Every week, we receive more and more quasi-inquiries about our consent to receive a trade offer which has already been included in the mail. Sometimes we can come across messages with wonderful  solutions to all the problems of humanity. Those we like most ;-)

These are three examples of emails we have received this week. The first message contains an offer to acquire databases through a “wonderful” program that scans websites collecting email addresses according to our criteria. Everything works on its own. Mails are gathered with the speed of light, and our offer is sent to the acquired database within 12 hours. What is important, we are assured that the offer will not be blocked by anti-spam filters. What a wonderful invention!

However, there is one little reservation… After all, in accordance with the Electronic Provisions of Service Act, sending offers to people who did not give us their email addresses for this purpose is illegal. Therefore, we asked the provider how it works that the sent messages will not be considered spam? In reply, we have been informed that we were right, by the same token contradicting the content of the trade offer. Due to the fact that it would be illegal to send such offers, we were advised to circulate an email with an inquiry about the possibility for sending them. The email addresses from which the offer is sent are altering in order to, so to speak, outsmart the anti-spam filters. We feel misinformed badly…

The second mail was also one of the “tricks of the trade”; in addition, its subject sounded attractive (and presented a thesis with which we agree :-) “Emailing as a response to the crisis.” The content of the email was a bit less appealing. The headline and the footnote included the following reassurance: “The  inquiring nature of this correspondence does not constitute an offer or trade information as stated in The Civil Code”. Whereas the next sentence is nothing more but a brief description of the service and a promotional offer. In the email, there is an assurance that the proposal for emailing service is of the highest quality. This fact gave us most serious doubts. Since in the first email the company does not obey the rules of electronic correspondence, what good advice can it provide their clients with?

The third mail is of different subject matter – anyway, it repeats the same mistakes. The message’s title is “Do you have any new classifications?” and, for a change, offers a user-friendly computer software “Polish Classification of Goods and Services.” Yet again, we have an entry – a request to agree to sending the offer, but the offer is right there below… I do not have any new classifications, and I do not want any ;-)

Owing to a rapidly growing amount of this type of messages, it seems worthwhile to remind that it is forbidden to send, by means of electronic communication (and electronic mail in particular), trade information directed to the indicated recipient who has not ordered it.

We also have to remember that the addresses to which we send our emails should be given to us by the recipients themselves. This may be done by, for example, including the addressees in the subscription form. The inquiry about the consent to receive the offer may be aimed at the people with whom we have maintained any business relations. Otherwise, it will be regarded as spam, specifically when it includes some parts of a trade offer.

To all of you who are interested in this subject, we recommend the recent article from Interaktywnie:
http://interaktywnie.com/artykuly/80-jak-walczyc-ze-spamerami.html, as well as the collection of legal norms related to spam messaging. You may find them on the pages of a substantively good, however a bit archaic-looking, website Nospam-pl.net:
http://www.nospam-pl.net/prawo.php.

Tagi: spam