Avoyel Anti-Spam Policy

Avoyel has a zero-tolerance spam policy. Any customer found to be using Avoyel to send spam will be immediately terminated from the system.

What is Spam?

Spam is unsolicited e-mail also known as junk mail or UCE (unsolicited commercial e-mail). If you send any e-mail in bulk (to more than a handful of recipients) to recipients who have not requested to receive it, it is considered Spam, regardless of the contents of the e-mail.

The following are prohibited practices used to send spam:

  1. Harvesting e-mails from websites
  2. Purchasing lists (whether they are opt in or not)
  3. Sending out unrelated offers or content to your newsletter list
  4. Adding an e-mail address into a mailing list without the subscriber’s permission.
  5. E-mailing someone who has requested to be removed from your list.

Spam does not include e-mail (such as a regular newsletter) sent to a recipient who has opted-in to receive it.

Reporting Spam

If you know or suspect any violation of this policy, please notify us immediately by forwarding the entire e-mail in question, including headers, to the e-mail contact address shown on our website at http://avoyel.com, along with a written explanation of the circumstances indicating that the subject e-mail is spam. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from the sender, please unsubscribe from the sender’s e-mail list using the link at the bottom of the e-mail.

Procedure for Reviewing Complaints

To determine whether a Customer has violated our spam policy, we will:

  1. Review the spam complaint(s), if any.
  2. Review the format and content of the message(s) in question.
  3. Review the subscriber list for patterns common to harvested lists.
  4. View the subscriber records and IP address information.
  5. Take further steps, as we deem necessary, to investigate whether spam has been sent.

If we determine that you have been sending spam, we may immediately disable and/or terminate your account.

False Positive Complaints

We realize that it is possible for those who have subscribed to your mailing list to have forgotten that they have subscribed. For this reason, we keep the IP address and date of subscription for all new subscribers. If we receive a complaint from a subscriber for which we have a record of their subscription, AND the email sent to the subscriber relates to the content originally subscribed to, then we will notify the subscriber of the date and computer which they subscribed from and provide a link for that subscriber to unsubscribe from your list. In addition, we will notify you of the complaint and explain the actions taken.

Transfer of Subscribers / Change of Content

The decision of a subscriber to "opt-in" to one list does not grant you permission to transfer the subscriber’s e-mail address to another list, or to send email content, even if it is through the same list, that differs from the content originally subscribed to.

Are You Sending Spam? Take the Spam Test

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you will likely be labeled a spammer:

  1. Are you importing a purchased list of any kind?
  2. Are you sending e-mail to non-specific, general e-mail addresses?
  3. Are you sending to distribution lists or mailing lists which send indirectly to a variety of e-mail addresses?
  4. Are you mailing to anyone who has not explicitly agreed to join your mailing list?
  5. Have you falsified your originating e-mail address or transmission path information?
  6. Have you used a third party e-mail address or domain name without permission?
  7. Does your e-mail subject line contain fails or misleading information?
  8. Does your e-mail fail to provide a working link to unsubscribe?

If you are engaging in these practices, you are likely in violation of anti-spam laws and Avoyel’s the End User License Agreement and may be subject to immediate termination.

How Avoyel Protects Your Subscribers From Spam

Avoyel is a permission-based e-mail marketing tool that uses the following safeguards to protect against spam:

  1. Communication: Your subscriber information pages must state why you collect subscribers’ e-mail addresses and how you plan to use them. In addition, by agreeing to our End User License Agreement, you agree not to sell or rent your lists.
  2. Verification: Avoyel automatically sends all of your new subscribers an e-mail confirming their interest in receiving e-mails from you.
  3. Offering the Opt out Option: Avoyel requires that every e-mail, whether text or HTML contain a mandatory unsubscribe/opt out link at the bottom of the message which cannot be removed, giving all subscribers the opportunity to opt out of the subscriber list.
  4. Monitoring: Avoyel takes the following precautions to monitor compliance with its anti-spam policy: a) reviewing and monitoring large list imports (this includes reviewing the list source, list age, collection methods, and confirmation practices); b) actively monitoring the content of all e-mails going to a large number of subscribers; c) saving a record of e-mail that is sent through our system; and d) maintaining the IP addresses and date subscribed for every new subscriber.
  5. Investigation: As described above, Avoyel investigates any reports of of spam.
  6. Termination: If Avoyel determines that its system has been used to send spam, we will immediately disable and/or terminate the account in question.