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To give SpamKiller its due, it appears to be an excellent product. There's a free 30 day download available at http://www.spamkiller.com . I downloaded it myself to see what, if any, cautions are given to users about the need to make sure that the recipient of the complaint is, in fact, responsible for the email concerned.

Well, there is such a caution but it took me a good 45 minutes to find it. The software comes with an excellent, comprehensive built-in help facility. Tucked away at the end of the page on "Sending manual complaints" is the caution:

"Note: SpamKiller does not check that the loaded addresses are appropriate for the selected message. Don't use a ... complaint unless you are certain that its recipients are responsible for the spam that you are complaining about."

I would respectfully suggest that this warning be displayed in a more prominent position, coupled with warnings about what can happen to those who use the software in an irresponsible manner so as to ensnare innocent parties.

Let's start with the individual who generated the complaint in the first place. This is the person using the SpamKiller software. His email to me (which was auto-generated by SpamKiller) contained the following subject line:

"UCE Complaint (So-and-So Newsletter*)"

The body started out:

"I have received the attached unsolicited e-mail from someone at your domain. [He had not.]

"I do not wish to receive such messages in the future, so please take the appropriate measures to ensure that this unsolicited e-mail is not repeated.

"--- This message was intercepted by SpamKiller (www.spamkiller.com) ---"

The full text of the intercepted message followed.

The header of the offending email clearly showed that the sender of the email was someone from so-and-so.com*. Unfortunately, the newsletter concerned contained virtually nothing but my article interrupted by what I assume were paid ads.

I'm sure that the paid advertisers in this particular ezine also received a complaint and that WeStopSpam.net received a copy and automatically forwarded it to the advertiser's ISP and/or webhost who may or may not have shut them down, at least temporarily. (Hopefully not all webhosts are of the calibre of DumbHost when it comes to this sort of thing.)

So, this individual, in his zealousness to rid the Internet of spam, blithely dragged the names and reputations of at least half a dozen perfectly innocent bystanders through the mud.

The moral of the story? If you use spam-filtering software and the complaint-generating function that comes with it, have the common decency and responsibility to stop and think about who you're adding to your hitlist. If you don't, and you get it wrong, don't be surprised to find a process- server on your doorstep.

Un-Due Process SpamKiller Kills Business
Un-Due Process
© 2001 Elena Fawkner

"Automatic complaints are sent when a filter whose action is set to Kill after complaining is triggered. For each filter, you can configure who the complaint should be sent to. ... The message body is also scanned for e-mail and website addresses. If any addresses are found, they're added to the lists mentioned above." Source: http://www.spamkiller.com/Features.html

SpamKiller is spam filtering software. Its purpose is to scan incoming email for spam and take appropriate action in response to those messages that are identified as spam, such as automatic deletion. Another handy function is that the software allows the user to generate automatic and manual complaint emails which the user then sends to the webmaster of the offending domain as well as any number of other recipients such as spam-reporting "authorities" and the webhost and/or ISP of the person sending the offending mail.

Good idea, you say? Fair enough, you say? Well ... maybe. Note the quote above: "... The message body is also scanned for e-mail and website addresses ... [and] added to the lists mentioned above", i.e. the list of recipients of the complaint.

Now, imagine this. Let's say you're a paying advertiser in my ezine. Your ad contains your URL and email address. I spam mail my ezine or send it to someone who forgets they subscribed and they think it's spam.

Imagine further that the recipient of my so-called spam uses SpamKiller software (or some similar program). The software scans the message header and extracts the relevant information about the person who sent the email (me). Fair enough. Assuming that it IS spam, of course.

But the capability of the software doesn't stop there. As mentioned in the above quote, it also scans the message BODY, which contains your ad, and adds your URL and email address to the list of recipients of the complaint. The ever-diligent big-spam-hunter also makes sure that one or more spam-reporting "authorities" is copied on the complaint.

WeStopSpam.net*, diligent, professional organization that it is, immediately and automatically forwards the complaint to abuse@yourdomain.com and your webhost, an equally diligent, professional organization shuts your site down for three days for spamming.

You, of course, learn about all of this AFTER the event.

Think it can't happen to you? Think again. It happened to me. This week. Except I wasn't a paying advertiser in the offending ezine. The publisher of the ezine reprinted one of my articles. The article contained my resource box. The resource box contained my website URL. SpamKiller added my URL to the list of recipients of the email complaining of the "spam", copied WeStopSpam.net and WeStopSpam.net forwarded the email to abuse@ahbbo.com with the result that my webhost, DumbHost*, shut down my site for what was to be three days.

The actual downtime was two hours. By that time I had threatened to sue and they finally got around to actually READING the offending email and realizing that I, in fact, was just an innocent bystander.

There is so much that is wrong in this whole scenario that it's hard to know where to begin.

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What's A Blog?

By Marketing Basics

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the article is not altered and the resource box is left intact. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. Send to: marbasics@yahoo.com

According to the dictionary, a blog is:

"A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links."

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write content on an ongoing basis. As you add content to your blog, new posts are automatically positioned on top of previous posts, so your visitors can see "what's new." Then they can comment on it or link to it or e-mail you if they choose to do so.

A blog can be a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

A blog is often a combination of what's happening in someone's personal and business life and what is happening on the web--a kind of high-tech, hybrid diary/guide site-- and there are seemingly as many unique types of blogs as there are people.

Although, you've probably only recently started hearing about blogs, individuals actually maintained blogs long before the term was coined or became popular--but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Google's Blogger at blogger.com.

Thousands of individuals use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process.

Blogs are also called web logs or weblogs. However, the name "blog" is less confusing, because "web log" can also mean a server's log files.

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Marketing Basics specializes in writing articles that teach, explain and define basic marketing principles and techniques. http://marketingbasics.blogspot.com/

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According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, the word "Blog" was the number one top searched word of 2004 because EVERYONE wants to know what blogs are and how to use them.That definition is: Blog noun [short for Weblog] : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Below are over 30 informative articles on blogs, RSS Feeds and how to use them to enhance your business and, if you choose, to use blogs for your online business to increase search engine ranking and traffic to your web site. Good Luck!