How to make a profit from spam
by Chris Dawson
I’ve finally figured out how to make money from spam. For those that know me you’ll know that spam is something I detest so don’t worry – I’ve not turned into a spammer, I just decided to bite back.
A few days ago TameBay reader Whirly complained about spam from an eBay seller and I advised him to charge them a fee for his time and inconvenience. What I didn’t add was that I’d just written to a company (not related to eBay transactions) asking for financial compensation for a spam text message they’d sent me.
Well I got a result, in Saturday’s mail was a cheque from the offending company as well as their apologies and an assurance that my details have been removed from their marketing lists.
I still hate spam, but if I have to suffer it I’m going to carry on invoicing companies for the inconvenience. At £35.00 a time I could even get to look forward to the next company that spams me. If you’re suffering from spam feel free to adapt the text of the letter that I sent.
eBay spam policies
eBay have a strong spam policy – unsolicited commercial emails are barred and the eBay User Agreement, which all users sign up, to states “You may not add other eBay users, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mailing list (email or physical mail) without their consent.”
If you want to market to eBay customers the easiest way to make sure you comply with the law is to use eBay Shops email marketing. This ensures that you only send emails to potential buyers who want to receive them. If a seller wishes to market off eBay they need to set up a process to allow buyers to specifically opt in to their off eBay marketing.
For the future I will continue to pursue compensation from companies if they send me spam and would encourage everyone else to do similar. If you’re marketing to your customers make sure that they’ve opted in to receive your messages, spam is unacceptable (unless I’m being paid for it 
)
30 Responses on "How to make a profit from spam"
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Like it
Perhaps you could set up a “spambusters” business/website?
Well done Chris
Excellent result
Would it work with spam emails?
You need to identify the company that’s sending you spam and it’s definitely easier if it’s a UK company but in theory there’s no reason why not
Hand written cheque too……..you must have hit a nerve Chris..
They also sent a very nice typed note on headed paper with only one spelling mistake
I’m pretty sure in the US we already a law that covers this but does
also apply to users that we obtained details of outside of eBay who happen to also be eBay users? eBay has tens of millions of users so odds are pretty good if you buy a spam list a good number of those users are eBay members. How would I, as a spammer, know which ones aren’t eBay members so I can keep my eBay account in good order? eBay won’t disclose member details. There used to be an API hack to tell you this but they closed it once I mentioned it to eBay.
Not taking the eBay user agreement into account. It’s ok for a Uk business to send emails to people so long as you have sold them something in the past, and only if the email you are sending is for similar products/services provided by you. (Called “soft opt-in”)
If they ask you to stop then you must stop. They don’t have to be subscribed or double opt in as many believe.
It’s also worth knowing that there is no actual regulation for business emails such as info@ or admin@ etc where there is no real name and where the company is ltd, partnership etc.
Not quite correct on the soft opt in. There are three criteria and all three must be met before you can spam your customer:
(a) that person has obtained the contact details of the recipient of that electronic mail in the course of the sale or negotiations for the sale of a product or service to that recipient;
(b) the direct marketing is in respect of that person’s similar products and services only; and
(c) the recipient has been given a simple means of refusing (free of charge except for the costs of the transmission of the refusal) the use of his contact details for the purposes of such direct marketing, at the time that the details were initially collected, and, where he did not initially refuse the use of the details, at the time of each subsequent communication.
So basically and where most companies fall down, before they can spam you they have to have given you the option to opt out. Importantly that opt out should be at the time the company collected your contact details, not when they start spamming you. Simply selling a product or service isn’t enough to legitimise spam.
On the business emails your right and it’s a big hole in the regulations. You can pretty much spam businesses as much as you want and there’s very little they can do about it. It also doesn’t include snail mail but only covers electronically transmitted communications.
Thats pretty much what he said without all the long winded detail
Chris
I have read many times within Tamebay that sellers use ebay as a means of customer acquisition.
That having made an ebay sale, the customer is then encouraged to shop at the sellers own online shop after the completion of the sale.
In order to make that initial approach a seller needs to retain the buyers email address.
I fully accept that there must be a Unsubscribe link Cleary visible
What is your opinion on this?
Well best advice would be legitimate tactics like in dispatch emails a discount coupon for your website requiring registration to activate or even a blatant join our mailing list for discounts link. Legal and obvious is better than underhand in my opinion
Interesting your ads by Google are offering Email marketing products
Seems to be a very thin divide between a legitimate email marketing campaign and spam email
Surely a clear Unsubscribe option resolves the issue
Unsubscribe does NOT solve the problem. You need either to fulfill the three criteria for soft opt in or have a hard subscribe. Adding people and allowing them to unsubscribe is against the law and for eBay with a hard opt in the user agreement automatically means sellers that do are breaking the law as far as I can determine.
