Hi Debbie

I hear your point of view.

.... BUT ....

when I have an e-mail address on my web site ( example : international@mydomainname.co.za ) and it is never used, except being checked for incoming mail, is never used to send outgoing mail, is never quoted in any other communication, and no friends or associates know of this address, and I start getting a barrage of e-mails to this, and many other e-mail addresses ( some which don't even exist, so they arrive in my 'catch all' mailbox ) and the same thing happens for every one of 12 domains that I run starting on exactly the same day, then nobody can tell me that the addresses were not either harvested from the web, or an e-mail address list was purchased - either way, I sure as heck did not subscribe to this junk.

So, if a company wants to use these methods, then blatently lie by trying to tell me that "a friend of mine" subscribed me to their list, then SCREW THEM !!

It's about time that companies start to seriously consider the methods that they use to build their mailing lists. The amount of spam mail that is transmitted on the net each day is far in excess of the legit mails.

But I do hear your point about someone who 'forgot' that they subscribed - so how about the following : when we receive a complaint, we'll e-mail the company concerned, and give then 48 hours to come up with the proof before they are listed. I think that sounds fair.