I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Is there anyway to get a harvested list changed to an opt-in list?
I know that sounds weird....

Could this be done from a country that doesn't have spam laws?
Anybody tried it?

I see so many posts about lists for sale here but no information about how to send bulk mail.
Are people using the mail server of their ISP? Just doesn't seem like you could do that for very long

Using google as it seems like some are doing seems really limiting

Are people setting up offshore?
Would some ISPs block emails from that country if it was known to send spam?

I realize there are legal issues but can we talk in hypotheticals?
Hope it's not against the law to talk about it.

If someone wanted to send out 10k emails at a time to do some testing where should they look?

Really appreciate any help on this.

Send them an email like:

You opted into our (insert what your site is about here) list a couple of weeks ago. You are missing out on tons of free tips and tricks because you have not confirmed your email address yet. This is just a friendly reminder to confirm your email address click here so you don't miss out on the latest (whatever your site is about) news and trends.


Let me just add a little disclaimer to the above. I'm not into sending UCE, but this seems like an easy way to do it and an opt-out button on the bottom will make it even more legit looking.

Thanks for the reply MaestroDelWeb. Sounds like that's an option.
From all the warnings I read and I do take them seriously sending UCE seems like Russian Roulette. But yet I to have wonder if the enforcement is so tough how come the amount of spam keeps increasing? I know I'm missing a big part of this.

As long as there are botnet's and foreign operated networks there will always be spam. In other countries there are no laws against unsolicited bulk email, and then again there are people who just do not give a shit about the laws and risk taking the chance in an attempt to make there fortunes.

I guess you are right on that Steve.

In doing my research on this it seems that the FTC says that it is most interested in enforcing the Can-SPAM laws
for the following

Mail with false or misleading header information
Deceptive subject lines
Not giving recipients an opt-out method
Not stating that the email is an advertisement and
Not including the sender's valid physical postal address

But what I found is that most of the prosecutions seem to be for unsubstantiated claims about health benefits of food, drug or dietary supplements,mail with sexually explicit content, drug and pharmacy related emails.

The "content of the ads" seems to be the trigger for prosecutions false or misleading advertising

I wonder if you avoid the content that they are focusing on do you avoid their scrutiny?

When I look at the FTC's CAN-SPAM page I don't find the section about unsolicited commercial email maybe it's open to interpretation or if you read between the lines it's there.

On the FTC's webpage there is a link that says
The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers

I couldn't find a direct reference to unsolicited commercial email anywhere on the page. Do any of you guys know where I can find that info?

The text of the CAN-SPAM law may be found here:

http://www.internetcases.com/library...n_spam_act.pdf

Read it and weep!

__________________

Thanks Uptown for the link I knew it had to be there somewhere I was starting to think it was an urban legend

I was trying to make a point that if the FTC who says on their website "The FTC uses the spam stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive email." So what we have is the FTC says they are pursuing actions about deceptive email and has no mention that I could find about UCE at all, pursuing law enforcement actions or otherwise.

When the law went into effect the governments position from the link you sent was "Unsolicited commercial electronic mail is currently estimated to account for over
half of all electronic mail traffic"

So it was over 50% in 2003

According to an annual report by Barracuda Networks, 95 percent of all email sent in 2007 was spam

Today "The average percentage of spam in mail traffic amounted to 86.4% in January 2008. The monthly low for spam was recorded on 28 January and amounted to just 73.1%, while the monthly high was recorded at 97.3% on the first day of the year. http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204791991

So when I see that the amount of spam has increased rather dramatically since the government has taken over.
It makes me recall what Deep Throat said, 'follow the money'

Who benefits financially from this law? Software makers, list brokers, email marketers etc
When I Google 'email marketers' I get over 62 million hits

Lot of folks out there making lots of money as a result of CAN-SPAM
NP with that just wish I was one of them.

But what I really want to know is do people get thrown-in jail just for sending unsolicited emails that didn't violate anyone of the other FTC rules?
Unsubstantiated claims about health benefits of food, drug or dietary supplements,
Mail with sexually explicit content,
Drug and pharmacy related emails.
Mail with false or misleading header information
Deceptive subject lines
Not giving recipients an opt-out method
Not stating that the email is an advertisement and
Not including the sender's valid physical postal address

Any ideas on this?

It also lists that people have to have requested to receive your emails and the addresses not be harvested. However, it doesn't say what you need to prove they did in fact request your emails. It also doesn't state anything about buying a list.

My question is what is considered verification? I know what a lot of bandwidth providers want, but the government seems pretty vague on this.