What is spam?

The CAN-SPAM Act, governed by the FTC covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service.

Spam, as defined by the FTC is prohibited by the CAN-SPAM Act. This consists of false or misleading header information:

  1. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message
  2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
  3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
  4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address.
  5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future.
  6. Honor opt-out requests within 10 business days. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message.
  7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law.

Scout helps you comply with all of these requirements by building safeguards into the platform that will prevent you from sending anything that the FTC may consider as SPAM.

What is Google’s email policy?

  1. Don’t use Gmail to distribute spam or unsolicited commercial mail.
  2. You are not allowed to use Gmail to send email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act or other anti-spam laws; to send unauthorized email via open, third-party servers; or to distribute the email addresses of any person without their consent.
  3. You are not allowed to automate the Gmail interface, whether to send, delete, or filter emails, in a manner that misleads or deceives users.

Am I sending SPAM?