The two magic words that would have made this an excellent headline: "per person".
Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
61–70 of 71 posts
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#62I'm happy to see Experian fined. Last year, Experian kept sending me spam with the footer "This is not a marketing email" and I kept trying to unsubscribe. Eventually, I filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that this violated CAN-SPAM. I'd like to think that my report contributed to this fine (although that's probably optimistic). In any event, Experian had to take the time to respond. They…
Your story sounded vaguely familiar to me, so I just looked in my email archive, and it appears I did the same thing around the beginning of 2021, when Experian also automatically signed me up for "CreditWorks" after I disputed fraud with them[0]. They were sending almost-daily spam. ("Your Dark Web scan is complete!" "Congrats, your membership's been upgraded!" "Important Information about your credit score!")
I wrote to the FTC instead of the CFPB, and got a form letter back for my efforts. Mail from *@*.experian.com is still blackholed, so I guess this is a good reminder that rule is there, if I'm ever required to deal with those assholes again.
[0] Supposed past-due electric utility account in a state in which I've never set foot, let alone owned or rented property. Interestingly, this only showed on my Experian report, but not TransUnion or Equifax, so I'm pretty sure it was a reporting mistake as opposed to intentional identity theft.
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#63I'm happy to see Experian fined. Last year, Experian kept sending me spam with the footer "This is not a marketing email" and I kept trying to unsubscribe. Eventually, I filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that this violated CAN-SPAM. I'd like to think that my report contributed to this fine (although that's probably optimistic). In any event, Experian had to take the time to respond. They…
Ha! I recall the exact same thing happening to me. I guess they decided that if they sign people up for some nonsense service then there is a "business relationship" and they're free to spam all they want.
glad to see it getting slapped down.
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#64YES… my god those were annoying.
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it difficult to frame it so I had to get the calculator out... that's 0.01048% of the $6.2 billion in revenues. Or framed a different way, if you earn a US average salary of $60,000, it's a fine of $630... That fine is a fart in the wind.
I think you missed a few zeros (or a decimal). It would be $6.29
You're right! It's been a long day.
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#66Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Of course you have to opt in, that's how it is in the US as well. I'm talking about opting out after the fact.
Opt-in is often required for account creation in the US, however.
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#68A lot of marketing emails will have opt-out links on their HTML version, but the text version they send alongside it (if it's not just auto-generated from the HTML one) doesn't. I've sent fussy emails threatening GDPR and CAN-SPAM violation only to get confused replies telling me the link is right there, in [LOCATION]. Your opt-out needs to be accessible!
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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?
A TOS doesn't apply if you didn't sign up.
Now picture a Kafkaesque nightmare where you have to prove to the company spamming you that you didn't sign up for their spams...
Re: Experian fined $650K by the FTC and DOJ for spam emails with no opt out
#70650k is not even a slap on the wrist for a company the size of experian.
Does 650k even cover the cost of labor the government incurred to investigate this and issue the fine?
How do they even come up with such puny fines! 650k is not even a drop in the bucket for them to change their practices :-(