spam - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

More and more email users are using the report spam buttons to unsubscribe from emails, so is another option needed on email programmes to improve deliverability?

A survey found last week that 56% of email users consider uninteresting or irrelevant email messages as spam, and concluded that the report spam button is 'broken'. 

For me, spam is unwelcome email - if I don't want it, it's spam.

The success of email newsletters rests on a delicate balance between regular communications and flooding your customer’s inbox.

I take a look at HMV’s email marketing efforts, which offer a lot but fail to deliver.

We’re seeing some appalling behaviour from social networking wannabe Quechup, which is conducting a massive spam campaign on a scale not seen since the heady days of Dr Mariam Abacha.

If trust is everything, then this is the sort of thing that can kill a brand. Quechup is potentially in a lot of trouble with its users, and legally it is skating on very thin ice.

Thousands of applications have been created on Facebook’s open platform since the social network opened up to developers earlier this year. But launching one, and generating interest, is not necessarily easy.

‘Attitudinal matching’ company Synature is one UK firm that has already taken the plunge, launching a version of its qubox software that allows Facebook members to search for like-minded people on the site, as well as potentially becoming a platform for targeted advertising. Here, John Woods, its CEO, talks about the challenges the company faced, and why he thinks the API can be a significant opportunity for brands.

Tiscali says it has restored email service for many customers who lost out after spammers managed to commandeer the company's mail servers.

Spammers last week managed to overcome security protections on the Italian ISP's computers to send large amounts of junk mail, resulting in many destination service providers barring mail from Tiscali users.

Figures from web security firm Sophos show that the number of new pieces of malicious software have more than doubled in Q1 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

In Q1 2007, Sophos identified 23,864 new malware threats, compared to 9,450 in Q1 2006. On a more positive note, the percentage of infected email has dropped from 1.3% in Q1 2006, to just 0.4 this year.

Microsoft researchers have been looking into the problem of junk web pages, and have found the most of this 'search engine spam' comes from just two web hosting firms.

Microsoft's research, entitled Spam Double-Funnel: Connecting Web Spammers with Advertisers, looked primarily into redirection spam and reveals that the links to spam web pages are generated by a small number of people, with some major advertisers, hosting services and ad syndicators turning a blind eye.

A Scottish court has ordered an internet service provider to pay £750 plus expenses and interest to a man it "spammed" by sending a single e-mail obtained via a discussion list.

Gordon Dick took Transcom Internet Services to court in Edinburgh after receiving a marketing message apparently via an email group operated by UK domain registry Nominet. Both parties belonged to the group.

Despite an increase in online shopping over the Christmas period, levels of online credit card fraud actually fell, according to anti-fraud organisation Early Warning.

Early Warning MD Andrew Goodwill puts the drop in fraud down to increased awareness by online retailers of the risk of card fraud, and the measures they have taken to combat fraud.