UnsubCentral and LashBack yesterday released a list of the top 10 U.S. "Unsubscribe Violators" - marketers and advertisers whose suppression lists have been misused, resulting in more email from more sources after consumers have opted out. The Can-Spam Act requires gives advertisers 10 business days to stop sending commercial email messages to consumers who opt out by unsubscribing. All advertisers on the list, including subsidiaries of Vendare Media and Experian, failed to honor opt-out requests.

LashBack monitored over 500,000 IP addresses and 100,000 unsubscribe mechanisms to identify improper management of opt-out lists, focusing on three aspects of the process: failure to provide a working opt-out link in the body of the email message; failure to honor opt-opt requests within 10 business days; abuse of opt-out requests resulting in more spam.

After being alerted, using LashBack's UnsubSafe technology Vendare Media routed out the publisher that was in violation of its affiliate terms and conditions. "We can also give Congress clear evidence that the law is being broken," said a LashBack spokesman, expressing the hope that doing so would result in the allocation of more funding to the FTC to swiftly prosecute violators.