Whitemail, coined as an opposite to
blackmail, has several meanings.
Economics
In
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
, whitemail is an anti-
takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
arrangement in which the target
company will sell significantly discounted
stock to a friendly third party. In return, the target company helps thwart takeover attempts, by
# raising the acquisition price of the raider
# diluting the hostile bidder's number of shares
# increasing the aggregate stock holdings of the company
Social culture
Whitemail can also be considered as legally compensating someone for doing their job in a manner benefiting the payer. For example, if a person gives a
maître d' a $20 bill in order to secure a table more quickly than other patrons who had arrived earlier, this could be considered whitemail. It is merely a compensatory
incentive
In general, incentives are anything that persuade a person to alter their behaviour. It is emphasised that incentives matter by the basic law of economists and the laws of behaviour, which state that higher incentives amount to greater levels of ...
for someone to do their job quicker, better, or in a manner more advantageous to the payer. It can be considered a
bribe
Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
, depending on the person being offered the incentive and the action the incentive is intended to influence.
Fiction
In
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels.
Pratchett's first no ...
's ''
Discworld
''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat ...
'' series, whitemail is described as an ''anti-crime'', a positive act that is committed in such a way as to cause outrage and/or humiliation to its victim. Whitemail is the threat of disclosing a person's good deeds for purposes of undermining their disreputable reputation (e.g. a
gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
's charitable donation). Other anti-crimes include breaking-and-decorating and proffering-with-embarrassment.
Fundraising
In
fundraising, whitemail is a donation received without a response form, coupon, statement, or other source identification, so it cannot be attributed to any particular fundraising campaign. These donations often come in generic, white-colored envelopes.
E-mail
1) Automated inbound fax and letter handling: Whitemail can used to refer to the automated handling of inbound faxes and letters as customer requests to, and at, service and reception desks. For example, KANA Whitemail uses this terminology and is a provider of software to integrate Customer Relations Management (CRM) systems with email clients.
2) White listed email: Whitemail can be used as a term to denote email that is sent through a white listed email service (e.g. iContact,
Constant Contact, Get Response, and others). This type of email usually requires mailing list approval or double opt-in by the email recipients. This has a higher deliverability than normal direct email lists and is usually used for the delivery of newsletters or other regular information distributed to clients or subscribers.
3) Anonymous email: Whitemail was an anonymous mailer hosted on biomatic.org. It would allow any visitor to send e-mail messages to any address at no cost and with no registration required, simply using the site's interface. Whitemail even allowed its users to provide any e-mail address (their own, somebody else's or one that does not exist) that would then appear to the recipient as the message's origin. The Whitemail service was removed from the site at version 3 in 2004
References
External links
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{{Scams and confidence tricks
Mergers and acquisitions
Social engineering (computer security)
Webmail