Web Site Trades Coupons For Recycled Spam
May 13, 1999
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., A coalition of Internet groups has put ane-commerce twist on its efforts to fight spam by offering consumers coupons from online retailers in exchange for turning in their unsolicited commercial e-mail messages.
ChooseYourMail.com, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, the Forum for Responsible and Ethical E-mail and American Computer Group have joined forces to create the Spam Recycling Center ( spamrecycle.com ).
Visitors can forward their unsolicited e-mails to the Web site, where they are then catalogued and sent to the Federal Trade Commission and e-mail filtering organizations.
Participants who clicked on the site on Tuesday could sign up for a $5 discount off any purchase from CDNow. So far, CDNow is the only online retailer that has committed to offer deals on the spam recycling site, but the coalition is hoping to alternate retailers on the site in the future, said Ian Oxman, president of ChooseYourMail, which is spearheading the coalition.
The spam recycling site also provides information on pending anti-spam legislation and allows participants to sign a petition asking Congress to restrict unsolicited messages on the Internet.
"We want consumers to use this as an ongoing resource," Oxman told Newsbytes. The site, which was launched on Tuesday morning, was averaging about a hit every two seconds, he said.
The coalition hopes to use the site to raise awareness about spam among the public and legislators, as well as to promote "responsible" Internet marketing techniques. For instance, ChooseYourMail -- a liaison for e-mail marketers, Netizens and Internet service providers -- is promoting on the site the "opt- in," or voluntary, e-mail marketing of its clients. Visitors can sign up, if they wish, to receive free information on everything from women's apparel to books.
"This may look like charity work, but we think it's in the best interest of e- commerce as a whole," said ChooseYourMail's public relations director Anthony Phepps.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com
(19990511/WIRES ONLINE, BUSINESS, LEGAL/)
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