Friday, July 11, 2008

Obama campaign in violation of CAN-SPAM

I've blogged about this a couple of times, but I finally got pushed past my limit when yet another Obama campaign email begging for money got past my spam filter - this time, it was sent from the Oregon Obama Campaign, so it wasn't pre-flagged. I sent them back this:

I have asked that my email address be removed from your mailing list
twice now; once with an email directly to the campaign from the website, and
once through the "unsubscribe" option that is required to be at the bottom of
all bulk email. I am not a supporter of your candidate, and the only
contact I sent your candidate in the first place was a complaint about your
campaign's use of the Fallen Police Officer's Memorial as a location for the
event's portable toilets.

Your campaign is now in violation of 15 USC 7701 et seq, which final rule took effect 7/7/2008. The first request I sent demanding that you remove me from your mailing list was over ten days ago. You are hereby informed that this matter has been forwarded to the Federal Trade Commission.
This particular email came from a fellow by the name of Rob Hill, who is apparently the director of the Oregon Obama campaign. Here's a copy of my complaint to the FTC, and their response:

I contacted Mr. Obama's campaign to complain about the campaign's
conduct in Oregon, via the complaint form on the campaign's website.
Nowhere on the contact form does it imply or state that email addresses given
will be used in a flood of requests for donations, support, volunteer work, et
al.


Since my complaint on 6/10/08, the campaign has contacted me
eighteen times, despite my request twice to remove me from their mailing
list. The first time, I did so via the contact form on the campaign's
website; this was on 6/15/08. The second time, I followed the link from
one of the campaign's emails, being very clear that I do not want to receive
their mail and never did.


The campaign continues to email me, from a variety of email addresses so that my spam filter does not catch all of it. It is time consuming, offensive, and irritating to deal with. In addition to the above named representatives, I have received sender information from the following persons:
Barack Obama
Al Gore
David Plouffe
Jon Carson
Steve Hildebrand

We have received your complaint. Thank you for contacting the FTC. Your complaint has been entered into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database
available to thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Your reference number is: 19530136

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So now you're going to get spammed by the FTC.