Anti-Spam at Mosento international
[We don't wait for complaints. We effectively prevent them.]
While it may seem obvious, we want to make it clear that inundating internet users with spam is entirely unacceptable.
In this post, we will explain our definition of spam at Mosento international and emphasize that we do not tolerate it under any circumstances. Additionally, we will outline the security measures we have implemented to prevent spam from being sent through our mail servers. Finally, we will describe the actions we take when we identify a customer violating the provisions of our Anti-Spam Policy.
What is [Spam]?
If you ask this question to ten different people, you will likely get ten different answers.
Email senders like Mosento international strive for a unified definition: spam is unwanted (advertising) emails. In English, such emails are known as unsolicited bulk email (UBE). You can learn more about this definition on the Spamhaus project's website at www.spamhaus.org/consumer/definition/.
Spamhaus representatives, when presenting their definition, highlight that they consider it acceptable to conduct email advertising on a "one on one" basis, meaning sending advertising emails to an individual who doesn't know the sender. However, it is no longer deemed acceptable when the same advertisement is sent via email to multiple recipients. This is especially true if these individuals haven't given explicit consent for receiving advertising.
From our perspective, this definition is not comprehensive because spam encompasses much more. For us, spam is anything that recipients classify as spam in their emails. Therefore, it is crucial for our customers to adhere to the provisions outlined in this Anti-Spam Policy.
Our [anti-spam security] measures
To prevent our mail servers from being abused for spam, we have implemented essential security measures in our email marketing software. Below, we will outline these measures in detail.
Double Opt-in procedure
Mosento International is exclusively designed for permission-based email marketing. This means that our customers can only send emails to their recipients if they have obtained explicit consent on a specific subject matter. At Mosento International, all customers utilize the Double Opt-in procedure. With the Double Opt-in process, we ensure that the email addresses entered into the registration forms are valid and that the owners of these addresses genuinely wish to receive information related to the topics covered on our customers' respective websites. This safeguards our customers against costly legal actions such as cease-and-desist orders.
The Double Opt-in procedure involves two steps. In the first step, the prospect enters their email address into the registration form and submits it. Immediately afterward, our system sends a confirmation email to the provided email address. The recipient is requested to confirm their desire to receive future emails from the sender by clicking on the confirmation link. Only when the recipient complies with this request, their email address is added to the sender's address book. If there is no response within a few days ("time out"), Mosento International will cease sending any further emails to that address.
Unsubscribing is easy
Every email sent by our customers using Mosento International includes an unsubscribe link as part of the signature at the end of the email. It is not possible to send an email without an unsubscribe link using Mosento International.
Recipients who sign up through a registration form must have the confidence that they can unsubscribe at any time without any complications. They can do so with peace of mind because at Mosento International, the unsubscribe process takes immediate effect. In other words, it becomes effective immediately after clicking on the unsubscribe link. When a recipient clicks on the unsubscribe link, their email address is removed from the tags specified by the recipient during the unsubscription process. This ensures that they will no longer receive emails from that particular customer.
Our unsubscribe links are always shorter than 68 characters to ensure correct functionality in every email program.
To make the unsubscription process as simple as possible for recipients, we include the List-Unsubscribe attribute in all outgoing emails. This attribute also contains the unsubscribe link and, additionally, a specific email address for subscribers who prefer to unsubscribe via email from receiving further messages from the sender.
Well-known Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Hotmail and Gmail prominently display the corresponding unsubscribe link in their user interfaces for emails with the List-Unsubscribe attribute. This makes it even easier for recipients of our customers to unsubscribe from their address book. They do not need to scroll to the end of the email to click on the unsubscribe link.
Legal Notice and Own Email Address
Within the permission-based email marketing system of Mosento International, various users send emails to their target audiences. Therefore, ISPs expect us to clearly indicate the senders of incoming emails. Another requirement from ISPs is that the emails of our customers should include a valid legal notice (provider identification) with a valid postal address. Every email sent by our customers to their target audience is equipped with a valid legal notice.
We automatically place the corresponding information as part of the signature at the end of the email. As a precautionary measure, when an account reaches a certain number of recipients, we verify whether the account owner's legal notice is correct.
Each customer sets up their own email address with us. This email address serves as both the sending and reply-to address at Mosento International. This means that every email sent by our customers to their recipients is sent using their email address. Likewise, responses from recipients to autoresponders or newsletters are directed to this email address.
This approach allows ISPs and us to clearly determine which of our customers sent a specific email. Additionally, the emails from our customers have a personal touch for their recipients because they are not sent using a no-reply@ or no-response@ email address. Finally, the own email address also plays an important role in user whitelisting and our global bounce management.
Global Bounce Management
Almost all ISPs urge email senders not to send emails to recipients whose email addresses no longer exist. And for a good reason: these emails are pure data waste that unnecessarily burdens the limited server capacity of ISPs. At Mosento International, we have implemented a fully automated global bounce management system. Our system distinguishes between hard bounces, which occur due to permanent errors (such as when the recipient's email address no longer exists), and soft bounces, which are sent in case of temporary issues (such as when the recipient's mailbox storage capacity is exceeded). When our mail servers receive a hard bounce, the email address that triggered the hard bounce is immediately 1) removed from the customer's address book who sent the email responsible for the hard bounce, and 2) added to our database in a global exclusion list. Email addresses that generate soft bounces are also removed from the address book and added to the global exclusion list after the third soft bounce. Before each send, our mail server automatically deletes the email addresses contained in the global exclusion list from the mailing list. Therefore, we do not send emails to addresses that have previously triggered a hard bounce for any of our customers. All our customers benefit from our system's sending history because we do not deliver any emails - neither autoresponders nor newsletters - to the email addresses in the global exclusion list.
