Anti-Spam Guidelines

You need permission otherwise it's spam!

Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn't given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email. By sending email to only those who have requested to receive it, you are following accepted permission-based email guidelines.

The federal anti-spam law went into effect on January 1st, 2004 and preempts all state laws. While this new law will not stop spam, it does make most spam illegal and ultimately less attractive to spammers. The law is specific about requirements to send commercial email and empowers the federal government to enforce the law. The penalties can include a fine and/or imprisonment for up to 5 years.

The following outlines the types of permissions needed for appropriate email distribution:

They opted in via your web site - This could either be through a newsletter subscribe form or by ticking a checkbox on another form. This checkbox cannot be checked by default and it must clearly explain that checking it will mean you will be contacting them by email.
They completed an offline form and indicated they wanted to be emailed - If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like to be contacted.
They gave you their business card - If someone gives you their business card and you have explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them.
They purchased something off you in the last 2 years - By making a purchase from you they have provided their permission implicitly. Feel free to email them but at the same time, we think it's always better to ask anyway, so why not include an opt-in checkbox as part of the checkout process.

Scenarios that DON'T equate to permission:

Basically, anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission in our eyes, but here are some examples to make sure we're crystal clear:

You obtained the email addresses from a third party - Whether you purchased a list, were provided one by a partner or bought a bankrupt competitor's customer list, those people never gave YOU permission to email them and they will consider your email spam. No matter the claims of the source of this list, you cannot email them.
You scraped or "copy and pasted" the addresses from the Internet - Just because people publish their email address doesn't mean they want to hear from you.
You haven't emailed that address for more than 2 years - Permission doesn't age well. Even if you got their permission legitimately, they won't remember giving it to you. If you haven't sent something to that address in the last 2 years, you can't start now.

You must include the following in any email that you send from MOD-Mail:

A single-click unsubscribe link that instantly removes the subscriber from your list. Once they unsubscribe, you can never email them again.
The name and physical address of the sender. If you're sending an email for your client, you'll need to include your client's details instead.
Information about why a subscriber is receiving this email as reminder.

If you have any questions about our Anti-Spam Policy, or if you want to report spamming activity by one of our customers, please contact us at .