Expert: Jeff M. Fischbach - 11/30/2005

Question
Hello I have a question I hope you can assist me with.

I am located in California and currently opened a new online job advertisment website similar to monster and yahoohotjobs. I am fully aware of the state and federal spam laws.

I recently posted a resume on two famous Job Online websites in California...and in response I recieved an invitation from another job online website stating the folowing:

"Dear Job Seeker,

We noticed your resume posted on another employment website and would like to invite you to use our service to post your resume at Find A Job Anywhere.com at no cost to you.

Find A Job Anywhere.com, the fastest growing employment website in North America, is dedicated to helping you find the best position for not only your skills and experience, but also one that will be compatible with your workplace personality."

Basically they harvest my email and sent me their invitation. My question is: IS IT LEGAL? IS IT CONSIDERED SPAM?

Thank you
Phillip  

Answer
With all due respect to Hormell, it sounds like what you have received fits the definition of UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). While there are laws--U.S. CAN-SPAM trumps them all--there is no obvious or straight-forward enforcement mechanism to date. However, to a large degree, the Federal legislation simply defines the rules and the playing field. It does not outlaw the practice. Here's a fairly simple government-sanctioned digest that's worth reading: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm Unfortunately, the portion of the message you pasted is not sufficient to determine if it is in fact in violation of this act, or most others.

It also occurs to me, considering your competing venture, that you may be asking this question for a different reason. I'm not a lawyer, a judge, a politician, a member of the clergy, or a card-carrying member of any other affiliation that will keep you, or anyone else, out of trouble. There are a lot of moving goal posts where legislation and the Internet are concerned. There are also a lot of companies simply flying under the radar.

--
Jeff Michael Fischbach, ABFE
Board Certified Forensic Technologist (ABFE #12891)
SecondWave Information Systems
Web:   http://www.secondwave.com
sMail: 9909 Topanga Canyon Blvd., #205, Chatsworth, CA 91311, USA
Phone: 818.773.0400 x34

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