Ads are just that – ads. Software or services don’t remove your legal obligations
sending messages via ebay seems to be not working for us this morning
no end of auction messages today in Germany
I had a bloke from India call my customer service number last week, telling me that they wanted to do some “good business” with me. When pressed, they admitted to getting my number from my business information on ebay. Bloody cheek. I asked them to provide a fully written report on the advantage to me of doing business with them…i await the report still!!
So I have a question on this.
I’ve just received a “marketing email” from a company whose website I visited yesterday, but with whom I did not sign up for anything.
It is promoting a product that I THINK I may have signed up for marketing emails from a couple of years back (but haven’t had anything from them in ages, and I think I said “okay then” to their French website and this is an English company…).
The email says “You recently gave us permission to contact you by e-mail. ”
I am pretty sure I did not.
How on earth does one prove that this is spam? Because frankly, if I were a spammer, I would just write “you gave us permission yada yada” on the bottom of all my emails, on the basis that most people wouldn’t know who they’d given permission to.
Just delete it and add the domain/ip to your spam box/catcher or whatever system you have.
Basically if you have your email setup correctly you should never receive any spam emails. What to use and how to use it might make a nice blog post.
Thanks BP but that doesn’t answer my question.
This is a really tricky one – not least cos I have no idea if you agree that the French company can email you does that give permission for the UK arm to do likewise.
If they have an opt out at the bottom of the email I’d probably give them the benefit of the doubt and use it. If they don’t I’d send them the spam letter with that as the reason for the charge.
I do think it’s important if you’re going to send the letter that you’re sure you haven’t given permission, although equally if I’m certain I haven’t I’ll be charging in the future
I think it’s a bit harsh (if not a bit geeky) charging these companies for sending you an email, especially when it’s very easy to stop spam before it even hits your inbox.
Where’s Victor Meldrew when you need him…
I pay for MailWasherPro to stop spam. If these companies/individuals didn’t bug me I wouldn’t have to.
Also it’s hard to stop SMS spam which is what I charged the company in this story for.
On a tangent and not to do with spam but with getting money for being wronged, I’ve just this evening found a large wholesalers using my descriptions and images on their site without my permission and I wanted to write a letter demmanding a one-off charge for their use. I don’t suppose you can give me some pointers Chris on what I should say or how much I should be asking for.
If someone was using my images, this is images that were either taken by me or for me or provided to me exclusively, I would phone them immediately and have it out with the person in charge…
If that didn’t work
I’d send the boys roundthen I would let my solicitor write the letters.That’s not a consumer issue – it’s a B2B issue. I would be thinking about a DMCA takedown or similar.
There are 100s of listings on eBay from other sellers using our images. Is it really worth persuing?
It is worth pursuing – we use this message first and then report abusers as promised – the majority remove them quickly without argument.
The copyright on the image used in this listing belongs to me. I appreciate that images can be found on the internet and that you may have used it thinking it was free to use.
If you wish to continue to use it you are welcome to buy a licence for your own use at a cost of £25. If you do not wish to do this please remove it immediately.
If the image is still in use in 12 hours the matter will be reported to eBay who may take actions up to and including suspension.
There is more information on image theft at:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/image-text.html
Priceless. Wish I’d done it to every one of those mobile retailer cold callers who say they’re ‘part of’ Orange, etc and it’s time to renew my contract. (They always tell me that they got my number from the network directly).
Here’s a question. I haven’t gone out of my way to encourage Ebay buyers to subscribe. Result is just 5 subscribers over many hundreds of sales. These sales are on item specific communications accessories used for business, often bought privately on Ebay to use with work equipment. Many are return buyers or recommendations from buyers.
I often have half-price sales on an accessory for a particular brand. If I was an end user who’d previously bought a similar item, I’d be happy to know about a new offer as it relates to me or my colleagues.
Without falling foul of Ebay regs, any suggestions on here on how to market to these past customers?
Do I email them to ask if they mind if I email them? I have their non-Ebay email address from Paypal notifications.
Do I send them an E-Christmas card with a ’subscribe’ link in it? (how naff can you get…). There is absolutely no point in sending them unrelated offers as it’s wasted effort and annoying, but I’m missing an opportunity here.
Any ideas?
You can’t market to past customers at all unless they’ve signed up to your eBay email marketing.
Tips:
1) Rename the default eBay lists from “General Interest” to “Special Offers”, “Sale items” etc – things that might tempt people to sign up.
2) With every parcel/despatch email send a discount voucher for signing up to your website email list – no sign up, no voucher
3) Add a link to your email signature saying “Click here to be informed of special offers and discounts – use email to reply to all ASQs and potential buyers will see it.
At the end of the day you can’t change the past and you can’t market to previous eBay customers if they’ve not already given their permission, but you can change what you do in the future to encourage them to let you market to them