Anti-Spam Policy

Spammers Not Welcome Here.

This should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: it's not OK to spam people. If you try, we will immediately close your grou.ps account. You will not get any refund.

Chances are, you already knew spam is bad. And as an email recipient, you know it when you see it.

It's important that as a sender, you know what spam is, too.

So let's talk about what spam is and what happens if you do it at grou.ps.

What Is Spam?

Ask 10 different people that question, and you'll probably get 10 different answers.

Email senders (like grou.ps) tend to use the textbook definition: Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE). You can read more about this definition at Spamhaus.

UBE is a useful definition: it points out that some things that might be OK to do on a 1-to-1 basis (like send an email about your company to someone who has never heard of you) are not OK to do in bulk.

But it's not a perfect one. Many things are not UBE but are considered spam by most people, including us.

Instead of trying to create a definition of spam that covers every possible scenario, let's look at a few things that we will consider spamming. We think this will give you a pretty good idea of what not to do.

Things You May Not Do With grou.ps

• Send email to people who have not specifically requested that information from you.
• If you collect subscribers somewhere other than on your website, and aren't 100% sure someone asked to sign up to your email lists.
• Post irrelevant links to your website in discussion forums, newsgroups or classifieds sites like Craigslist.
• Use email lists that you purchased, rented, leased, or in any way bought from a third party.
  This includes email addresses that you purchased via coregistration.
• Send unsolicited email through a third party in order to try to get people to sign up to your grou.ps site, or to visit a website that you market using grou.ps in any way.
• This includes trying to get people to sign up on an web form that you have placed on your website OR trying to get them to email your grou.ps email address.

These aren't the only things we might consider spam. But they're a good guide.
Not sure if we'd consider something to be spam? Contact us and find out!

What Happens If I Spam, Or Try To Spam?

If we find that you are spamming, or trying to spam, with your grou.ps account:

Things that will definitely happen:

1. We will immediately terminate your account.
2. We will refuse to refund your account.

Things that might happen:

1. We might charge you money if your spamming causes any interruptions in our ability to service other customers.
2. We might pursue legal action against you. (Spamming violates our service agreement.)

Note: we don't presume guilt. We investigate all potential spam incidents thoroughly before making a decision. But once we've made a decision, we act fast.

I Think A grou.ps User Is Spamming Me. What Do I Do?

If you believe you have received spam from a grou.ps user, forward the email you received to us at ….
Please include the headers of the email when you forward it, and briefly tell us why you believe the message is spam. We take all spam complaints seriously and our Content Manager will investigate promptly.

I Have Questions About grou.ps Anti-Spam Policy. Who Do I Talk To?

We're happy to answer any questions you have about spam and our anti-spam policy. Just contact us!