You are treading on thin ice with cleaning programs. The anti-spam community calls that "List washing" and are opposed to list washing based on complaints when they would rather get the offender's service disconnected at the ISP level. Most true spam, however, contain fake or hijacked remove lists, and the Advice by most service providers is not to use the unsubscribe links because that is usually used as a confirmation that your email address is indeed live, and cause an increase of unwanted email.
The feature of an unsubscribe however, should be there in either (or both) the header and footer of each message, and the removal should be immediate, and not deferred in any way. There are many resources available that outline methodology for managing large mailing lists, One of which is registration in the Bonded Sender database. (not free) The marketing people want universal "opt-in" which means I can send you messages any time I want, whether solicited or not, while the anti-spam community is pushing for legislation to the effect of double opt-in/confirmed, with criminal penalties of any mailer who sends unsolicited commercial mail without verifiable evidence that the recipients actually asked for it. Even the default check box on web sites "may we send you email offers from affiliates or partners." is objected to very strongly. If this were implemented and enforced, it would have a similar effect to what is happening on the national "Do not Call" database, which is expected to eventually contain about 75% of all telephone numbers in the US, within a year. The attitude of the anti-spam community is that my email server, inbox, and bandwidth is purchased at my expense, and I (and my clients) will be the sole judge of what I wish to receive. I do not wish to be the vehicle to deliver commercial messages at my own expense, unless I am adequately compensated. Those advertisers that do not respect my wishes are blocked from even connecting to my mail server, which filters and re-delivers to over 1200 other domain servers. Additionally, your IP space is also blocked by other providers that choose to voluntarily subscribe to my block list. This is just a heads up as to what is taking place on the net. Well managed mail lists will have no problems with delivery of their messages, while carelessly or poorly managed ones, are doomed to early failure, if the community has their way. This said, Legitimate advertisers are only a very small part of the spam problem as the majority of spamming is done via open relays, open proxies, and compromised computers. One blocklist provider currently reports over 1,8 MILLION open or compromised systems that will relay email. These spammers include fake or invalid remove links, and usually spoof the FROM address, so that bounces are sent to innocent people. spamvertised web sites are usually hidden behind multiple redirect links so as to try to obfuscate its true location, which if can be readily determined will likely quickly be shut down. I doubt any anti-spam legislation will have much effect on these type of spammers. It has also been published in several places that the vast majority of spam is sent by less than 200 operators, via thousands of relays or forwarding systems. go figure. ====================================== Stop spam on your domain, use our gateway! For hosting solutions http://www.clickdoug.com ISP rated: http://www.forta.com/cf/isp/isp.cfm?isp_id=772 ====================================== If you are not satisfied with my service, my job isn't done! ----- Original Message ----- From: "TWussow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 10:24 AM Subject: RE: Email Address Verification Solution (not validation) | Adam - that is an honest question, and actually apropos for today's spam | environment. I appreciate your candor. | | Actually, we do not spam. We are the nation's largest seminar company | and we have a huge customer file. It has taken us quite a long time to | build it as well. We don't buy or lease other lists, and we don't sell | or rent our lists. I am very proud of this too. We made those | decisions early on, in anticipation of hostilities and anti-spam | legislation. And it looks like our ethics are going to pay off. | (fingers crossed) | | What about some form of RCPTO verification - maybe develop a way of | shaking hands with the host; verifying, then hanging up? I would think | that the mail hosts would appreciate something like this, as opposed to | someone trying to send mass amounts of bad emails to their server; time | and time again. | | I have looked into some email cleaning programs, and the RCPTO method | seems to be a constant, or preferred method ... if not the only one?!?!? | | If I were a postmaster, I think that I would be in favor of some sort of | coop cleaning routine among honest (non-spamming) marketers, say once | per month?!?!? | | - Troy:-) | | -----Original Message----- | From: Adam Reynolds [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 4:48 AM | To: CF-Community | Subject: RE: Email Address Verification Solution (not validation) | | I know this sounds like some crazy accusation, but are you a spammer? | | As to the email verification. Not possible as most hosts do not allow | verification of email addresses. | | Adam | | > -----Original Message----- | > From: TWussow [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | > Sent: 16 July 2003 17:46 | > To: CF-Community | > Subject: Email Address Verification Solution (not validation) | > | > | > I am looking for a CF open-source or other 3rd party software solution | | > that will allow me to test my email address file (almost 1M) with each | | > of mail hosts to help me clean up my house file (determine bad | > addresses, no longer here, etc.). Does anyone know if such a CF | > solution exists; or a 3rd party product? | > | > Please advise - your help is greatly appreciated! | > | > BR, | > | > -Troy:-) | > | > | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
