OT: Need advice: client wants to spam (ARGH!)

[Glenn Steen]

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On 11/11/05, Jason Balicki <kodak at frontierhomemortgage.com> wrote:
> Hey guys,
>
> Well, it's finally happened: I contract IT services for a client
> who I've heard through the grapevine is seriously considering
> spam as an option.  This company is a sub 20 person small
> business.
>
> First: let me say for the record that if I'm asked to implement
> this I will refuse and if they pursue this through other
> means I will sever the contract.

Thank you for that.

>
> That being said, I'd like to talk them out of it, as they're
> otherwise a good client and I'd like to keep them.  I'd like
> to think that if they were presented with all the information
> they'd back off.
>

Good plan.

> The problem is that everything I can find is more of the
> technical "how do I fight spam" kind of document, and not
> so much "why you shouldn't send spam, you idiot" and I'm
> looking for documents of the latter type to send to this
> client.
>
> They haven't approached me about this yet, I heard this
> from a mid-level employee who thought I should know that
> it may be coming.  I'd like to be armed with a bit more
> than "it's unethical" (although, really, that should
> be enough).  I can explain about botnets and viruses,
> worms and trojans till I'm blue in the face, but all
> that stuff is sort of esoteric to a non-techie who's
> just looking for a revenue stream.
>
> So, if anyone has any links, advice, or anything else
> please let me know.
>
> If I get a lot of good info, I'll try to aggregate it
> on the Wiki, too.
>
> Thanks a lot, guys,
>
> --J(K)
>

It's a question of common business sense.

As with any commercial endeavour, they should be interested in their
bottom line. You should probably not focus so much on the
unethical/unlawful aspects of it as on the effects of the badwill they
will generate. If they are serious in that they want to survive as a
company for any number of years, they will be interested in protecting
their good name. Using spam as a promotional channel is directly
contrary to this and, if they stop and think about it, this should be
pretty obvious. Do mention that the methods involved, if not the
actual sending of spam, are a) not legal in very many countries and b)
often operated by criminals of the sort any healthy company, big or
small, would shy away from being associated with.

As an example: The Swedish coffee brand Gevalia has been known to
appear (of their own volition or not) in spams. I and all persons
receiving such spam had three immediate reactions:
- Chuckle a bit over their apparent stupidity
- Strike them off the list of viable coffee brands
- Tell everyone we know not to buy their products
This would perhaps not be that bad in the short run, but let me elaborate:
I work for a government pension fund here in Sweden. The fund has
adopted a rather strong policy regarding ethics and morals, so these
things could affect our positions in the actual company employing spam
techniques (yes, we do trade small caps, so even really minor
endeavours might be affected). While this is centered on more "heavy
duty" breaches (human rights, labor rights etc), unethical/unlawful
activities _will_ gender action from the fund and its rather extensive
"ethics networking community". As such, the fund tries to work with
the companies to eliminate and prevent these activities, but...
Through "the network", substantial economical harm can be done to the
culprit, so most companies tend to take a mere warning seriously.
Since this type of focus on ethics/morality is becoming more common in
the financial world, the business risk of "shady behaviour" is fast
becoming a factor.
Small companies might not be aware of this trend and, if they're
privately held, might just shrug it off... But they still take a
rather big risk with their brand, using it in spam.
I suspect that put that way, they'll see the light.

--
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
work: glenn < dot > steen < at > ap1 < dot > se

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