How to Report UCE Spam
Join the fight against Spam. Here's how small business owners can help, and it only takes 1 minute. I was getting fed up after I received identical email multiple times in one day from different Gmail addresses, and each was UCE or Unsolicited Commercial Email, asking for reciprocal links. Following my first impulse to report this to Google, who owns and provides the Gmail service, I learned that both Gmail addresses were fake, or spoofed. Here's my advice on how to report UCE Spam.
If you own a small business in the USA, the Federal Trade Commission will investigate complaints of UCE. To report, all you must do is open the suspicious email and click "forward" and enter spam@uce.gov as the forwarding address, and then click "send" to submit your email to the FTC. You may want to read the FTC's Privacy Policy for assurance your identity will remain anonymous. If you are uncomfortable sending by email, you may complete the FTC complaint form online through their secure and encrypted site.
In the example above, Google was innocent. The spammers used a technique called "spoofing" in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, and masked their real identity using special coding to avoid tracing. Commercial email solicitations to unknown parties where no existing business relationship exists, must include an unsubscribe option to opt-out of receiving future mailings, also. The identical messages I received from different addresses did not.
Is someone sending junk mail to your small business? Use the FTC forwarding email to report violations. Note: If you have an existing business relationship with a company the rules are different. While it is legal to send email to known business contacts, your email message may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.
Read this related article that I wrote in August 2006 entitled Don't Ignore Legal Obligations of The CAN-SPAM Act to learn the provisions of commercial email you receive, or send.
TAGS: small business advice reporting spam internet marketing spam
If you own a small business in the USA, the Federal Trade Commission will investigate complaints of UCE. To report, all you must do is open the suspicious email and click "forward" and enter spam@uce.gov as the forwarding address, and then click "send" to submit your email to the FTC. You may want to read the FTC's Privacy Policy for assurance your identity will remain anonymous. If you are uncomfortable sending by email, you may complete the FTC complaint form online through their secure and encrypted site.
In the example above, Google was innocent. The spammers used a technique called "spoofing" in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, and masked their real identity using special coding to avoid tracing. Commercial email solicitations to unknown parties where no existing business relationship exists, must include an unsubscribe option to opt-out of receiving future mailings, also. The identical messages I received from different addresses did not.
Is someone sending junk mail to your small business? Use the FTC forwarding email to report violations. Note: If you have an existing business relationship with a company the rules are different. While it is legal to send email to known business contacts, your email message may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.
Read this related article that I wrote in August 2006 entitled Don't Ignore Legal Obligations of The CAN-SPAM Act to learn the provisions of commercial email you receive, or send.
TAGS: small business advice reporting spam internet marketing spam
Jim Degerstrom 
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