Summary
Affiliate spammers often employ deceptive tactics to bypass spam filters and maintain their campaigns, one of which involves manipulating user interaction elements within emails. While legitimate marketers provide clear unsubscribe options, some illicit affiliate campaigns deliberately omit or obscure these links, opting instead to guide recipients towards the 'report spam' button. This unusual behavior serves several calculated purposes related to data validation, avoiding legal obligations, and artificially influencing sender reputation metrics.
Key findings
- Data validation: Clicking any link in a spam email, including a fake unsubscribe link, often confirms to spammers that the email address is active, making it a valuable target for future campaigns or sales to other spammers.
- Legal evasion: Legitimate unsubscribe links carry a legal obligation, particularly under regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act, to honor opt-out requests. Spammers avoid this by not providing a functional one, thus circumventing compliance requirements. This contrasts with why some companies ignore opt-out requests for other reasons.
- Reputation manipulation: Some spammers believe that directing users to report spam, rather than unsubscribe, might be perceived by mailbox providers (ISPs) as a form of engagement, or at least not as a direct unsubscribe request that could negatively impact their sending reputation. However, this is largely a miscalculation as spam complaints significantly harm sender reputation.
- Affiliate payout mechanisms: In some affiliate schemes, any interaction with the email, even reporting it as spam, might be counted as an event that contributes to an affiliate's payout, incentivizing these misleading tactics.
Key considerations
- Impact on legitimate senders: Misusing the report spam button for unwanted commercial emails, even from legitimate senders (e.g., promotional mail), can harm their deliverability, making it harder for them to reach the inbox. It's generally better to use the unsubscribe link if available.
- User experience vs. spam filtering: While the 'report spam' button is crucial for training spam filters, its improper use by spammers highlights a tension between providing users an easy way to manage unwanted mail and preventing abuse of the system.
- Email authentication: Strong email authentication protocols (like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM) are essential for legitimate senders to protect their brand and prevent spammers from impersonating them, thereby reducing the impact of such deceptive tactics on their reputation.
- Monitoring deliverability: Businesses engaged in email marketing must diligently monitor their deliverability metrics, including spam complaint rates, to detect and address any signs of abuse or getting listed on a blocklist or blacklist, even if it stems from affiliate activity they are unaware of.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often encounter affiliate spam tactics firsthand, observing the cunning ways bad actors attempt to circumvent deliverability challenges. Their experiences reveal a mix of frustration and grudging acknowledgment of the spammers' 'cleverness,' even while condemning their unethical practices. Marketers emphasize the importance of distinguishing between legitimate and abusive affiliate marketing, noting that the latter inevitably leads to poor sender reputation and deliverability issues.
Key opinions
- Clever tactics: Some marketers acknowledge the cleverness of these deceptive approaches, even if they're ultimately harmful.
- Ethical considerations: There's a strong consensus that the use of a 'report spam' button instead of a proper 'unsubscribe' is unethical and indicative of a 'bad sender' (or snowshoe spammer in the case of affiliates), leading to negative consequences from ISPs.
- Affiliate marketing perception: Affiliate marketing often gets a bad rap due to these abusive practices, leading some marketers to believe it's inherently bad, despite the existence of ethical and effective methods. Understanding when affiliate marketing is considered spam is key.
- Positive alternative: Marketers suggest that prominently placing a genuine unsubscribe link, especially at the top of an email, can actually decrease overall complaint rates by providing users a clear and legitimate opt-out path instead of forcing them to mark emails as spam.
Key considerations
- Monitoring bad actors: It is valuable to observe the tactics of bad senders, even for intelligence, to better understand evolving spam techniques and protect legitimate email programs.
- Confirmation bias: Deliverability professionals (and marketers) might develop a negative selection bias against affiliate marketing because they primarily encounter campaigns that are up to no good, distorting the overall perception of the industry.
- Reputation management: Marketers should be wary of any advice or ESP features that seem to prioritize lowering complaint rates through deceptive means, as such practices invariably lead to long-term damage to sender reputation and inbox placement. This applies to what ESPs do when emails are marked as spam.
- Legitimate affiliate marketing: For those engaging in ethical affiliate marketing, it is crucial to clearly set expectations, stick to a relevant vertical, and rigorously honor all opt-in and opt-out requirements to maintain good deliverability and avoid being categorized as a spammer.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks observes that they once used an ESP that had both unsubscribe and report spam as part of the default email template. The marketer found it amusing but noted that such an ESP is likely no longer in business, implying the tactic's unsustainability.
Marketer view
Marketer from Quora advises that clicking an unsubscribe link in a spam email can be dangerous. It signals to the sender that the email account is active, which can lead to more spam or targeted phishing attempts in the future. Therefore, it is often safer to avoid interacting with such links.
What the experts say
Email deliverability experts highlight the critical differences between legitimate unsubscribe practices and the deceptive tactics employed by affiliate spammers. They explain that spammers intentionally avoid providing functional unsubscribe links due to legal obligations and the desire to circumvent direct feedback mechanisms that could lead to list suppression. Instead, directing users to a 'report spam' button is a flawed strategy intended to manipulate perceived engagement or trigger payout events, ultimately backfiring on their deliverability.
