MainSleaze

Adam & Eve, an online retailer of “adult products” (sex toys, x-rated DVDs, etc.), is sending bulk emails to an email address that was closed in 2008. This email address has not received email from Adam & Eve since it passed its timeout period and was re-enabled as a spamtrap in mid-2010. Despite that, the email addresses the recipient as “Customer”. If this email address was ever used by a customer of Adam & Eve, it was closed almost four years ago, and rejected all email for an eighteen-month period in the interim. The ESP is Responsys.

Since this is a single spamtrap hit, Adam & Eve might be mailing a very old list with a lot of closed email addresses on it rather than a purchased list. This email address has not received any email from Adam & Eve in the past calendar year, so it probably should not have been emailed again. At very least, Adam & Eve needs to re-engage non-responsive email addresses on their list (preferably with less explicit email than this was), and if they still don’t respond, remove them.

Spam is about consent, not content. The attached email is spam because it was sent to an email address that should not be present on any legitimate bulk email list, not because it is selling products that some find offensive. However, this email frankly shocked me because I’m not used to seeing emails that are this explicit. I redacted most of it because I try to keep this blog PG-rated. :/ If Adam & Eve decides to run a re-engagement campaign, they might want to consider the possibility that unintended individuals (such children or people who don’t buy these sorts of products) might see their email, and make the re-engagement emails less explicit.

Sending IP: 12.130.137.13

Spam Sample:

Actual Headers:

Received: from om-pheinc.rsys1.com (om-pheinc.rsys1.com [12.130.137.13])
        by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
        for <xxx>; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:xx:xx -0600 (CST)
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
DomainKey-Signature: <xxx>
Received: by om-pheinc.rsys1.com (PowerMTA(TM) v3.5r17) id <xxx> 
        for <xxx>; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:xx:xx -0800 
        (envelope-from <<xxx>@envfrm.rsys2.com>)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="<xxx>"
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:xx:xx -0800
From: "Adam & Eve" <aespecial@exclusives.adamandeve.com>
Reply-To: "Adam & Eve" <custserv@adameve.com>
Subject: Give the Gift of these Backdoor Vixens for FREE!
List-Unsubscribe: https://exclusives.adamandeve.com/pub/optout?<xxx>
X-<xxx>: <xxx>
X-<xxx>: <xxx>
X-<xxx>: <xxx>
To: <xxx>
Message-ID: <<xxx>@om-pheinc.rsys1.com>

Readable Email:

From: Adam & Eve <aespecial@exclusives.adamandeve.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Give the Gift of these Backdoor Vixens for FREE!
Reply-To: Adam & Eve <custserv@adameve.com>

Dear Adam & Eve Customer,

Only 12 Shopping Days Left in the Holiday Season! Any Anal Lovers on your list this year?

Give the Gift of the Ultimate Ass Experience!

Get these Anal Vixens for FREE!

<removed>

To make sure you receive our emails, please add
aespecial@exclusives.adamandeve.com
to your Address Book.

Know someone who’d be interested in this e-mail? Then feel free to forward this to any or all of your friends age 18 or older.

Thank you.

Elizabeth Belle
Promotions Manager

This message was sent by adameve.com using technology from Responsys.
http://www.responsys.com/rsvp.asp

Safely unsubscribe from adameve.com e-mail at any time:
http://www.adameve.com/campaignOptOut.aspx?<xxx>

View our permission marketing policy: