, and yes, they used DHL. So I opened this email (purporting to be about a failed delivery, but it had been flagged by my ISP as malicious). Surprise, surprise, it had a virus in it. 'Twas most amusing to note that the virus died on contact with Wine (I'm running Linux).

Later the same day, I receive a telephone Call.

"Mr Corevalue?"

"Yes"

"It's about your computer, is it working slow?" Ah, the opening gambit of a "We'll fix your Windows registry for you" conman.

"What computer? I don't have a computer"

Sound of puzzled caller hanging up.

Coincidence, or not?

[porca misèria]

It's illegal under The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations to send unsolicited emails to individuals. If you bought a product and they didn't ask you about sending further direct marketing (including emails) not related to the sale (e.g. receipts are OK) then it's illegal too. There is usually a checkbox for it.

Even if you did approve at the time you can ask to unsubscribe in writing (every emails must include contact details), if they continue to send them (give them 28 days) then report them to the Information Commisioners Office and provide them with evidence to prosecute.

Most retailers are fine with me, 'cos I take the trouble to ensure I select all "no spam" options.

Some of them do it anyway and won't shut up under any circumstances. If you're saying the Information Commissioner's Office will do anything about it, perhaps you could post a URL for reporting things to them (or details of how to do so)?

These days I guard against it by using a different email address every time I don't quite trust someone, so I can just delete the address they use if spam starts.

[porca misèria]

I gave some money to a charity about 8 years ago and still get full colour,

Ugh.

Give money to charity if you feel motivated to do so. But never, ever give them your name and address details unless you really want a long-term relationship!

[porca misèria]

Coincidence, or not?

Very probably. I get those calls regularly, mostly coming from presumed-Indian call centres. When one gets through, I don't waste my time telling them how long it is since I last used a windoze computer[1].

[1] 'not least 'cos I can rarely remember: my contact with windoze comes when people want me to sort out problems on theirs.

[Jason]

I received an email the other day purporting to be from the courier DHL. As I had just ordered some goods online, I phoned the company involved, and yes, they used DHL. So I opened this email (purporting to be about a failed delivery, but it had been flagged by my ISP as malicious). Surprise, surprise, it had a virus in it. 'Twas most amusing to note that the virus died on contact with Wine (I'm running Linux).

Later the same day, I receive a telephone Call.

"Mr Corevalue?"

"Yes"

"It's about your computer, is it working slow?" Ah, the opening gambit of a "We'll fix your Windows registry for you" conman.

"What computer? I don't have a computer"

Sound of puzzled caller hanging up.

Coincidence, or not?

This happened to my nan, but said Windows and not computer. She thought she was talking about her physical windows... funny tho, as my grandparents don't have a PC.

[rw42]

I've used hotmail since university - since turning on the filter options for 'only add mail to inbox from recognised senders' it works pretty well.

If i'm expecting something i'll check junk inbox, otherwise i'll just let it stack up.

Inbox remains free from nearly all spam - for some reason microsoft think their 'have you tried X new shiny feature that you don't want' emails don't belong in the spam folder though.