Cyber Promotions, Inc.

http://www.cyberpromo.com/

Promotional material for advertisers is at http://www.cyberpromo.com/truths.html

A defensive approach to dealing with complainants was adopted in late 1996, as evidenced by an email message that was widely distributed.

By early 1997, however, Cyber Promotions was adopting a much more aggressive stance, at http://www.cyberpromo.com/tactics.html

It was also pursuing a very strong marketing campaign against its competitors, specifically MCI ans Compuserve, based on those ISP's anti-spamming stances.


Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 20:06:52 -0500 (EST)

Message-Id: <199611040106.UAA15906@gamut>

From: abusebot@savetrees.com (Mail AutoResponder)

Subject: RESPONSE FROM CYBERPROMO

Version 10-9-96:

Cyber Promotions has started to implement stricter Terms of Service policies WITH TEETH. We have just recently terminated several accounts for abuse of our policies. (Updated TOS at end of message).

The following email accounts have been *recently TERMINATED...

*jrtkjs@savetrees.com 10-9-96: Forgery and spamming INTERNET

*jrtkjs@answerme.com "" "" "" "" "" ""

*dollars@savetrees.com Non-existant account. The account was forged by the people who opened the accounts above.

*info1@cyberpromo.com 10-8-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*changes@answerme.com 9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*changes@cyberpromo.com 9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*changes@savetrees.com 9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*catalog@savetrees.com 9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*catalog@cyberpromo.com 9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*catalog@answerme.com 9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*eleven@answerme.com 9-28-96: Forgeries

*eleven@savetrees.com 9-28-96: Forgeries

*eleven@answerme.com 9-28-96: Forgeries

*tsahk@cyberpromo.com 9-27-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*tsahk@answerme.com 9-27-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*icssender@omni.cyberpromo.com 9-19-96: FORGED unsolicited email, making it appear that Cyberpromo's auto-sender was responsible. If you are in receipt of the message, please look through the headers and complain to the appropriate postmasters.

networkes@answerme.com 9-17-96: Ignored remove requests

networkes@cyberpromo.com 9-17-96: Ignored remove requests

networkes@savetrees.com 9-17-96: Ignored remove requests

reminders@answerme.com 9-17-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

reminders@savetrees.com 9-17-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

reminders@cyberpromo.com 9-17-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

salespromo@answerme.com 9-16-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

salespromo@savetrees.com "" "" "" ""

salespromo@cyberpromo.com "" "" "" ""

promo@answerme.com "" "" "" ""

promo@savetrees.com "" "" "" ""

promo@cyberpromo.com "" "" "" ""

info4free@answerme.com "" "" "" ""

info4free@savetrees.com "" "" "" ""

info4free@cyberpromo.com "" "" "" ""

manda@cyberpromo.com 8-28: Massive abuse to INTERNET addresses / FORGERY

manda@answerme.com 8-28: Massive abuse to INTERNET addresses / FORGERY

website@cyberpromo.com 8-27: excessive abuse to AOL / removals ignored

sevenmil@cyberpromo.com 8-27: excessive abuse / all removals ignored

sevenmil@answerme.com 8-27: "" "" "" "" "" ""

vera@cyberpromo.com

vera@answerme.com

zol@answerme.com

website@answerme.com

allied@cyberpromo.com

allied@answerme.com

lists@cyberpromo.com

lists@answerme.com

If you have a complaint about an account that was not listed above, please forward it to our President's personal account: wallace@cyberpromo.com

We currently operate the following servers:

answerme.com

cyberpromo.com

omni.cyberpromo.com

gamut.cyberpromo.com

We DO NOT operate the following servers:

uunet

interramp

athens.servint

cais

postman.com

powernet

pwrsite

Cyber Promotions is *not* in business to annoy people. We are in the business of sending (and assisting in sending) commercial (and noncommercial) email to people who are *not* offended by the receipt of these messages. Unfortunately, due to many experiences (many of which were out of our control) we have had some problems accomplishing our goals without upsetting some people. We are truly sorry about that fact, and we plan to "clean up the streets" as best as we can.

