I have just been contacted by someone trying to sell domain names to me and encouraging speedy response. If I had expressed any sort of interest in buying domains from this person or company I wouldn't mind so much - but a direct approach, out of the blue, using my online contact form, in my opinion sums up everything that has gone wrong with e-mail in the last 10 years.

Because my online form generates e-mail I consider this SPAM plain and simple. Anyone doing any business with these cretins is encouraging them and are part of the problem. Over the years SPAM has turned e-mail from a fantastically useful tool that helps us communicate with greater immediacy and with a marginal cost (cost per extra e-mail) of zero, into a problematic inefficient timesink - sucking up vast proportions of the working day and requiring the purchase and time consuming configuration of additional software tools to try and stem the tide.

I know my site is visited by quite a mix of people - many beginners and also many advanced users including corporate IT managers (you know who you are). I hope you all join me in my determination that we do not give these people business. If you are an internet newcomer (newbie in web speak) please please please get into the habit of simply deleting e-mails as soon as you realise that they are not communication that you have requested or expect. Never visit the site of these people - don't tick their little 'unsubscribe from this message' boxes or click their links. These people are killing the Internet. 

 If you are an employee or owner of an organisation that sends out ANY email please ensure that you are only sending them to people who have requested or expect to receive your communication. I know this is a war we have already lost - but it shouldn't stop us from battling on anyway.

I wonder how long Mr x will be the owner of this domain. Frankly I'd like to see him still hanging on to it in 2 years time, he has after all only just registered it - and I for one never take the advice of the person selling a product - they are after all somewhat biased.

By the way - I love this part:

If the message has come to you in error you must take no action in respect of it or the attachments nor must you copy or show it or the attachments to anyone

Oops! I think I fell down on the second part - still I never did like being told what to do by SPAMMERs. 

Anyone else think it is time our government(s) re-visited this issue. A few years ago the European Parliament were on the verge of banning unsolicited commercial e-mail (the polite term for SPAM) but Michael Cashman MEP, former EastEnders actor, was lobbied (paid) by big business to bring his influence to bear and water down the proposed laws to the effect that anyone can send you anything - and in whatever quantity they require - until YOU request that they don't.

Time for a rethink perhaps or as  one of my larger corporate clients put it recently:

Lets stick to the phone from now on - e-mail is just too unreliable.

Mr X
Dear Sir/Madam,

We are selling the domain Computer-Repair.co.uk. The domain is available for immediate transfer.

Many of our clients are finding that prime generic domain names such as this pay for themselves within weeks rather than months by virtue of the extra business that they drive to their websites.

If you would like to purchase it for your business I would strongly advise an early contact.  

Best regards,

Mr X
Mr X Domains

+44 xyz992 4999
+44 xyz 941 873

Full Members of Nominet, @large members of ICANN, Accredited by OpenSRS and OnlineNIC.

Mr X Domains' e-mail disclaimer. Confidentiality: This e-mail and its attachments are intended for the above named only and may be confidential. If the message has come to you in error you must take no action in respect of it or the attachments nor must you copy or show it or the attachments to anyone: please reply to this e-mail and highlight the error.

Intellectual property disclaimer. It is the firm policy of our firm to not sell or offer to sell a domain to any company, or any entity that represents a company, that would claim or assert trademark or intellectual property rights over the domain or has registered or applied for a registration of a trademark that is identical or similar to the domain. We do not cybersquat or knowingly infringe on other parties' intellectual property rights and only acquire prime generic domain names. For the avoidance of doubt, if you represent any entity that would seek to assert intellectual property rights then we would be unable to sell, transfer, lease or assign this domain to you in any way.

So here is the whois data for the domain in question.

Following contact from the party in question, and an explanation that an underling was supposed to initiate contact by phone - and a request to remove these details due to the fact that the address listed for the domain is a family address - I have removed the who is info.

I am afterall a nice guy and am prepared to give benefit of the doubt on both counts. My point holds true though - unsolicited contact via e-mail (or online contact forms) is unjustified and is part of the reason that e-mail is seriously compomised as a useful business tool. Businesses should take great care to ensure all such contact is warranted and that the recipient's permission has been received.