Anti-Spam Policy

Why we move fastest on this

Mail reputation belongs to a block of IP addresses, not to an account. One customer working through a bought list can drop every other site on that block into junk folders for weeks, and none of them can do anything to speed the recovery up.

That is the whole reason this page exists separately, and the reason we stop a sending run first and discuss it second.

1. What permission means

UK law — the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, alongside data protection law — generally wants consent before marketing mail reaches a person. Consent is something somebody did on purpose. It is not a box that was already ticked, an address handed over to enter a prize draw, or one copied off a company website.

There is one narrow exception for people who already bought from you, written to about similar things, who were given a way to say no when you took the address and in every message since. It is narrower than most people think.

For any address on your list you should be able to say when permission was given and how. If you cannot, the list cannot be used here.

2. Lists you bought or found

Bought and rented lists are refused, with no exceptions and no case-by-case discussion. So are addresses scraped from websites, directories or social media, and lists that came with a business you took over unless the original permission covers what you now want to do.

Mailing a doubtful list to ask whether people want to be on it does not fix the list. That message is the problem.

3. What has to be in every message

• a real sender — no forged headers, no from-address pretending to be someone else;
• a subject line that matches what is inside;
• an unsubscribe link that works, actioned straight away and within three working days at the outside;
• a postal address, and the registered company behind whatever trading name you use.

Unsubscribes do not expire. Adding somebody back because they filled in a different form, or because the list has a new name, starts the breach again.

4. Limits on shared plans

Shared and reseller plans meter sending by the hour, sized for what a website legitimately sends — order confirmations, password resets, contact-form notifications — not campaigns.

Newsletters belong with a provider whose actual product is getting mail delivered, and which will tell you what happened to each message. Pushing a list through shared hosting hurts your own delivery long before it becomes our problem.

5. Sending for other people

No open relays, and no sending for somebody whose permission practices you cannot vouch for personally. If you run mail for clients, their behaviour is your responsibility as far as we are concerned — your account is what we can act on.

6. When a run starts

We watch the shape of outbound mail rather than reading it. Sending stops first, then we talk — an hour of hesitation is the difference between one warning and a blocklisting that takes weeks to clear for everybody.

• Somebody got in. The usual cause: a hijacked contact form or a stolen password rather than a decision. We suspend sending, tell you where it came from, and switch it back on once the hole is shut.
• You meant it. Account closed, and no refund for the rest of the term.

Where an account gets a block of addresses listed, the delisting work and the cost of moving other customers to clean addresses can be charged to it.

7. Reporting spam you received

Send it through report abuse with full headers. Headers are what let us trace a message to an account; a forwarded body on its own usually goes nowhere.

8. Mail we send you

Messages about your services, invoices and security arrive whatever you do — they are part of running the account. Anything promotional is opt-in, and unsubscribing from it never stops the operational mail. Detail is in the privacy policy.

9. The company

Hosting-Cheap is a trading name of Bohzo Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under Company No. 15031604. Registered office: The Workspace Basildon, 7 High Pavement, Basildon, England, SS14 1EA. Questions to info@hosting-cheap.com.