Former Senator Bill Bradley sits on the board of a company called QuinStreet, which has been identified as a major spammer. It labels itself as a leading “vertical marketer” but experts say that’s frequently a code word for spamming. QuinStreet’s clients include trade school DeVry, several dating websites, and credit card and gaming companies.

          “There’s a class of company called ‘affiliates,’ and they’re basically organizations that send spam for some other company that holds the product,” said Adam O’Donnell, Director of Emerging Technologies at Cloudmark Inc., an Internet security firm. “Think of it as a third-party marketing firm that does the dirty work of sending spam.”

The company has been the target of many complaints about its allegedly aggressive spamming activities, both under the QuinStreet name and under aliases such as VendorSeek, and it’s likely they could be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act as some of the complaints say the company refused to stop sending junk mail even after they clicked the opt out link.

While companies like QuinStreet try to hide their spamming behind affiliates and shell companies, the fact remains that spamming is spamming and the CAN-SPAM Act isn’t to be taken lightly. It carries an $11,o00 fine per offense. Before you begin any kind of email marketing plan, review the law with your legal department and make sure your company is following it to the letter!