Some people have been under the impression that all email that appears to come from cyberpromo.com, is from Cyber Promotions. That is not true. Most of the complaints that we have recently received have been in reaction to people who have "autoresponders" and "virtual email addresses" on our system. In that case, their mail would have referenced an account on our system, but originated from a different site. Unfortunately, software like Pegasus enables their mail to appear as if it came from us, driectly. But, their true origination is still evident in the headers. You can determine where it originated if you know how to decode headers. But when doing so, remember that Pegasus, for example, actually logs into *our* sendmail. At this time, the only messages that originate from Cyber Promotions, use our proprietary Cyber Sender 2.1+ protocol which will always be indicated in the organization: header.

Due to these "look alikes," it could appear that recipients' remove request were being ignored. WE DO NOT IGNORE REMOVE REQUESTS.

We now also maintain a "master" remove list of people who have asked to be removed from all commercial mailing lists. If you have received an email from "Cyber Sender 2.1+", our new proprietary transport agent protocol, then the remove features *do* work properly, now that all of the bugs have been fixed (uppercase and lowercase now match, too). No mail is allowed out of our system, if the recipient's address is in our master remove list.

We currently have over 1.1 million email addresses in that file. If you wish to add your address to that master remove list, you can do so in two different ways. 1. You can send an email to remove@cyberpromo.com and type "REMOVE ALL" in the subject or message field. Our systems will automatically permanently remove from our system the email address from which you sent your request. 2. You may also send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type as many email addresses as you wish in the body of the message, each on its own line, without any comments. The subject line is ignored. That address will also permanently remove the addresses. Please note: we have no control over mail that originates from other sites, that travel through our SMTP (relay-host) servers. We will simply terminate any accounts that we maintain, that is referred to in their abusive mail.

ATTENTION PRODIGY MEMBERS:

It has come to Cyber Promotions' attention, that some of you are having a major problem removing yourselves from our lists. This can be attributed to the "alias" that your outgoing mail may contain. If you are having problems, please send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type both of your email addresses in the body of the message, each on its own line, without any comments. The subject line is ignored. You probably have one address like xazd35r@prodigy.com and another address like sanford@prodigy.com.

ATTENTION PIPELINE MEMBERS:

It has come to Cyber Promotions' attention, that some of you are having a major problem removing yourselves from our lists. This can be attributed to the "alias" that your outgoing mail may contain. If you are having problems, please send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type your email addresses in the body of the message, each on its own line, without any comments. The subject line is ignored. You should type your email id followed by the following THREE domains. @usa.pipeline.com, @pipeline.com, @nyc.pipeline.com. Even if you feel that your address is definately only one of the three possibilities, you should still remove all three addresses (each on its own line).

ATTENTION INTERNET USERS:

It has come to Cyber Promotions' attention, that some of you are having a major problem removing yourselves from our lists. This can be attributed to the "alias" that your outgoing mail may contain. If you are having problems, please send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type your email addresses in the body of the message, each on its own line, without any comments. The subject line is ignored. If your email address could contain an alias like mail.domain.com or if you may have more that one email address that points to another email address, you should remove them all. If you wish to remove *every* email address in your domain, please contact us, and we will "grep" out every possibility.

REVISED TERMS OF SERVICE:

(We are also looking into the possibility that we may be forced to adopt the policies of our backbone providers. For the time being, we are emulating their policies as best as we can while matching the needs of our operations.)

1. We do not allow postings to inappropriate newsgroups with reference to your account because such postings result in *MUCH* more negative response than positive.

2. We prohibit the advertising of offensive material (ie. pornography, weapons, etc).

3. You may not use the account to participate in illegal activities.

4. Our TOS strictly prohibits the sending of mass commercial emails to INTERNET addresses, unless expressed permission has been granted to you by the recipient.

In addition, you *must* honor all requests for removal from your mailing list in a diligent manner. Our service can be used in conjunction with advertisements that you place with a bulk email company other than your own or us, as long as they follow the same guidelines.

