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Use ‘Administrative’ E-mail Addresses When Posting on Web Sites

NAHB has uncovered several instances in which enterprising companies have been mining Web sites for contact e-mail addresses and then using that information to solicit new business.

NAHB also has found that, after these companies have collected the e-mail addresses off Web sites, they have been marketing themselves by indicating they received these e-mail addresses from NAHB, local associations or other companies or organizations as a way to open the door for new business from local and state associations. NAHB does not sell or trade e-mail addresses to third parties, a policy formally established at the NAHB Spring Board of Directors meeting in May 2003.

Whenever NAHB has discovered this misrepresentation, it has contacted the companies by phone, through the issuance of cease and desist letters or both and, thus far, all of the companies that have been contacted have stopped the practice of misrepresenting themselves.

Not all companies have stopped collecting e-mail addresses this way, and companies with the resources will continue this practice.

How to Protect the Integrity of Your E-mail Address

The simplest way to protect the integrity of your personal or individual e-mail address is to avoid posting it on Web sites, including your own.

Instead, create an administrative, function-based or “catch-all” e-mail address for your association or business that can be monitored by someone on staff. Using this type of e-mail address will enable you to maintain a valuable marketing and contact presence while redirecting, and possibly reducing, spamming away from your personal or individual e-mail address.

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