Yet again, reading some spam gave me a topic to blog about!
This time “Sid” added a footnote to his spam message that read “This email is not spam, it was manually sent by us, our sole purpose being to introduce ourselves to you with no obligation on your part.”
Hmmm, the definition of spam is unsolicited commercial email. I most certainly did not ask for him to contact me, not even indirectly, so his email was unsolicited. It was commercial as it was about his linking business. It came into my inbox. So Sid, it was in fact spam regardless of your claim!
The definition of spam does not mention details such as how many emails you send or if you do it manually or via software. A number of people seem to think that sending an email to one person isn’t spam although the same message to sent 1,000 people is spam. They are wrong – if I did not give you permission to send me commercial emails then it is spam even if you only email me.
Tags: commercial, definition, email, spam, unsolicited
I’ve had the same message. I’ve also recently had ones that add to the message that they met me at an event or I’ve had dealings with them – I had never heard of them before!
Thanks for sharing that Tash. It never ceases to amaze me how many people complain about how much spam they receive and yet they don’t seem to realise that they themselves are spamming.
[...] on from defining what spam is, I thought I should mention why adding ‘this is not spam’ to your emails [...]
If the 3 or so days since I posted that “Sid” sent me spam regardless of his words, I have receivced another few emails form him PLUS emails from others with exactly the same wording as Sid – still want to tell me this isn’t spam ‘Sid’?
[...] give it in appropriate ways (i.e. don’t spam or annoy [...]