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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Mar
06

Verizon Wireless: Advertising Cell Phone Service to a Spamtrap

U.S.-based mobile telephone company Verizon Wireless today sent a bulk email advertisement to a spamtrap that has not existed since 2003. The spamtrap has not previously received email from Verizon Wireless since it came out of timeout and became a spamtrap. Nonetheless, the spam claims, “You recently registered with a network website to receive special online offers.” This is not true for any reasonable definition of “recently”. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.

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Mar
04

RealAge: Telling Spamtraps How Old They Really Are

Health assessment web site RealAge just set a number of bulk email advertisements to spamtrap addresses yesterday. The spamtraps might have been legitimate email addresses at one time, but none were live after 2008. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.

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