The Motive Web Design Glossary

unsolicited commercial email (UCE), spam

Unsolicited commercial email (or ‘spam’ as it is commonly known) is email, typically of a marketing or nefarious intent, not requested by the recipient.

With the advent of online journals (blogs) new forms of spam have emerged:

comment spam

submission of marketing-related content to blog postings, often automated

referrer spam

using an HTTP header to mimic a referring link from an advertising website to the target website; if the target website publishes a list of the top referring sites it linking to the advertising website (and so increase the search engine ranking of the advertiser’s website)

New Zealand Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act

The New Zealand Government has introduced legislation that expands the definition of spam:

…email, instant messaging, SMS and MMS (text and image-based mobile phone messaging) of a commercial nature. It does not cover faxes, Internet pop-ups or voice telemarketing. [1]

The Act comes into effect from the 5th September 2007, and provides a framework for:

• controlling the amount of spam sent from, or within, New Zealand;
• encouraging good direct marketing practices.

Related terms: email, opt-in policy, phishing, referrer spam, spim.

References and further reading

• [1] Spam (NZ Department of Internal Affairs)
• Anti-spam legislation: A marketer’s minefield (Helen Bowie, Chapman Tripp)
  20 Mar 2007: Legal view on the impact of New Zealand’s Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill.
• The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for commercial emailers (US Federal Trade Commission)
• The CAN-SPAM Act: A compliance guide for business (US Federal Trade Commission)
  1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. 2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. 3. Identify the message as an ad. 4. Tell recipients where you’re located. 5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. 6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. 7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.
  
• DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
  An open-standard e-mail authentication specification, intended to reduce spam by enabling the owner of a domain name to add a digital signature declaring that they are accountable for the message/email.
  
• Graceful email [address] obfuscation (Roel Van Gils, A List Apart)
  JavaScript and PHP-based method of hiding an email address from spam-bots.
• List-Unsubscribe
  An optional email header standard for email publishers and marketers. Recipients of the email (who are using an email-client that understand the header), show an Unsubscribe button that will generate an email or link to a webpage.
• A Six Apart guide to combating comment spam (Six Apart)
  An introduction to various forms of spam and a range of methods for blocking spam.
• Spam - Unsolicited commercial email (Digital Image Delights)
  Defining ‘legally acceptable’ spam.
• SpamCheck (SiteSell.com)
  One method of detecting spam is to check email text for key words or phrases. This online tool allows you to identify possible spam ‘flags’ in your email copy.
• Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill (New Zealand Parliament)
  This Bill aims to prohibit the sending of unsolicited electronic messages of a marketing nature (email, text messages, or instant messages) and provide a legislative basis to combat the growth of spam.
  • What the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act means for businesses (NZ Department of Internal Affairs)
    Defining spam. Steps to ensure that businesses are not spamming. UEM Act guide for businesses.
• What are some best practices when sending email to Yahoo mail? (Yahoo!)
• Why am I getting all this spam? (Center for Democracy & Technology)
  Research into how email addresses end up on unsolicited email lists.

Motive Web Design Glossary Trivia