SPAM

is the term used to identify non-solicited emails, generally sent to a large number of people without having been solicited or authorized by the receiver of the message.

In order to better understand SPAM, we suggest you visit the website 
http://www.ftc.gov/spam/

1 - The following practices are considered abusive:

● the sending of mass emails, for the promotion of products, services or companies, whether commercial or not and whether non-profit or regular, that have not been requested or agreed to previously to a group of people;
● divulging or sending a chain of electronic messages;
● offering or making available, for any means, a list of email addresses;
● using Braslink servers for the transit of email messages with invalid or altered headers, with the intention of difficulting or impeding the identification of its origin;
● emailing messages destined to Braslink users, violating our Privacy Policy that can be found at : http://braslink.com/privacy.cfm
● use of Braslink computers or servers to gather the email addresses of its users, with the direct or indirect submission of spam;
● maintaining a website hosted with Braslink and advertising it through SPAM, regarless of whether or not messages are sent through our SMTP servers.

This policy does not concede any rights to send email messages that violate the Privacy Policy of Braslink. The delay by Braslink to discipline any third party actions not authorized by this policy cannot be interpreted as a permission by Braslink to repeat this practice in the future.

2 – Receiving Notification of SPAM Practiced by our Customers

BRASLINK, once notified of Spam practices, will act in the following manner:

● We receive the claim and begin an investigation;
● If we do not find this to be a valid claim, we will justify our customer's actions to the complaining party;
● If we find the claim to be valid, the responsible party will be notified and an explanation must be given within 48 hours. If no explanation is offered, a new notice will be sent and an answer will be expected within 24 hours;
● If at the end of the 24 hours no explanation has been given, your website will be removed from our servers and will only be reestablished if a written request is submitted through the forms available at Braslink;
● If the practice of SPAM repeats itself, the case will be submitted to the commercial department for the cancellation of the service;
● We will report the warnings and/or cancellation of the domain to the appropriate organ.

2.1 - Investigating a Claim

Each abusive claim is investigated to see if it is a valid claim (where the customer is found guilty). Basically, the claim is considered valid any time that:
● the sent messages directly or indirectly benefitted the customer
● the user password was inappropriately used (passwords are the responsibility of the user)
● a script on the customer's website has a safety problem that allows it to be abused by a spammer.
● The message does not appropriately identify the sender of the message
● The message does not have a clear and automated way for the receiver of the message to exclude his or her self from the email list.
● The person that sends the messages has already received a request to exclude the receiver from the mailing list, but has not done so and continues to send messages to that email address.

2.2 - Unfounded Claims

If the claim is unfounded, we send messages justifying the incident to the appropriate organ or complainant.

Examples of claims where the customers is generally not found guilty:
● an auto-response, error message or virus warning email was considered SPAM.
● in the case of "phishing", where someone is falsely claiming to be an established and legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identifying theft.
● Emails of specials and product information, even if it is for financial gain of the sender, as long as the receiver of the message has previously signed up to receive these types of emails and if the message shows clearly who has sent it and the user has a proper way of removing oneself from the mailing list.

2.3 - Valid Claims

If the claim is found to be valid, we proceed in the following manner:
● if the customer has a script that is being used for SPAM, we immediately remove it from the Internet and change the permission level of the file and notify the customer of the problem;
● if this is the first claim, we will send a message according to item "2.1" asking for an explanation;
● if the user responds in this period and promises not to repeat the incident, we will send a message saying that the customer was warned and we close the claim;
● if there is no response in 48 hours, we will send a second warning and will wait an additional 24 hours;
● after this time, if there is no explanation on behalf of the customer, the SMTP service will be blocked as will the website that is creating the SPAM;
● if this practice persists, the service is subject to immediate cancellation.

2.4 - Unblocking the Service

To unblock the services, the customer must completely fill out the approriate forms, including a written agreement to cease Spam, and FAX them to our facilities.
If the practice of SPAM persists after having received the above forms, and services being reinstated, the service will be cancelled without any further communication or warning.

To better understand SPAM, we recommend that you visit the website 
http://www.ftc.gov/spam/