The growth and now almost complete global acceptance of confirmed-opt-in standards (sometimes called "double opt in") for email newsletter subscriptions has been encouraging. It has certainly gone a long way towards distinguishing between legitimated, wanted periodic emails and unwanted spam.

Confirmed-opt-in works like this: An ezine publisher seeking subscribers places a form on a webpage inviting people to submit their email address to subscribe. Of course, there is a risk that malicious submissions could be made, so the confirmed-opt-in subscription mechanism sends a confirmation email to the address provided, requesting that the owner of that email either reply to the email, or click on a specially coded link within that email. As the only person who has access to reading that request for confirmation is the true owner of the email address, a confirmation is solid proof that the subscriber is genuine and not added to the mailing list by some other party.

A confirmed-opt-in also provides the subscriber with the comfort of knowing they are dealing with an honest publisher. In short, if a subscription is NOT via a confirmed-opt-in method, web users are well advised not to provide their email address at all.

Given the now nearly universal acceptance of confirmed-opt-in subscriptions to email periodicals in order to distinguish them from spam, it should not surprise that spammers themselves have turned their attentions to exploiting the otherwise virtuous confirmed-opt-in mechanism into something that appears to legitimise their dirty spam marketing practices.

Welcome to the new and nasty world of "confirmed-opt-in-spam".

A growing trend in bulk email marketing (some of which is legitimate, some of which is not) has been the use of a "squeeze page", also known as a "name-squeeze". While such a marketing mechanism may be completely above-board, honest and spam-free, the worry is the growing trend of misuse of the squeeze page by spammers to create a confirmed-opt-in email list to which to send unsolicited marketing materials.

A squeeze page, of itself, is not an evil tool. Used properly, they can be a very effective and legitimate marketing mechanism. They work as follows:

An email publisher attempts to increase their subscriber base by offering a free gift to new subscribers to their newsletter or ezine. For example, the offer may be for a free PDF ebook, or a downloadable video clip or similar giveaway. The idea is that this extra bit of incentive will encourage more people to subscribe to the email publication. The subscriber receives a confirmation email to which they either reply or click a specially encoded link within the confirmation email. They are then either emailed the free gift or automatically directed to a web page from where they can download it for themselves.

In the hands of a spammer, a deceptively similar strategy is employed:

The spammer offers a free gift in return for your email address. When you provide your email address in anticipation of receiving the free gift, you receive a confirmation email. Again, either a reply or a click on an encoded link confirms that your email address is legitimate and that you are indeed the person requesting the free gift. The free gift is then supplied.

Did you spot the difference between the honest use and the spammer's technique?

Unlike the honest publisher, the spammer does not tell you that you are subscribing or opting-in to receive a regular newsletter or future marketing emails. The person providing the email address and confirming it is only expecting to receive a single ebook or other free gift, unaware that they are now on someone's mailing list and about to be bombarded with marketing emails.

Some very well known internet marketing "gurus" use and widely promote the use of this deception and misuse of squeeze pages, thinking that mere confirmed-opt-in or even the ability to subsequently opt-out makes it a legitimate practice. It isn't. If such a shoddy marketeer sends you follow-up material without prior warning, without your express and knowing consent, that sender is spamming.

Beware of the squeeze page spammer.

Next time you see a free gift being offered online in return for your email address, check for these three things:

# Is there any clear mention that you are subscribing for future emails, or are you just being offered a free gift with no mention of an ongoing email relationship? (If the latter, why do they need to know your email address?)

# Is a detailed privacy policy displayed or clearly linked (not hidden or hard to find) that explains how and why email addresses are collected, whether privacy is assured or if they reserve the right to use it for other purposes, what your rights to removal from their database and future emails may be, and so forth? (A professional privacy policy is a rather lengthy statement for even the simplest of websites. Don't place too much trust in single-sentence assurances.)

# Never forget the old adage: If the offer sounds too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.