DMARC stops scam? No, it's scam itself

I was always sure that DMARC, advertised as a scam/phishing preventing solution, is a kind of scam itself. It's misleading for email marketers.

It's pretty straightforward - a scammer isn't really tied to the real sending domain of a company. Let's say there's a company.com sending domain which identity I'd like to spoof. If I was a spammer I would be aware that:

- top mailbox providers are likely to filter out or land into Spam all the mail which isn't authenticated the same way as original emails coming from it

- most of email users see and care only about visible part of from email but not the real from address

So what's the reason for me to use "Company Name <noreply@company.com>"? I would rather go with "Company Name <noreply@c0mpany.com>".

And as soon as I'm not using the original domain name DMARC policy of company.com becomes useless.

Couple years ago I had sales calls with a Agari and Return Path representatives in regard of their DMARC-based solutions. The only question I've asked them was "What's the point in your product if a spammer can easily avoid any DMARC-based defense?". I've got no real answer.

Today I've found the proof that I was right. Return Path whitepaper states DMARC is protecting brands from only 30% of email-borne attacks.

How To Waste Email Subject Line Opportunities

My bank started monthly email digest lately. As an email professional I'm carefully reading all their email. The last one was pretty appealing - up to 10% cash back on gas stations, discount on tickets to electronic music festival etc. Much effort spent on proposed opportunity, design and so on.

But the subject line was the worst possible - just "Our News In Short". What an opportunity wasted!

One Step Forward, One Step Back

I've been already blogging about not successful email marketing segmentation approach of French parking company Neoparking. In March they've sent me 2 more emails with a 5 days difference.

The first one gave me a hope they're going to make things better - the email was in English. But few days later I've got another email in French again. Come on guys, you almost did it!

Did You Know Gmail Has Security Warnings For Suspected State-Sponsored Attacks?

If not - take a look here. I wish you to never see this message on you Google Mail account:

We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer.

Keeping Email Design Consistent Is A Struggle

This is a message for all the startups which feel superior to huge companies. Yes, it's a real struggle to keep email design patterns consistent across different departments or even sub businesses. Usually it requires a huge effort just to find out what are the email types you're sending out. And actually changing them to look alike is only step #2 or #3.

You can easily find examples for every corporation out there. Let's take a look at Apple which is definitely an iconic company in terms of design and keeping things updated. Each email type they've sent me looks different, only one one is optimized for smartphones.

How to send an 'E mail' - Database TV Show From 1984

It definitely was fun to send and receive an email back in 80s :)

Litmus Isn't Able To Optimize Its Own Emails

Another email I've got yesterday came from Litmus - the most well known company providing services for email marketers aimed to help them optimize emails for different mail clients.

Take a look at almost invisible text in this promo email: