MainSleaze

A few weeks ago I blogged about a spamtrap hit by PrintCountry, an online printer ink and printing supplies seller. PrintCountry is still sending bulk email to the same long-closed email address, and is now hitting an additional email address that as far as I know has never existed at all. The email states that both email addresses was added to the system a short time ago. This is not possible; neither email address has been live since 2006, so there was nobody who could have subscribed that email address to any list in the past few weeks.

It strains the limits of my credulity to believe that PrintCountry could have gotten two such spamtraps on its list because of unverified subscriptions and typos, the usual sometimes-true excuse for single spamtrap hits. At this point, I am convinced that PrintCountry purchased a list. The ESP is BlueHornet, a division of Digital River.

BlueHornet, if you’re reading this, you need to do something about your customer’s spamming. The customer might not realize what they are doing. They might have purchased a list believing it to be opt-in; many list sellers claim that their lists are opt-in. Some of these lists were opt-in for a specific product or company, but (of course) people do not opt-in to lists whose only criteria for use is that somebody had the money to purchase the list! In other words, in the real world there is no such thing as a list for sale that is opt-in for a purchaser who sends bulk email to it. That bulk email is opt-out by definition, and thus by definition is spam.

Sending IP: 216.54.194.20

Spam Sample:

Actual Headers:

Received: from smtp.yerevan.bluehornet.com (smtp.yerevan.bluehornet.com [216.54.194.20])
        by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
        for <xxx>; Fri,  4 Nov 2011 08:xx:xx -0500 (CDT)
X-MSFBL: <xxx>
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
Received: from [10.64.xx.xx] ([10.64.xx.xx:xx] helo=<xxx>)
        by <xxx> (envelope-from <xxx>)
        (ecelerity 3.0.28.38595 r(<xxx>)) with ESMTP
        id <xxx>; Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:xx:xx -0700
Message-ID: <xxx>
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:xx:xx -0700
From: "Christy B - PrintCountry.com" <christyb@printcountry.com>
Reply-To: christyb@printcountry.com
To: <xxx>
X-Outgoing: echo
Subject: Get Free Shipping on Your Order!
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsub-<xxx>@listunsub.bluehornet.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    boundary="--<xxx>"

Readable Email:

From: <xxx> – PrintCountry.com <<xxx>@printcountry.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Get Free Shipping on Your Order!
Reply-To: <xxx>@printcountry.com

===========================================
Get Free Shipping on Orders over $50
===========================================

Start Shopping Now:

http://echo3.bluehornet.com/ct/<xxx>

*Free shipping applies on the U.S. orders over $50. For orders including toners and/or weighing more than 3 pounds with a long distance ZIP code, free shipping does not apply.

Need help with this promotion? Call PrintCountry on 1-866-775-2697.

Copyright © 2011 PrintCountry
www.printcountry.com

This message was intended for: <xxx>
You were added to the system October 5, 2011. For more information
please follow the URL below:
http://echo3.bluehornet.com/subscribe/source.htm?<xxx>

Follow the URL below to update your preferences or opt-out:
http://echo3.bluehornet.com/phase2/survey1/survey.htm?<xxx>