0170 “Spam” Email

This release describes the requirements of the federal CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act). That act establishes requirements for anyone who sends commercial email. Credit unions need to distinguish whether emails they send are “commercial,” or whether they contain “transactional or relationship” material. The CAN-SPAM Act is designed to impose certain obligation on all senders of “commercial email messages” so that they cannot mislead or deceive recipients. Even legitimate businesses must comply with the Act if they send commercial emails. CAN-SPAM requires commercial email messages to be labeled as an advertisement or solicitation and to include opt-out instructions along with the sender’s physical and electronic address. CAN-SPAM prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in commercial emails.