Spam: the CAN-SPAM Act and other solutions

This article summarizes as concisely as possible the purpose and components of the CAN-SPAM Act, as well as discussing its implications and workarounds for spam.

The CAN-SPAM Act: What it does

Generally speaking, CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing) applies to emails sent to recipients in the US. It attempts to provide a degree of protection to consumers of various forms of email messages. commercial electronic mail, solicited or unsolicited. It does this by imposing requirements on the sender of the emails. Does not apply to recipients outside the US. Different requirements and restrictions apply in other countries.

The following are key aspects and requirements of the Act:

• It does not prevent unsolicited email from being sent to a recipient, but it does allow the recipient to respond to a sender, for example by opting out of receiving further communications from that particular sender.
• Opting out of communications from one sender does not prevent other senders from continuing to send messages to that recipient.
• The Law applies to individual emails as well as emails sent in bulk.
• The “From” line of the email must contain correct and accurate information.
• The ‘Subject’ line should be closely related to the content of the message.
• The sender must include a valid physical address. PO boxes and other purchased addresses are acceptable as long as they can be traced back to the sender.
• An appropriate tag must be added if the message includes adult material.
• An option to unsubscribe should be included. It should also be easy to use (for example, it doesn’t require a password).
• “Transactional” emails (for example, an invoice for a previous purchase) can still be sent to recipients even after they have unsubscribed.
• A message should not be sent using a harvested email address.
• If the recipient has not given their express consent (opt-in) to receive the email, then the message should be labeled as an advertisement.

How effective is CAN-SPAM?

While many reputable email senders adhere to the CAN-SPAM rules, traditional spammers generally don’t and continue to spam.

It is estimated that between 200 billion and 300 billion emails were sent daily in 2010. That represents an annual volume in the region of 100 trillion emails.

Of those 100 billion, an estimated 90 billion consisted of spam or viruses.

The vast majority of the 90 billion did not adhere to national recommendations for email generation such as CAN-SPAM.

Even worse; In many cases, unsubscribe lists are not used for fulfillment, but rather are used to validate email addresses in order to sell them to other spammers to generate more spam.

Stop Spam: Workarounds

Although some high-profile lawsuits have been filed against some prominent spammers, the CAN-SPAM Act is generally not strictly enforced in court.

Consequently, the main defense against spam has been the use of anti-spam software applications.

However, there is much wisdom in the saying that prevention is better than cure.

A powerful spam prevention strategy is to prevent spammers from getting your email address in the first place. Simple methods can be used, but discipline is required.

For example, just because it’s illegal to harvest email addresses doesn’t mean it won’t happen. So if you make your email address visible on a forum (eg, Craigslist), there’s a good chance a spammer will get it.

It’s a constant battle between spam and anti-spam. But the consensus currently favors the latter.

This article is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular legal understanding. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be construed as such.