Ethics
4,000 Market Researcher Contacts
08/28/2009
I received an unsolicited commercial Email message (spam) from a guy named Tim Roberts today... Twice.
The messages were virtually identical, with only a slight variance between the two. The second one extended the special sale price by one day. It may have had a few other tweaks, but I didn't read it that closely.
The message was advertising an Email list of 4,000 market researchers.
When people spam me with offers of cheap life-enhancing pharmaceuticals and various sketchy services I shrug them off. When companies start dragging the market researcher profession into their world, I get furious, and I do something about it. After reporting this gem to SpamCop, I decided to do a little research on this company. I went to the company's site and read up on their offerings. This, of course, led me to their privacy policy.
While they didn't specifically mention the word "opt-in" to describe any of their lists, they certainly alluded to it a few times, suggesting that members "provide us with your email". Beyond the shadow of a doubt, I can assure you that I am not a "member" and I have had no previous contact with the offending company. I have relatives I won't give my Email address to. I certainly did not give it to them.
This experience got me wondering about this practice, and if people fall for this sort of thing. I'll write more about this another time, but let's just say (for those of you who are still new to the Web survey game) that your online reputation is probably more important than you realize.
So, if you're contacted about lists by a company you've never given your Email address to, do you consider the source? In other words, if they're willing to spam you for your business, are you going to trust for a second that they built their list/panel legitimately? For your sake, I hope not.
The messages were virtually identical, with only a slight variance between the two. The second one extended the special sale price by one day. It may have had a few other tweaks, but I didn't read it that closely.
The message was advertising an Email list of 4,000 market researchers.
When people spam me with offers of cheap life-enhancing pharmaceuticals and various sketchy services I shrug them off. When companies start dragging the market researcher profession into their world, I get furious, and I do something about it. After reporting this gem to SpamCop, I decided to do a little research on this company. I went to the company's site and read up on their offerings. This, of course, led me to their privacy policy.
While they didn't specifically mention the word "opt-in" to describe any of their lists, they certainly alluded to it a few times, suggesting that members "provide us with your email". Beyond the shadow of a doubt, I can assure you that I am not a "member" and I have had no previous contact with the offending company. I have relatives I won't give my Email address to. I certainly did not give it to them.
This experience got me wondering about this practice, and if people fall for this sort of thing. I'll write more about this another time, but let's just say (for those of you who are still new to the Web survey game) that your online reputation is probably more important than you realize.
So, if you're contacted about lists by a company you've never given your Email address to, do you consider the source? In other words, if they're willing to spam you for your business, are you going to trust for a second that they built their list/panel legitimately? For your sake, I hope not.