Whos Spamming Who?

In the last two weeks I have received 2 e-mails from a company that shall for now remain nameless. Each e-mail accused me of spamming their Pop 3 Gateway. I dont spam and dont tolerate it from any of my affiliates, so naturally on receiving the first notice, I was perplexed.

After some investigation I discovered that I had e-mailed somebody at this company or should I rather say, I had replied to an e-mail they had sent me after reading one of my articles. They had e-mailed me about the article and I had simply replied thanking them for their comments. Its just common courtesy to acknowledge people that write to you isnt it? A simple misunderstanding or so I thought. I mean replying to an e-mail is hardly spam is it!

I then e-mailed the sender of this spam warning, with a copy to the person I had replied to, explaining what I thought had happened, and even asked them if it wasnt that to provide me with further information. Perhaps I should have simply ignored it but hey, being accused of spam in the internet world is like being accused of shoplifting or something worse in the real world. Its an attack on my own moral standards and principles. I felt compelled to defend myself. That was it. I didnt get a reply and I didnt pursue it. As far as I was concerned the matter was closed. That is until last night.

Last night I received a more serious warning, actually threatening to go to my ISP and inform them of my continuous spamming. Hello? What continuous spamming? I spent over an hour going through all my sent messages for the last few days searching for their name and/or e-mail address. Nothing. I checked the addresses on my e-zine list. Nothing.

This was getting serious. I dont like being accused of things Im not doing. I mean who does? But how do you deal with this. I wanted an an answer. I wanted an explanation but to dare reply to their e-mail again, would most probably be the end of me. I dreaded receiving the third and final warning. So instead, I e-mailed them from an alternative e-mail address, again asking for more information so I could look into the matter and still have heard nothing.

Many people would most probably just have ignored them but I have an on-line business and a reputation to maintain and I certainly didnt want anybody to complain about me without just cause. So was asking for an explanation in response to their e-mail spam?

This whole situation has raised some issues. We all know spam can be a problem, I myself put up with it on a daily basis. So what exactly is Spam?

I consider it to be e-mail received that I have not asked for, from people I dont know and have never written to myself, trying to sell me something on a continued basis, usually sent to some bulk mailing list which I have not joined but find myself on.

If somebody writes to me personally asking for information or help, that is not spam and I gladly welcome these e-mails. After all that is why my e-mail address is on my sites. I e-mail other webmasters for information etc etc and have met and made some wonderful friends by doing this. By its very nature the Internet allows for greater communication between people.

This whole experience has left a nasty feeling with me. I feel victimised myself and worse, I feel I am the one who has been spammed because at the bottom of these spam warnings was the url of a web site and an e-mail link to join their mailing list. Could this just be a dirty marketing trick to get me to visit their web site I wonder?

Well, I for one will not be joining your mailing list, Mr Spam Accuser - by doing so I might just be accused of spam again and I certainly do not want to receive anything else from you. Its like telling somebody theyre simply awful and then inviting them to dinner. Sure, theyll definitely want to share a meal with you then!

Nevertheless, I shall continue to acknowledge my e-mails and thank people for their kind words and make new friends on the Internet! Thank goodness most people I have dealings with on the Internet are human! Im open to criticism and if Ive done something wrong by all means tell me exactly what and let me put it right. After all, Im only human too.

So, whos spamming who? Ill leave it to you to decide.

About the Author

Holly Janion is webmaster for Wades World Ltd, a UK web design and internet business solutions provider. For an example of Hollys work,and latest creation see contact details below.

webmaster@wadesworld.co.uk
http://www.wwwtreasurehunt.com