College Spam

[livinthedream]

I am a web master for a college and we have a directory on our website where anyone can look up a students email address and get in contact with them. It now appears that someone has harvested these emails and now our students are getting commercial emails (spam) from a business. Are there any legal actions that can be taken against this person as i have the name of the business and all of the contact info for it. We have a clause that says anyone using this directory agrees not to send out mass email for commercial purposes. Also if we were to take legal action what would be the likely outcome of any such proceedings as i do not want to waste my time if nothing will come of it.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

To begin, where is the business located? If it's in the US then you may be able to take action against them but, at the very least, I would have someone in the college send off an official notice that you'll be taking action against them if they do not cease and desist immediately. The C&D is the first step. You might want to become more familiar with this:

anti-spam or CAN-SPAM Act

Unfortunately most spammers simply don't care and you may want to blackhole them, bounce their IP, report a violation to their provider, and take other methods before actually taking legal action. The latter is the most costly and time consuming and the former are easier methods of shutting down the problem. Best of luck.

 

[livinthedream]

We are located in the United States (I would rather not say what state specifically) and it is funny you mention the can spam act of 2003 since it appears that they have complied with it very closely just to avoid any legal proceedings. They sent the spam from their actual email address, said it was an advertisement in the heading, gave an option to opt out of receiving the emails, and gave the permanent address of the business, and did not have any misleading information in the subject line. The only thing it appears they did not comply with was the rule that you cannot harvest email addresses and use them for commercial purposes as we say in a disclaimer on our site (and as the can spam act also states) but i do not know how we could prove they did that. These emails are still a nuisance and we would like them to stop so do you still think their would be any point in pursuing this matter legally or should I just send a cease and desist letter and hope for the best. Thanks

 

[Michael Wechsler]

1) You can prove the spammers harvested the email addresses using circumstantial evidence. What do you think the odds are in Vegas that someone would send that ad to all the people in your directory at almost the same time? If there is a lawsuit, it's a question to ask during a deposition - where did you get these email addresses? Obvious answer.

2) It will never get that far to a lawsuit, IMHO. If it were me, I might mention the state attorney general being a part of an education institution. That is good press for them if they pursue cases. I think the C&D is the first way to go even before pursuing them legally, which it is possible, but costly and time consuming if you aren't an attorney.

 

[livinthedream]

thanks, i appreciate your input

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Any time - good luck with this. Right now I'm having a challenging time from people collecting my messenger that I've had listed here for urgent problems. People's rampant desire for commerce is akin to a swarm of locusts who could care less about destroying an entire important crop of fruit. I hope that you are able to protect your good intentions and prevent the spammers (and punish them!) for their wrongdoing. Good luck and let us know how it works out!