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• Stay informed to avoid problems when sending unwanted spam to your customers.

• Most small business owners are unaware that they or an employee may be in violation of the Spam Act. The following advice should help you avoid financial or legal consequences.

• The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was signed into law and went into effect on January 1, 2004. As a small business owner, you need to know your obligations under this law to avoid serious problems that could cost you time and money.
• The law is very specific about the content you must include in any commercial email advertisement. Not surprisingly, many of us fall victim to unsolicited junk mail from very obscure sources daily.
• What these spammers are doing is illegal. Taking the time to complain is impractical for many small business owners, so in most cases, we just delete the junk and go about our business.

• On the other hand, as a small business owner, you are in a different situation when you send emails to customers.
• Your credibility is on the line because you are not opaque and can easily be identified for prosecution or legal action.
• Understand your obligations and what you can and cannot do. In the U.S., the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, is the government agency responsible for establishing and monitoring compliance with this law. Their rules are very specific as follows:
• Requirements for commercial email senders

• The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) sets requirements for those who send commercial email, establishes penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam e-mail if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask e-mail senders to stop sending spam.
• The law, which came into force on January 1, 2004, applies to emails whose primary purpose is to advertise a commercial product or service, including the content of a website.
• A "transactional or relationship message" - an email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or keeps a customer informed in an existing business relationship - may not include false or misleading routing information, but is otherwise exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

FTC Facts for Businesses

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is also authorized to enforce the criminal penalties of the CANSPAM. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations in their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access can sue violators as well. What the law requires Here is an overview of the most important provisions of the law:

- It prohibits false or misleading header information. The "from"," "to" and routing information of your email - including the domain name and email address of the sender

- must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.

- It prohibits misleading subject lines. The subject line must not mislead the recipient about the content or topic of the message.

- It is required that your email offers recipients an opportunity to unsubscribe. You must provide a return email address or other Internet-based response mechanism that allows the recipient to ask you to stop sending emails to that address, and you must honor that request. You can set up a "menu" of choices to allow the recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must also offer the option to opt out of all commercial messages from the sender. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to handle opt-out requests for at least 30 days after your commercial email is sent. If you receive an opt-out request, by law you have 10 business days to stop sending emails to the requester's email address. You are not allowed to help another company send emails to that address, nor are you allowed to hire another company to send emails to that address on your behalf. Finally, it is illegal to sell or pass on the email addresses of people who do not wish to receive emails from you, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you are passing on the addresses so that another company can comply with the law.

- It is required that commercial emails are marked as advertising and contain the sender's valid postal address. Your message must contain a clear and conspicuous indication that it is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving further commercial e-mails from you. It must also contain your valid postal address. The penalties can be severe

• Any violation of the above provisions may be punishable by a fine of up to $11,000. Misleading commercial emails are also subject to laws prohibiting false or misleading advertising. Additional fines are provided for commercial email senders who not only

violate the rules described above, but also:

- "harvest" email addresses from websites or web services that have posted a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses to send emails

- generate email addresses using a "dictionary attack" that combines names, letters, or numbers in various combinations

- using scripts or other automated methods to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial emails

- forward e-mails without permission via a computer or network - for example, by using open relays or open proxies without authorization.

Department of Justice facts for businesses The law allows the DOJ to impose criminal penalties, including imprisonment, on commercial email senders who - or conspire to:

- use another computer without permission and send commercial email from or through it

- use a computer to forward or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service as to the origin of the message

- forge header information in multiple