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Anti-Spam Policy

Columbus Circle Media does not tolerate spam. In fact, while we consider the CAN-SPAM Laws to be a positive step in the right direction, we feel they don’t actually go far enough. Our definition of “spam” goes beyond the legal definitions of most jurisdictions; and encompasses what we believe to be representative of true permission-based email marketing.

As used herein, “spam” refers to any email you send to someone who hasn’t given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.

Columbus Circle Media does not allow Unsolicited Commercial Email (“UCE”) or Unsolicited Bulk Email (“UBE”) (collectively, “spam”). If the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate permission to receive the email in question, it will be classified as spam. Verifiably granted deliberate permission is: (a) written or email proof that the recipient has asked to receive the mailing; or (b) electronic proof such as a time/date stamp and originating IP address demonstrating that the recipient did agree to receive such email.

Do you suspect you have received spam from one of our clients? Please paste the headers of the email (including all contact information) into the body of your email and send it to: abuse@ColumbusCirlceMedia.com.

What kind of email addresses are OK to send to?

To send email to anyone, you must have clearly obtained their permission. This could be done through:

• An email newsletter subscription form on your website.
• An opt-in checkbox on a form. (This checkbox must not be checked by default, the person completing the form must willingly select the checkbox to indicate they want to hear from you.)
• If someone completes an offline form (like a survey), you can only contact them if it was explained to them that you would be contacting them by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like you to contact them.
• Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
• If someone gives you their business card and you have explicitly asked for permission to add them to your list, you can contact them.

So to clarify, this means you can send email to anyone who has opted in to your list via your website, offline or via a co-registration site. You can send on behalf of your customers, if their lists are opted in via their website, offline or via a co-registration site.

What kind of email addresses are NOT OK to send to?

• Email addresses harvested from websites.
• Lists purchased or rented from a 3rd party
• Lists that belong to another organization (like a civic organization)
• Any unsolicited list, even if it is a press release to reporters, prospective customers, prospective voters or potential employers or anyone who has not given you permission to send to them.
  
  

What content MUST I include in my email?

Every email you send using our services must include the following:

1. A single-click unsubscribe link that instantly removes the subscriber from your list. Once they unsubscribe, you can never email them again.
2. The name and physical address of the sender. If you’re sending an email for your client, you’ll need to include your client’s details instead.
   

Prohibited Content

You may not use our services if you engage in any of the following:

• Provide, sell or offer to sell the following products or content (or services related to the same): pornography or illicitly pornographic sexual products; escort services; illegal goods; illegal drugs; illegal drug contraband; pirated computer programs; instructions on how to assemble or otherwise make weapons of any kind.
• Display material that exploits children, or otherwise exploit children under 18 years of age.
• Post or disclose any personally identifying information or private information about children without their consent (or their parents’ consent in case of a minor)
• Provide material that is grossly offensive, including blatant expressions of bigotry, prejudice, racism, hatred or excessive profanity or post any obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable content.
• Sell or promote any products or services that are unlawful in the location at which the content is posted or received.
• Introduce viruses, worms, harmful code and/or Trojan horses on the Internet.
• Promote, solicit or participate in multi-level marketing.
• Engage in any libelous, defamatory, scandalous, threatening, harassing activity.
• Post any content that advocates, promotes or otherwise encourages violence against any governments, organizations, groups or individuals or which provides instruction, information or assistance in causing or carrying out such violence.
  
  

How we’ll know if you Don’t have Permission

Users must explicitly certify that their lists consist of 100% certifiable opt-in email addresses. Inability to supply such proof upon request will result in account termination. Additionally, we have numerous other layers of approval and monitoring to ensure you comply with our compliance and privacy policies. Here’s a few of them:

• Until your account has been approved by a member of our team, every email you send will need to be pre-approved before deployment.
• Our software is directly integrated into the spam reporting systems for some of the biggest ISP’s like Hotmail and AOL. If you don’t have permission and someone marks your campaign as spam, we’ll know about it the moment that button is pressed.
• Our team verifies all large lists imported into our software. Until we’ve given it the all clear, you can’t send to it.
• We monitor blacklists and our abuse accounts all day every day. We can pinpoint who is causing us delivery problems or attracting complaints very easily.
• You don’t have to be a spammer to be reported for spamming. It doesn’t matter if your email list is composed of your customers, or is 100% opt-in and legit. If you send email that looks spammy, your own customers will report you for spamming. So if your campaigns receive an unreasonable amount of spam/abuse complaints, we reserve the right to shut down your account in order to protect the deliverability of our servers.

If we do discover that you’re emailing people without their permission, we will terminate your account immediately.

Complaints Procedure

If we suspect that your account has been used for sending unsolicited bulk emails or spam, your account’s sending privileges will be temporarily suspended. To determine whether or not you have sent spam, we will:

• Review the complaint
• Review your list for patterns common to harvested lists
• Review the content of the email in question
• Review the opt-in proof for the email address in question

If we determine, that you did indeed spam, then your account will be suspended without recourse to refund.

If we determine, that the complaint was a false-positive (someone who subscribed, but has forgotten that they had subscribed), then we will liaise with both you and the complainant for proper resolution. Upon proper resolution, sending privileges on your account will be reinstated.

Fees and Penalties

If your account is found to be sending spam messages, you will be charged a penalty in the amount of $1,500 per incident. Proof of sending spam is the registration or appearance of one or more of the IP addresses from which mail was sent, or of the second level domain (e.g. mail.YourCompany.com) associated with Your MailUp console, in one of the Relay Block Lists or international Blacklists. A list of such lists includes, but is not limited to: URIBL, SURBL, SORBS, SPAMCOP, SPAMHAUS, MAILPOLICE, CBL, SYMANTEC, HOSTKARMA, AHBL, SPAMCANNIBAL, DNSBL, FIVE-TEN.BG, INPS.DE, NIXSPAM, INTERSIL, OUTBLAZE, LEADMON.NET, NJABL, NOMOREFUNN, PSBL SURRIEL, RRBL (RANGERS), TQMCUBE, TORDNSBL, UNSUBSCORE, VIRBL, WPBL. Blacklisting or relay block listing by an ISP (i.e. Godaddy.com, Register.com, etc.) is also considered proof of sending spam. A high rate of compliant – a rate above 0.3% (3 complaints for every 1,000 messages sent) – is also considered proof of sending spam.

To avoid the risk of getting blacklisted or in other way accused of sending spam, it is crucial that you take the following measures:

• Only send e-mails to contacts that directly and willingly subscribed to receive such communications.
• Never purchase or rent a list of contacts from a third party, under any circumstance
• Never append email addresses to an existing contact database: email addresses must always and only have explicitly being opted-in.
• Never send any messages to a publicly available list of contacts
• Never harvest contacts (e.g. e-mail addresses) on the Internet

We do not provide refunds (unless a technical malfunction caused an error in your campaign). If a user violates any of the terms outlined above, we reserve the right to cancel accounts, or bar access to accounts, without refund. If, for some reason, we are unable to process your credit card order, we will attempt to contact you by email and we will suspend usage of your account until your payment can be processed. You agree to pay for all emails you send from your account, even if messages are blocked by any third party (we have no control over your recipients’ email servers, ISP availability, personal spam filter settings, etc.)

ISP and Blacklist Relationships

We share information regarding our policies and practices with Blacklist administrators and ISPs and are genuinely keen to discuss potential improvements to reduce any abuse. If you are an ISP, blacklist or mail administrator and would like to contact us, please email abuse@ColumbusCircleMedia.com.

Anti-spam Complaints

Do you suspect you have received spam from a user of our network? Please paste the headers of the email you received into the body of your email and send it to: abuse@ColumbusCircleMedia.com.

ISPs and Blacklist administrators can also contact us at abuse@ColumbusCircleMedia.com. If you do receive unwanted or unsolicited email from a Columbus Circle Media client, please click the unsubscribe link in the footer of the email.