FanBridge Anti-Spam Policy

Last Updated: February 1, 2006

FanBridge has a no tolerance spam policy.

For Email Recipients, ISPs, and Blacklist Admins

FanBridge has a no tolerance spam policy. User accounts will be terminated if they send unsolicited email messages. Please report any suspected abuse to abuse@FanBridge.com. ISPs and blacklist administrators may contact us at abuse@FanBridge.com. Please forward the complete email in question, including headers. If applicable, please also unsubscribe from the newsletter using the link at the bottom of the email if you no longer wish to receive emails from the sender. We will take the appropriate action against the sender of the email in question.

What Does ‘Opt-in’ Mean?

All users of FanBridge must agree to only send opt-in email newsletters as part of agreeing to the Terms of Service. This means that all recipients sent to must have opted-in to receive communications from the sending organization.
An opt-in can occur either via a signup form on a web site, or on a physical signup sheet. Any opt-in form should include a clear description of what will be sent and how often it will be sent. Users may also send business communications to persons they have done business with in the past, as long as it has not been longer than twelve months since the last communication and the recipient has not previously requested to unsubscribe. Purchased lists may not be used within the FanBridge system, regardless of the source or permission status.

As a user of FanBridge, you may not:

• Harvest emails from web sites
  
• Purchase lists (whether they are opt-in or not)
  
• Have a pre-checked field on your subscription form
  
• Have a subscription form that subscribes users to an unrelated list
  
• Send out unrelated offers or unrelated content to your newsletter list
  
• Add an email address into a list without the subscriber’s permission
  
• Email someone who has requested to be removed from your list
  

You may:

• Send out a regular newsletter to a recipient who has opted-in to receive it
  
• Send out information and content to recipients who have requested to receive content on that topic from your organization

Policy Enforcement

FanBridge has a no tolerance spam policy. The strict measures we take to enforce our policy include, but are not limited to:

• We review and monitor large list imports. This includes a review of the list source, list age, collection methods, and confirmation practices.
  
• Our staff reviews messages sent to large numbers of recipients
  
• We require a user to initial the following statement prior to sending any campaign: “I personally certify this email is a valid communication and is not SPAM or any other unsolicited communication.”
  
• A record is saved of every email that is sent through the system.
  
• Any customer found to be using FanBridge for spam will be immediately cut-off from use of the product
  
• We maintain the IP address and date subscribed for every new subscriber
  
• Every email, whether text or HTML, contains a mandatory one-click unsubscribe/opt-out link at the bottom of the message. This unsubscribe link cannot be removed.
  

Procedure for Handling Complaints

We have a no tolerance spam policy. Your account will be immediately terminated if you send spam. Spam is defined as unsolicited mass email to persons with whom you do not have a business relationship or have not requested (opted-in to) your mailing. FanBridge is intended for users who have an established list of permission-based opt-in email addresses. We provide our product only to those who follow our strict anti-spam policy.

To determine whether you have sent spam we will

• Review the spam complaint(s)
• Review the content of the message(s) in question
• Review your subscriber list for patterns common to harvested lists
• View the records to see when the subscriber was subscribed and their IP address
  

Transfer of Subscribers

Please note that a subscriber subscribing to one of your lists does NOT give you permission to transfer them to other lists or send them content (even if it is through the same list) that differs from the content subscribed to.

Blacklist Admin and ISP Relations

FanBridge has built relationships with many of the leading ISPs and blacklist administrators. These relationships usually involve the sharing of information regarding policies, practices and issues. If you are an ISP, mail administrator or blacklist owner and would like to get in touch with us, please email contact@FanBridge.com.

What tests can I apply to ensure I'm not sending Spam?

1. Are you importing a purchased or rented list of ANY kind?
2. Are you sending to non-specific addresses such as:
   contact@domain.com, business@domain.com, webmaster@domain.com, info@domain.com, or other general addresses.
3. Do you have any abuse@, postmaster@, or hostmaster@ domains on your list?
4. Are you sending to distribution lists or mailing lists which send indirectly to a variety of email addresses?
5. Are you mailing to anyone who has not explicitly agreed to join your mailing list?
6. Does your email subject line contain false or misleading information?