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NameJet.com, Pool.com Not Complying With Can Spam Rules

Posted on June 19th, 2010 by admin in Domain News | 3 Comments »

One of the reasons, I believe, people are quick to jump on the “domaining is shady” bandwagon is because a lot of the times people in our industry behave irresponsibly. The big SnapNames halvarez shill bidding disaster showed that there is still a huge lack of transparency and responsible management in our industry – even when the big players are involved. It’s as if we are still treating this as a game, an industry in its infancy – even though people have been domaining for almost 20 years now.

This mention of lack of responsible management brings me to the point of this post. I believe NameJet.com and Pool.com (and perhaps others in our industry that I am not aware of too) are not complying with the Can Spam Act of 2003.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003) came into effect on January 1, 2004 and “set the rules for commercial email, established requirements for commercial messages, gave recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spelled out tough penalties for violations”.

How are NameJet.com and Pool.com not complying with the Can Spam act?

Both NameJet.com and Pool.com are sending their domain list subscribers emails that are not in compliance with the rules defined in the Can Spam Act of 2003. (You are able to subscribe to Pool.com’s daily “Hotlist of deleting domains” and NameJet.com’s daily “Top 50 deleting domains” to receive daily email updates).

Under the Can Spam rules as defined in 15 U.S.C. 7701, et seq and clarified in the FTC’s The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business, amongst other rules, each commercial email sent by a company is required to comply with the following:

1. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

Neither Pool.com nor SnapNames.com specify their physical address, PO box or private mailbox info in the emails they send to their subscribers on a daily basis.

2. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.

NameJet.com does not provide or indicate in any way how you can unsubscribe from their daily domain lists.

Although Pool.com does provide a way for subscribers to opt-out of their lists, they are still not in compliance with the amendments made in 2008 to the Can Spam Act which require “(1) an e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender;”.

Pool.com indicates at the bottom of the Hotlist emails it sends that you can “login to your Pool.com account, click on the tab “Preferences” and and deactivate your HOTLIST email setting.” but clearly this is not a “a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender”.

Now, some may argue that the daily emails NameJet.com and Pool.com send are not commercial and hence “may not contain false or misleading routing information” but are otherwise exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

However, emails (as defined by the Can Spam Act) can contain Commercial content, Transactional or relationship content or Other content.

The act defines commercial content as content “which advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose;”. Transactional or relationship content is defined as content “which facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction;”.

Now.

If you look into a Pool.com Hotlist email, you will first notice a part which advertises the Pool.com Domain Marketplace. Today it listed “Top Domains in the Domain Marketplace for SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 2010″. After that, the email shows the HOTLIST stating “If you see a domain you want in the Top Deleting Domains list, place your backorder before 19:00 GMT (2:00pm EST) on Wednesday, June 16, 2010.” again drawing the reader back to the Pool.com website. And finally, after the HOTLIST, the email states the following “To view the entire list of domains deleting tomorrow, go to http://www.pool.com/viewlist.aspx and search for the keywords you are looking for.”

This email is clearly commercial and not transactional.

Equally so, the NameJet Top 50 email starts off with something like this “To Backorder a domain name on this list, just copy and paste it into the search box to find it, and then backorder it. You can also use the “Quick Backorder” function on your NameJet Dashboard or the “Bulk Add” feature from My Backorders.”

It then proceeds to list the domains before again drawing the reader to the NameJet website “Please be sure to also visit http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/PreRelease.aspx?cat=1 to view more domains and http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Downloads.aspx to download our domain lists.”

Again, this email is clearly commercial and not transactional.

Finally, according to the Can Spam Act 2003, “each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000″. Each email! How many of these emails have been sent out since NameJet.com and Pool.com started offering pending delete lists?

I think people in our industry should get their act together and manage responsibly before we can honestly stand up and complain when some “outsider” calls our industry shady.

Note: How can you be sure you are complying with the Can Spam Act?

Provide an unsubscribe option in your emails, make sure your subscribers double opt-in to your service, and state your address in all emails you send OR alternatively, use an Email Marketing Service like MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse etc as services such as those not only provide unsubscribe links within the emails you send but also ensure all your subscribers double opt-in into your mail sending service.

Want To Learn More About Flipping Domains For Profit: Read My Post On Domain Flipping!

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