What is SPAM?

With apologies to the fine folks at Hormel Foods, SPAM is the Internet slang term for unwanted junk e-mail. SPAM is usually randomly targeted, mass advertising although the term often is used to describe any unwanted e-mail. SPAM comes in many forms but most notably as get-rich-quick schemes and pornography.

SPAMMING is the practice of sending unsolicited e-mail. It's the on-line equivalent of cold-calling someone during dinner. SPAMMING is considered rude and annoying, and it is actually illegal in a dozen states and counting. SPAMMING can tarnish your business reputation and destroy your professional credibility among the Web savvy.

Why is SPAMMING such a big deal?

Unlike traditional junk mail in which the sender pays postage, the e-mail recipient bears the cost of every SPAM that is downloaded into memory and the increasing costs of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). As SPAMMING proliferates, ISPs must expand storage and transmission systems to deal with the deluge and your ISP has no choice but eventually to pass the costs on to you in higher monthly fees. Simply put, SPAM wastes online resources and slows down the entire Internet.

How do you avoid inadvertently SPAMMING?

To avoid becoming a SPAMMER, just make sure those you place in your personal ReferralBase have voluntarily given you their e-mail address with a basic expectation of what you will be sending. Never just collect e-mail addresses for your ReferralBase without the owner's knowledge and permission. Instead, promote your ReferralBase E-Lerts as a part of your excellent service as the home financing expert in your area.
ReferralBase strongly opposes SPAMMING. Read User Terms/Agreement for rules and restrictions.

So why bother with ReferralBase E-Lerts?

The beauty of e-mail is that the recipient is in control. ReferralBase E-Lerts allow you to promote yourself in a non-threatening manner by providing useful information. If a lead is expecting an E-Lert from you, it's a good bet they want and value the information you will be sending. They may also forward it to friends, family and colleagues, so your ReferralBase may grow exponentially from each contact—consider, over 175 million U.S. adults (85% of the adult population), the vast majority of America’s homeowners, are projected to be using the Internet by 2001.

Let ReferralBase help you turn leads into loans.

How did they come up with the term "SPAM"?

Hormel Foods calls their meat-like product "SPAM" as an acronym for "Spiced Pork and haM". Yummy. Some unidentified creative mind called Internet junk e-mail "SPAM" based on the classic Monty Python skit about a fancy restaurant where everything on the menu had SPAM in it. The notion being that you don't want any, didn't ask for any, but it gets served to you anyway.