Email Marketing Blog

ValueClick, Inc., an online advertiser, has agreed to settle FTC charges alleging deceptive claims and emails, as well as failure to secure consumers’ sensitive financial information.

ValueClick (through a subsidiary) used deceptive emails, pop-ups and banner ads to drive traffic to its site. Visitors were told they were eligible for big-ticket “free” gifts, such as laptops and iPods.

What they weren’t told is they had to go through a maze of forms and more forms and third-party offers galore, which they HAD to “participate in” in order ot get the supposedly free merchandise.

This was obviously in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC Act. In addition to the financial settlement, ValueClick and Hi-Speed Media must clearly and conspicuously disclose that consumers have to spend money or incur obligations to quality for “free” merchandise.

Visit the FTC site to learn more about this settlement.

The Comcast Feedback Loop represents the 8th Internet Service Provider that GetResponse cooperates with…joining the ranks of Yahoo!, AOL, MSN/Hotmail, Outblaze, Road Runner, United Online and USA.net.

Feedback Loop is a program that enables participants to receive information about emails that were reported as spam. This allows GetResponse to maintain its high reputation with major ISPs and assure its customers top-notch email deliverability.

According to a report prepared by GetResponse analysts, Comcast is the fifth biggest ISP and Comcast email addresses represent almost 1.5% of overall GetResponse email addresses.

In contrast, Yahoo! represents 28%, MSN/Hotmail 21%, AOL 8.5%, and Gmail 4.3%. GetResponse processes the data from all of these companies, with the exception of Gmail which currently has no feedback loop.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse