Oct
03

Another three-month look at Spamtraps: ESPs – July, August, September 2018

July to September 2018 in Spamtraps: ESPs

July to September 2018 in Spamtraps: ESPs

We had an unexpected participant in Hobsons, who traditionally send effectively nothing to us, only just about enough for us to have recognized that they even exist. It appears their network space is shared between the ESP and some other branch of their operations. The servers of the non-ESP operations were misconfigured on April 10 shortly before 8 pm UTC and started spewing out backscatter (bounces of spam to the forged sender addresses). This went on until 9/11 @ 11 am UTC, peaking in July.

With Yesmail, the money mule spammers (subjects: “New offer”, “New vacancies in our company”, “Interesting work”, “Staff Wanted”, “Good day!”, “Hello!”, “Interesting offer”, “Welcome to our company”) started appearing in April, peaked in July, and were effectively out by September. The numbers of this type of spam on any other ESP platform are never measured in more than the single digits.

Worst senders:

  1. SendGrid: Advisor Perspectives, by a margin of more than 2x to the next contestant, month after month (with a slight nod in the general direction of Airbnb in July)
  2. SMC/ExactTarget: Kohls (only barely), with Marcus Millichap popping up in September
  3. MailChimp: Advisor Perspectives (WTH?)
  4. Oracle: Nordstrom (only barely)
  5. Mailgun: The Italian affiliate spammers (see previous blogs)
  6. Yesmail: After the money mule trash, mktgdillards.com
  7. Amazon SES: jobalert123.com
  8. CheetahMail: shopbonton.com, loft.com, emailtuesdaymorning.com (all almost below the noise floor)
  9. Constant Contact: 123dj.com (only barely)
  10. IBM: tjx.com, renewlife.com
  11. Mapp: conservativeintel.com
  12. Epsilon: DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc.
Apr
09

March 2016 in Spamtraps: ESPs and Social Networks

ESP mail seen in spamtraps, March 2016

ESP mail seen in spamtraps March 2016

Coming in a little late this month. The percentage of ESP sent mail vs all mail seen in the spamtraps is only 0.6% this month; it has to do both with seeing less ESP mail (about 80% of last month’s figures), and a huge increase in botnet spam. Technically, this is a top 11 list this month because Topica and Oracle Marketing Cloud managed to match spam counts so closely that a comparison would be meaningless.

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Feb
06

When Users Really DO NOT Want Your Email….

As I was looking through today’s crop of ESP-sent, mostly mainsleaze spam, I kept stumbling across spam sent to some of my most amusing spamtraps. These spamtraps are not typotraps so much as obvious forgeries, the sort of thing that users type when they are asked for an email address, do not want to refuse, and yet do not want to receive email from you either. Any company might have one of these on their list, but I found several companies and a number of ESPs sending to several of these obvious forgeries. Today. In the past 24 hours.

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Aug
19

Fred Pryor Seminars: Business Training for Spamtraps!

Fred Pryor Seminars, doing business as CareerTrack, is emailing several of my spamtraps, most of them closed for over a decade. The emails offer business training courses of various types. The ESP is Yesmail, a division of Infogroup.

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Oct
27

The DMA: Spamming Job Services to a Purchased List

The United States’ Direct Marketing Association (or DMA) spammed what appears to have been a purchased list yesterday morning. The email claims that the recipients of the email had expressed interest in the DMA, but it was sent to email addresses that never existed and were not likely typos. The ESP is Yesmail, a division of information broker Infogroup.

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Sep
27

Ringling Brothers: Glad Tidings for a Spamtrap ;)

The Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus Center for Elephant Conservation, and their corporate parent Feld Entertainment, today sent an email advertisement to a spamtrap email address that, if it was ever live, was closed in 2003. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.

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Jul
03

KMart: Patio Furniture Offers to a Spamtrap

KMart, a U.S.-based discount department store, is sending email advertisements to a spamtrap email address that was closed in 2006. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.

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May
07

Advanstar: When in doubt, diversify

Not that it’s very useful. Yesmail is still just as Yesmail as before.

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Apr
29

Verizon Wireless: Advertising Cell Phone Service to Many Spamtraps

Verizon Wireless, one of the largest U.S. mobile phone carriers, today sent bulk email advertisements to at least a half dozen of my spamtraps. The only possible explanation that I can come up with for this number of spamtrap hits is a purchased list. The ESP is *of course* Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup, which appears to specialize in bulk email for companies who don’t care whether they spam or not.

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Apr
25

Most Holy Family Monastery: Proselytizing to Spamtraps

Most Holy Family Monastery, a sedevacantist Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery based in Fillmore, New York, today sent a bulk email to several spamtraps, explaining why the current Catholic Church has in their view gone astray from God’s plans and offering a package of literature and DVDs for sale. None of these spamtraps (or any other spamtraps of mine) have previously received email from this organization. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.

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