| |
| |
|
Spam Blocker Information |
|
|
|
The Great Spam Scam: Five Strategies To Stop Brand and Revenue Robbery
Marketers usually think of anti-spam tactics as 'how to prevent' readers from perceiving their e-communications as spam. There is another, more sinister, consequence that may affect you. Spam is not just an inconvenience. For legitimate businesses, it steals productivity, erode your brand, and rob you of revenue. Many companies have no idea their products are being sold on the black market or their customers are tangled in credit card frauds thinking they ordered something from your organization and are about to receive zip. These shifty sales schemes cost companies billions of dollars each year in lost customers and sales of products and services. While Aunt Margaret may have served Hormel canned pork (SPiced hAM referred to as Spam), like it or not, you knew what was in it. With Internet spam (unsolicited bulk email or unsolicited multiple postings to one or more Usenet newsgroups), you don't always know what you're getting. Some spam messages are convincing. Some are plain annoying. Whether spicy or not, many of them result in criminal offenses on a worldwide level. Producers of a popular product, a drug like Retin-A, a best-selling software program, or a service such as a vacation package, are all economically affected by spammers. When people buy these knock-offs, legitimate companies lose money. When people order something and don't receive it, your company gets a bad name. Five strategies for protecting assets Whether your company sells pharmaceuticals, software, or other products, these five plans of action will help stop brand and revenue robbery: 1. Protect your intellectual property. - Verify everything is copyrighted and trademarks are registered. That includes registering with the U.S. Customs Service, because much of this criminal action happens overseas. - Make formal contracts with your distributors or authorized resellers. Get it in writing that they agree not to send spam about your products. Unfortunately, in most cases, your audience assumes you or one of your distributors is sending these spam messages about your product. Most of your customers or prospects have no idea someone completely unrelated to your sales organization would take the liberty to send a missive about your intellectual property. 2. Join industry associations. 3. Be prepared to react. - Set up investigators to sleuth the problem. - Set up an abuse email address (abuse@yourcompany.com) so buyers and customers can forward spam to you. - Report anything that affects your brand to the authorities. - Track the spammer down. Instead of starting at the sender of the spam, direct your search to the end result of the spam. You can do this by making a purchase. That way you will know immediately if the spam is criminal in nature. You will also know where the spammer collects his or her payment, and if the spammer is a pirate or credit card scam artist. - If the party is guilty of pirating your product, work with that third party payment collection company such as Visa, PayPal, or BillPay and inform them of the problem. They will then get a court injunction to cease and desist, meaning they can shut the guilty spammer down. If the party is guilty of credit card fraud, inform the third party payment company, and also inform the internet service provider (ISP). In the U.S., the ISP will immediately shut down the spammer. Other countries have different laws, however, which is one of the reasons you want to register your product with the U.S. Customs Service. Know that if you prosecute legally, once you get a court injunction and win your case, you are eligible for disgorgement. This legal term means you are entitled to all of the revenue that the spammer collects. While you may not get rich, at least you'll help stop the problem at its source. 4. Establish great business relationships with distributors and customers. - Let your customers know that spam exists. - Send out customer surveys about your products and their attitude about spam, piracy, and credit card fraud. - Create publicity around your steps as a Spam Fighter. Position yourself as a leader in the fight. Perhaps, add an occasional article in your newsletter about your fight against spam or put a note that spam is not tolerated by the "unsubscribe to newsletter" information. 5. Don't continue to spread spam to other users. Position yourself in the eyes of customers and prospects as one of the "good guys." Regularly inform customers about the steps you're taking and alert them about possible fraud. As long as you continue to communicate with your customers, they'll realize the people at your company and throughout the Internet community don't like the taste of e-mail spam. Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net who increases conversion rates by writing and editing content so organization can focus on their core business. She is the editor-in-chief of the eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik's The Remediator Security Digest. Visit her Web site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/.
MORE RESOURCES:
WatchGuard Breaks Quarterly Billings, Profit and Units Shipped Records - MarketWatch (press release)
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
What To Do When You Get Spam When you go to your mailbox and find pieces of junk mail mixed in with important correspondence, you throw it out. It is a mild nuisance and you probably don't even give it a second thought. Dealing With SPAM - An E-mail Address Strategy With SPAM being such a problem it might seem the right thing to do is never give anyone your email address. As a strategy that's not bad but it misses one rather important point; the purpose of having an email address is to be able to exchange emails, both with friends and also as a means to receive eZines from online forums and information sites. The Cybermagic of Whitelists Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article it's important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense.An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet. Pst... Pass It On... I Found Out Its a Hoax When you receive an email telling you about a virus, what do you do with it? Do you send it to everyone in your address book to help them protect themselves too?A virus warning is probably on its way to your inbox right now, claiming to be from a credible source and warning you of a dangerous virus on the loose. Beware. Why Is Spam Such a Problem? Spam can be a lot more damaging than you might think. Obviously, they are the most annoying thing that you can receive through your inbox, but it goes deeper than that. The Fastest Delete Finger in the Midwest! There are hundreds of thousands of people who are trying to make an honest living on the Internet these days. The Internet is a great opportunity for starting your own business. What Is Spam? If you've been around the interenet any length of time then you probably know what spam is. However, if you're new to the internet you might be asking yourself the question "What is Spam?"The best place to begin would be to explain to you exactly what spam mail is. All About Spam Spam is annoying. Period. Wiki Reek-y Havoc The Vandals are coming! And this time they're after your wallets.It's a new form of insidious spam and like its inbred email cousin, it's staggeringly stupid. Spamicide: Man Spammed to Death While Checking His E-mail Death by spam is now possible with a new device by Microsoft. The device when implanted in the user's skull allows downloading of email directly into the brain. I Love Spam! What's the big deal? All you read on the internet is spam, spam, spam. Spam protection this, spam protection that. Spam: The Tasteless Internet Meat of Criminals Spam. You've all heard of the crazy pink meat in a can, but what's it got to do with the Internet? Well, it's also the namesake for a major problem in the World Wide Web-unsolicited junk email. Customers Demand Internet Privacy .. How to Protect Your Email ID from Spammers? You must be one of them experiencing a lot of unwanted emails flooding into your mail box every day. It is annoying, and a "daily" problem for many. Invasion of the Email Snatchers They're sneaky. And stealthy. 5 Zero-Cost Spam Prevention Tools For All Situations! Anyone who uses email knows what Spam is!It's annoying and time consuming to wade through volumes of fraud, con and obscene emails to filter out the really important ones. And I am sure you are affected by this menace in some form or other. Quickly Eliminate 100% of Your Junk Email Why do so many people think I need to take Viagra? I guess it's for the same reason others believe I want to re-finance my home, invest in a new stock and sell my business.Like you, I routinely receive more junk emails than legitimate ones. How Spammers Fool Spam Blacklists - And How to Stop Them Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The Anti Spam Challenge - Minimizing False Positives Email is the quintessential business communication tool, so when it doesn't work like it's supposed to, business suffers. Anti spam software is designed to protect your inbox from unwanted messages, but unless your system is properly trained even the best software misses the mark and flags legitimate messages as spam. The Vanishing Mail Am I Just Being Paranoid Or Are The Robots Out To Get Me?It all started in the early part of the twenty-first century.In the early days of email we were thrilled with its speed and reliability, far superior to "snail mail" but there's always somebody who has to go and spoil things for everyone else.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