5. Cyber Promotions reserves the right to terminate any account for any reason at any time, without notice.

If you would like to send a complaint about any account @cyberpromo.com or @answerme.com or @omni.cyberpromo.com that has not been terminated, please send email to: wallace@cyberpromo.com


Copy of http://www.cyberpromo.com/tactics.html, at 25 January 1997:

ANTI-COMMERCIAL EMAIL TACTICS
IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING ANTI-COMMERCIAL TACTICS!

Even though Cyber Promotions proudly receives repeat orders from 84% of our email advertisers, we think it is important to send you this announcement.

Cyber Promotions has recently learned that some of the recipients of our email have contacted advertisers to discourage them from advertising via email. We want to set some things straight.

Many of these individuals are the same people who feel that the World Wide Web, Online Services and the Internet should have never been commercialized. They feel that the Internet was supposed to be a closed community, immune to the "evil" outside real-world.

First of all, some of Cyber Promotions' email recipients still claim that they can not get removed from our list. We have investigated many of these claims, and what we have discovered is amazing. Many of the people who complain about our alleged non-compliance to removal requests have actually SUBSCRIBED to our mailing list for the sole purpose of giving us and our advertisers a hard time. If you experience a situation like this, simply unsubscribe the complainer FOR THEM. Simply send email to: manremove@cyberpromo.com and list the internet email addresses of the complainers, each on its own line, without any other text. This way, their email addresses will be removed permanently. And yes, they could do the same thing, but odds are that they haven't even tried to do so. Cyber Promotions' removal system DOES WORK! Some of these people claim that they have tried to remove themselves 50 to 100 times to no avail. IF YOU DOUBT THAT OUR REMOVE PROCESS WORKS, WE INVITE YOU TO TRY IT YOURSELF, WITH YOUR OWN EMAIL ADDRESS. Removal will take place within 36 hours. Make sure to set up a different screen name or email address so that we can add you back to the list. To get added back to our mailing list, simply call us at (215) 628-9780 or fax us at (215) 628-2523, and we will do it for you. (It must be a different screen name than your removed address because removal is permanent.)

Second of all, some recipients still claim that this new form of direct advertising is analogous to postage-due advertising like unsolicited collect phone calls. IT'S SIMPLY NOT TRUE! You, the advertiser *pay* for the ad; Cyber Promotions *pays* top dollar to purchase and maintain high-end equipment, software, and multiple high-speed connections to the internet; The recipient pays NOTHING to receive the email. Most Internet Service Providers, INCLUDING AOL, DO NOT CHARGE EXTRA for receiving and reading email or connection time.

So, if people claim that direct email marketing on the internet is unethical, they probably feel the same way about the multi-billion-dollar direct postal mail industry and phone solicitations. Now, we do understand that some people do not like to receive direct advertising from any medium, but think about how much EASIER it is to delete an email message or remove yourself from an email list as compared to postal mail and phone solicitations.

Also, some people try to scare email advertisers by stating that the unsolicited fax laws apply to commercial email. (There is a civil statute that states that one can be fined up to $500 for sending an unsolicited fax to an unwilling recipient.) There has not been one court case to date that succesfully applied the fax statute to the practice of sending commercial emails! The courts recognize that faxing and emailing are VERY DIFFERENT! Faxes use the recipients ink and paper, and ties up their phone line. Emails only use ink and paper if the recipient chooses to print it out. And, multiple emails can be received at the same time, so one email does not tie up the line. And finally, technology is being made available to help Internet users filter out unwanted emails. There is no such technology for the facsimile machine.

So, don't let people convince you that you are doing anything wrong by trying to make an honest living by promoting your business through this extremely exciting new medium!

Cyber Promotions business goals are very simple. We want to send commercial email messages to recipients who WANT THE EMAIL! The end result is a highly effective means of getting YOUR message out to over 1.5 MILLION *INTERESTED* RECIPIENTS for a FRACTION OF THE COST of any other direct advertising alternative! It's really that simple.

Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.

Please feel free to send any feedback... feedback3@cyberpromo.com


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Created: 25 January 1997

Last Amended: 25 January 1997


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