# Charity's Web site taken down after erroneous complaint about spam

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2002/08/31/charity039s-web-site-taken-down-after-erroneous-complaint-about-spam/
- Published: 2002-08-31T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

A religious charity based in London found out last week that its Web site had been
taken offline by its Internet Service Provider (ISP) after it had received an erroneous
complaint that it had sent spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail).
The Lutheran Council
of Great Britain found that its Web site was not available last week after its ISP
Netcetera received one complaint that it had sent spam. The “complaint” was actually
an automatically generated message, but Netcetera did not investigate its accuracy.

In fact, the message that triggered the “complaint” was legitimate: it was sent 
in response to an enquiry about one of the charity’s services. Nevertheless, it 
took seven days before the charity’s Web site was restored.

Such experiences are not uncommon. Automated anti-spam devices are one of the only
ways in which Internet Service Providers can deal with the massive growth in complaints
about spam e-mails. Given that few have the resources to investigate complaints,
it is likely that other organisation’s Web sites, including those of charities, 
will be taken offline without notice.

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How can charities respond? At the very least they need to ensure that their staff
and volunteers never send material that could be considered to be spam. They should
also be ready to counter and respond to any accusations of spam so that their site
can be restored as quickly as possible. They might also consider maintaining alternative
Web space under an alternative domain name on which they can launch a back-up version
of their site until the issue is resolved. They will usually still be able to send
e-mail from their disabled domain name, so could at least alert supporters and subscribers
to the change. This is yet another reason for charities to develop and use a database
of e-mail addresses of their supporters.

Read _Charity caught in anti-spam crossfire_ by Matthew Broersma at ZDnet.

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