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Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

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11–20 of 71 posts

Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

#11
post #6

at least it is some accountability. i've recently gotten marketing emails from box.com that require a auth code to opt out. i'm not sure how that is legal

Seriously, it's ridiculous. There should be a one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom of every marketing email. You get click it, the email is immediately removed. None of this "please confirm your email" or "please wait ten days for processing" bullshit. Nobody is forwarding your marketing emails. It's not unreasonable to expect ESPs to generate the list at send time and not two weeks in advance.

Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

#13
not only this but experian lets users sign up without confirming their email address.

someone registered on MY email address and I had to spend about 7 hours on multiple phone calls over a period of 5 weeks in order to get control of an account with my email address, all to turn off their incessant spam.

if you read their TOS technically you have to send a notarized letter with copy of photo ID social security number etc. etc. but thankfully i finally reached a human with a hint of reasonability.

Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

#14
post #7

A second's income shot to hell. Seriously, $650K? That's not going to stop this kind of behavior. Maybe 2 orders of magnitude more might make them sit up and take notice.

CANSPAM has a limit to the size of the time > Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $50,120, so non-compliance can be costly.

They only sent about 10 emails then? Sounds dubious.

Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

#16
post #13

not only this but experian lets users sign up without confirming their email address. someone registered on MY email address and I had to spend about 7 hours on multiple phone calls over a period of 5 weeks in order to get control of an account with my email address, all to turn off their incessant spam. if you read their TOS technically you have to send a notarized letter with copy of photo ID social security number…

> if you read their TOS technically you have to send a notarized letter with copy of photo ID social security number etc. etc. but thankfully i finally reached a human with a hint of reasonability.

Does that mean if someone signs you up under a false name, it's impossible to unsubscribe under the rules-as-written?

Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

#19
post #11
post #6

at least it is some accountability. i've recently gotten marketing emails from box.com that require a auth code to opt out. i'm not sure how that is legal

Seriously, it's ridiculous. There should be a one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom of every marketing email. You get click it, the email is immediately removed. None of this "please confirm your email" or "please wait ten days for processing" bullshit. Nobody is forwarding your marketing emails. It's not unreasonable to expect ESPs to generate the list at send time and not two weeks in advance.

No. There should be a some way to opt in, and not having done that, any "marketing email" should be illegal. Like it is here in EU.

Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out

#20
post #7

A second's income shot to hell. Seriously, $650K? That's not going to stop this kind of behavior. Maybe 2 orders of magnitude more might make them sit up and take notice.

It's not just a monetary fine. There are various other requirements put on them, for example they are on the hook for additional record-keeping and compliance monitoring for 10 years, which probably means they need to be incredibly conservative about sending emails for at least that long.
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