MainSleaze

Campanile, a UK-based hotel and restaurant chain that is owned by French hotelier Louvre Hotels Group, about two weeks ago started sending bulk email advertisements to an email address that was closed in 2002. The ESP is Pure 360, aka PureSender.

I do not draw firm conclusions from single spamtrap hits. However, when a spamtrap that has not been a real email address for a decade suddenly starts to receive spam from an entity that it has never heard from before, there are not too many plausible explanations, and most are bad. A typo is possible, but unlikely in this case because the domain itself is a spamtrap and is not similar to any active/legitimate domain. It is possible, I suppose, that Campanile was foolish enough to reactivate a list that had not been contacted for over ten years, but on the whole unlikely. The only other explanations that I can think of are a purchased list or an email appended list, either of which is of course 100% opt-out. Sending email to a purchased or appended list is by definition spamming.

Sending IP: 94.236.85.1

Spam Sample:

Actual Headers:

Received: from mta851.pur3.net (mta851.pur3.net [94.236.85.1])
        by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
        for <xxx>; Sat, 18 Aug 2012 11:xx:xx -0000 (UT)
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
Received: from localhost (127.0.0.1) by mta851.pur3.net id <xxx> 
        for <xxx>; Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:xx:xx +0100 
        (envelope-from <agent@<xxx>.pur3.net>)
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?R3JlYXQgU3VtbWVyIHJhdGVzIHdpdGggQ2FtcGFuaWxlIFVLLiBCJkIgZnJvbSBqdXN0IMKjMjkh?=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="<xxx>"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: "Campanile" <Campanile@electronic-communication.com>
Reply-To: "Campanile" <Campanile@electronic-communication.com>
X-MailId: {~<xxx>~}
List-Unsubscribe: <http://electronic-communication.com/_act/optout.php?<xxx>>, <mailto:list-unsubscribe@electronic-communication.com?body={~<xxx>~}>
To: <xxx>
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:xx:xx +0100
Message-ID: <xxx>

Readable Email:

From: Campanile <Campanile@electronic-communication.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Great Summer rates with Campanile UK. B&B from just £29!
Reply-To: Campanile <Campanile@electronic-communication.com>

BOOK A ROOM | SEND TO A FRIEND | OUR HOTELS | SPECIAL OFFERS

Hello

We’re bringing you great summer deals across our 19 UK hotels with B&B rates from £29. Book at least five days in advance for stays between between 13th July to 9th September 2012.

<removed>

• Rooms cost from GBP 29 per room per night, including continental breakfast (GBP 35 for two people), when booking at least five days in advance. Extra bed may be added for a child up to the age of 10, depending on availability. Offer valid for a stay from 13th July 2012 to 9th September 2012 inclusive in participating Campanile UK hotels, depending on the period and on the availability of rooms allocated to this rate. Offer cannot be combined with other current promotions and is only available to individual customers. Offer cannot be changed or cancelled.

Louvre Hotels Group, 66 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LH. Company registration number 2018471