Email Authentication
ISPs generally take extensive measures to protect their networks from spam. On the other hand, spammers constantly employ new techniques to bypass ISP security measures and sneak their unwanted advertising messages past spam filters and blacklists.
One popular technique used by spammers is called email forging. This is done to conceal the origin of their emails. To enable ISPs to clearly determine whether an email containing a Mosento International email address as the sender actually originates from us, we have implemented the following three methods of email authentication on our mail servers:
• Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
• Sender ID
• DomainKeys and DomainKey Identified Mail (DKIM)
Our DNS contains all the necessary information for using these methods. (DNS stands for Domain Name System, which refers to a distributed database that manages the namespace in the Internet.) We include digital signatures in every outgoing email, whether it's an autoresponder or a newsletter, allowing ISPs to authenticate our emails using the DomainKeys/DKIM procedures.
Spam Complaint Score
Even with extensive technical measures against spam, it is still possible for a few "black sheep" to send unwanted advertising messages to their confirmed recipients, which may be classified as spam by the recipients. To be informed about spam incidents in a timely manner and take appropriate actions, we calculate a spam complaint score for each user account. This user-specific metric indicates the ratio of spam complaints received by us to the number of sent emails (autoresponders and newsletters).
It is an unwritten rule that ISPs add email senders whose spam complaint scores exceed 1 percent to their blacklists. The consequences of such listings for the sender are severe: all their future emails will no longer land in the recipients' inboxes but will be filtered into their spam folders, if they even make it that far. In other words, if only 1 percent of recipients click the "spam" button in their email program, future emails will not be delivered to the remaining 99 percent of the target audience.
For this reason, a central element of this anti-spam policy is that the spam complaint score for each customer must always remain below 0.2 percent. For example, if a customer using Mosento International sends 1,000 emails, no more than two spam complaints should be received as a result of that mailing.
Our customers are obligated, within the framework of this anti-spam policy, to responsibly use our email marketing software and ensure that this threshold is never exceeded. We are compelled to sever ties with customers who cannot guarantee this, whose spam complaint scores significantly or repeatedly exceed the 0.2 percent mark.
Recipients who consider the content of an email as spam typically take one of the following actions:
• They scroll to the end of the email and click on the unsubscribe link.
• They click the spam button in their email program.
• They send us an email at abuse@mosento.co.uk.
Clicking the unsubscribe link has no impact on the spam complaint score. It is natural for a portion of the target audience to lose interest in a topic and unsubscribe from receiving emails from a specific provider over time in email marketing.
However, if a recipient clicks the spam button in their email client, some ISPs inform us through their feedback loop programs. ISPs like AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo! offer email senders the option to register for their feedback loop programs. When a recipient clicks the spam button in an email, these ISPs send a special email to us. Based on the information contained therein, we can identify which recipient clicked the spam button and which of our customers sent the mailing.
Upon receiving such an email, we remove the recipient who marked the email as spam from the customer's list and increase the number of spam complaints in that user account by one. This, in turn, raises the spam complaint score for the user account. The same happens when a recipient sends us an email at abuse@mosento.co.uk. We take spam complaints very seriously and investigate each individual case.
As you may have gathered from our explanations, we do not consider spam to be just "unwanted" promotional emails, meaning emails sent to individuals who have not given permission for their delivery. This would be practically impossible within the scope of our technical anti-spam security measures. Instead, we define spam as anything that recipients classify as spam.
In the following sections, we will show you how, as our customer, you can ensure that your spam complaint score always remains below the critical threshold of 0.2 percent.
What You Must Not Do with Your Mosento International Account
When a website visitor enters their information into a sign-up form and subsequently confirms their desire to receive emails by clicking the link in the confirmation email, it does not grant you permission to send them emails on any imaginable topic.
Instead, with Mosento International, you are only allowed to send emails containing information directly related to the subject of the website on which the recipients signed up. Let us provide you with an example.
Internet users who sign up on a website about "Football Training Tips" expect high-quality information specifically related to that topic. These users only permit the website operator to send them messages about "Football Training Tips." If the operator not only publishes such messages but also offers an e-book on football training tips for purchase, they are welcome to promote the e-book to their subscribers using Mosento International. However, they are not allowed to send advertisements for a sports betting provider. (If the website operator wishes to send advertisements for sports betting providers, the core theme of the website where they have integrated their Mosento International sign-up form must be sports betting.)
As our customer, it is crucial that you strictly adhere to this rule, as it delineates the boundaries of permission-based email marketing. By following this principle, you will significantly increase your online sales with our email marketing service.
What happens if a customer does not abide by these principles?
As mentioned earlier, we consider spam to be anything that recipients classify as spam. In our view, this includes providing unrelated information to properly confirmed email addresses.
If we discover that a customer using their Mosento International account is sending unrelated information or their spam complaint score exceeds the threshold of 0.2 percent, we take the following measures:
• We immediately suspend the customer's account.
• Any fees already paid will not be refunded.
• As spam can disrupt or cause irregularities in our customer service, we will pursue legal action against the customer for damages.
We do not make blanket judgments but thoroughly investigate all potential spam incidents before making a decision. However, if a decision goes against a customer, we act swiftly. If you are unsure whether your intentions could be classified as spam, please contact us through our contact form or open a support ticket. We are happy to assist you in clarifying your questions.
What You Can Do If One of Our Customers Sends You Spam
If you suspect that a Mosento International user has sent you spam, please forward the relevant email to us. Use the email address abuse [at] mosento.co.uk for this purpose. Briefly explain the reason for your suspicion in your message. We take all spam complaints very seriously and will promptly investigate each spam allegation.
We hope that our Anti-Spam Policy has been helpful to you. If you have any questions about our Anti-Spam Policy, please send us a message using our contact form. We look forward to personally responding to you.