Key opinions
- Legal avoidance: Experts confirm that affiliates avoid unsubscribe links because they are legally required to cease mailing individuals who opt-out. It's often simpler for them to omit the link entirely than to manage complex opt-out processes or risk penalties.
- Engagement manipulation: The 'report spam' button is sometimes used by spammers as a deceptive tactic to reduce the number of direct complaints sent to mailbox providers. They erroneously believe it might make their mail appear more wanted, or even count as a form of engagement that benefits their affiliate arrangement.
- Snowshoe spamming: The tactics described are characteristic of snowshoe spammers who spread their email volume across many IPs and domains to evade detection, often associated with affiliate spam.
- Ethical affiliate marketing: While abusive affiliate mailers are prevalent, true experts emphasize that legitimate affiliate marketing is possible if it adheres to ethical practices, clear expectation setting, and strict compliance with opt-in and opt-out requirements.
Key considerations
- Deliverability impact: Regardless of a spammer's intent, consistently generating spam complaints or failing to provide proper unsubscribe options will ultimately lead to severe deliverability problems, including emails going to spam or being blocked.
- User intent: Mailbox providers are sophisticated enough to differentiate between legitimate engagement and forced interactions or spam complaints. They prioritize user experience, so a high volume of 'report spam' clicks will negatively impact sender reputation, regardless of a spammer's intentions to manipulate metrics.
- Unsubscribe link visibility: Experts emphasize that making the unsubscribe link easily accessible and clear is crucial for good sender practice. It allows uninterested subscribers to opt out gracefully, reducing direct spam complaints and improving overall list hygiene. This is why Gmail often displays an unsubscribe link.
- Sender responsibility: Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the sender (or the affiliate overseeing the campaign) to maintain ethical practices. Attempts to game the system through deceptive buttons will inevitably lead to blocklisting and permanent damage to their sending infrastructure.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that the email in question is not from a legitimate business like Harbor Freight but rather from a snowshoe spammer engaging in affiliate spam for them. This clarifies that the deceptive practices originate from malicious third parties, not necessarily the advertised brand itself.
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource emphasizes that legitimate marketing campaigns prioritize user experience and compliance. This means providing clear unsubscribe options and respecting user choices, contrasting sharply with spammers who avoid these obligations to maintain their unwanted mail streams.
What the documentation says
Official documentation and research from various bodies provide a framework for understanding email compliance, user protection, and the technical mechanisms of spam detection. These resources consistently emphasize the importance of legitimate unsubscribe options and highlight the risks associated with engaging with unsolicited emails, whether through clicking links or reporting spam incorrectly. They underscore that deceptive practices, such as those used by affiliate spammers, violate established norms and regulations, leading to severe consequences for sender reputation and deliverability.
Key findings
- CAN-SPAM compliance: The CAN-SPAM Act mandates that commercial emails must include a clear and conspicuous way for recipients to opt out of future emails. Failing to provide a functional unsubscribe link or making it difficult to use is a violation that can result in significant penalties.
- Spam reporting function: The 'report spam' or 'junk' button is designed to help email providers improve their spam filtering algorithms by receiving direct feedback from users. Its proper use helps identify unwanted mail, while its misuse by spammers aims to confuse these systems or evade accountability.
- User safety: Security advisories often warn against clicking links in suspicious emails, including 'unsubscribe' links. These links can be traps designed to confirm email addresses are active, deliver malware, or redirect to phishing sites. This is especially true for confusing HTML links in spam.
- Automated system responses: Automated systems and spam filters may sometimes interact with unsubscribe links, though this is distinct from intentional clicks by spammers for data validation. Understanding how to identify and report bot clicks is important for accurate reporting.
Key considerations
- Regulatory compliance: Businesses must prioritize compliance with anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM by providing clear, functional, and prompt unsubscribe mechanisms. Ignoring these requirements can lead to legal action and severe damage to brand reputation.
- Training spam filters: Recipients should use the 'report spam' button primarily for unsolicited and genuinely unwanted emails. This helps ISPs refine their filters and protect the broader email ecosystem, rather than for mail from legitimate senders they simply wish to stop receiving.
- Email security awareness: Users should be educated about the dangers of interacting with suspicious emails. The safest approach for unwanted emails without a clear unsubscribe option (or if the sender is unknown) is often to simply mark them as spam without clicking any links. For legitimate emails, using the proper unsubscribe link is always preferred over reporting spam.
- Sender reputation management: Maintaining a healthy sender reputation involves more than just technical setup; it requires ethical list building and management, respecting subscriber choices, and ensuring clear communication. Abusive tactics, regardless of the spammer's intent, invariably lead to poor email domain reputation.
Technical article
Documentation from the FTC highlights that the CAN-SPAM Act grants consumers the right to stop receiving commercial emails primarily advertising products or services. Businesses are legally obligated to provide a clear unsubscribe mechanism and honor opt-out requests promptly, reinforcing that affiliates bypassing this are in violation.
Technical article
Documentation from Ask Leo! explains that the 'Report Spam' and 'Junk' buttons are essential tools in the fight against spam. However, when used improperly (e.g., for legitimate newsletters or by spammers themselves), they can unintentionally cause more harm than good to both senders and the overall email ecosystem.
Related resources
15 resources
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