4QD run strict Anti-Spam domains!
Domains that I run as part of the 4QD organisation are
This page may sound uncharitable, off-putting and maybe even rude. I am not going to apologise since that is exactly what is intended - to spammers!
4QD do not like junk sales contacts of any sort, whether by phone, fax or email. Therefore as a matter of policy we report every incident, no matter how small, via SpamCop.
The internet is not for advertising: if people want information, then they will browse the web. That is the purpose of the www. Email is for communication as a result of www site visits, or for other purposes. It is not a sales contact medium!
Email is also not a medium for initial sales contacts - unless this is very relevant to the business of the contactee. Selling should be done by advertising - and on the www that means having a www site which attracts visitors of the type who may be interested in your products.
It has been predicted that marketing via email will increase in bulk dramatically in the coming years. That is unacceptable. In principle, 4QD do not respond to cold calling of any sort and we do not approve of UCE in any form.
If you are a browser, who is here by chance and you are not a spammer - then the only way to stop the growth of UCE in general is to discourage it. Do not respond to UCE. Do not show interest in a product which has been introduced via email - or any other sort of cold calling, for that matter. Do not make UCE profitable to the spammer! If it is unprofitable, it will stop, but only then.
So what do we define as 'spam'
Other names for 'Spam' are Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE); Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) and Mass mail.
So what is a working definition? Unsolicited - easy. But Bulk? Well, we can only guess. If the email looks to be sent out as a general mailing and not in response to something on our site then it will look like it has been 'harvested' and is being used by bulk emailers. These all generate an automatic complaint to any ISP that may be able to take the relevant action!
Sometimes a message is clearly spam - because multiple copies are received.
Oh yes - the other thing that always makes an email a spam is that it is trying to offer me something I do not want or trying to get me to do something! Since most things I want are easily obtained when I want them (unless they are very rare) there is only a vanishingly small chance of any unsolicited email arriving at exactly the correct time to catch my interest!
This means that almost every email that is trying to sell us anything at all is UCE: the only exception (of course) are ones that are replies to requests we ourselves have generated!
Spammers should also notice that 4QD's www address is 4QD.co.uk - the 'uk' on the end means United Kingdom! Any emails originating in North America that are trying to sell products or services which can only apply to North America are also, by definition, spam! So if your email address harvester is not intelligent enough to notice this fact - then you deserve to get your account terminated! We shall make our best attempts to assist your provider in doing just this!
Also note that I personally use a distinceive and unique address for usenet postings and for nothing else. Any communication which uses this email address and is not in response to a usenet posting must have been 'harvested' from usenet so must be a spam. All such harvesting is spamming and will be treated accordingly.
Spammers should also note that 4QD use RISC OS computers. These do not run standard IBM compatible programs: we do not run Windows (RISC OS have their own, superior window GUI - which predates Windows by several years, and still seems to be better in many respects). Any attempt to get us to buy software that only runs on an IBM compatible PC has to be a spam - and will be so treated!
This comment also applies to emails themselves: the proper format for email is straight ASCII text. If your email needs a Microsoft program to read it - don't bother! It is likely to be treated as spam!
You have been specially selected
Do not tell me that:
We are not interested in any US legislation - in case you hadn't noticed, our main domain is 4qd.co.uk - you should be intelligent enough to know that .uk is a United Kingdom domain and US laws simply do not apply!
We will, however, be delighted to request the removal of your Internet service!
Email lists for sale
Any email offering lists of email adressses for sale is automatically treated as spam and will be reported.
Acorn computers also have a very clever Junk Email program which scans emails intelligently looking for clues as to where the spam originated. It does an extremely efficient job! We use it to scan spams! Information on the Risc OS program !JunkMail
I am told that similar spam complainers exist for mainstream computers and a selection is available from Abuse.net
However, 4QD now use SpamCop and report all spams using their automated system.
We can detach almost anything you can attach (and usually more) but if it is a program, we probably won't be able to run it. Attachments are for data only! However it is very bad Netiquette to send unsolicited attachments - so contact us first to find establish a mutually compatible format - and to check that we are actually interested!
Do not send any HTML attachments. On more than one occasion when I have been wondering whether the email was spam or not, an HTML attachment has made me decide that is was! HTML belongs on WWW sites, not on emails.
Spam List Collectors and distributors
A separate page gives a list of email addresses of some whom we know collect or have collected lists of email addresses for distribution.
BTW: If you are considering buying one of these lists of email addresses, presumably the seller claims that all the addresses have opted in to receive emails? Just ask yourself who would be idiot enough to actually request to be on sent junk email? A very sad person indeed - unless maybe he's actually collecting spam to analyse. If you buy such a a list you have been duped!
There is also a page of special goodies for Spam-bots. It's a random HTML page generator that issues oodles of bogus email addresses. Hopefully this will congest them and any email list full of clearly bogus email addresses must loose sale value! If you try and sell us a list of email addresses - we'll add you to this list!
There is a lot written about Spam and spammers: it is a major problem. You will find interesting reading on these sites:
A short browse will bring up lots of other sites.
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