A few days ago, somebody tweeted a copy of a letter Fonecta, the Finnish spammer and list vendor, had sent to its customers. The matter also made news in Finnish IT press (Tietoviikko).
A copy of the letter and a translation are included below.
In Laatu korvaa määrän, the CEO of Nebula, a Finnish hosting service provider expounds on how quality is better than quantity (with regard to email marketing, of course).
The post starts out fine, then it descends into the abyss of trying to discern what is a good purchased list.
Can I use a purchased email list? Courtesy of MailChimp.
In the Finnish version of the Why won’t you tell us what email address was spammed article, I surmise that e-pending is largely unknown in Finland.
I stand corrected.
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WASTE apparently has something to do with music. AMOK seems to be a new album by a band called Atoms for Peace. It sounds interesting, based on the musicians involved. The only problem is that I did not sign up for this list and don’t have any recollection of receiving any sort of email from WASTE previously. So, I think this is spam, and it makes me sad.
Watch John’s acceptance speech on y00t00b.
Congratulations, John! To say it is well deserved is an understatement, but there you have it.
According to Kauppalehti, the Finnish trade/commerce newspaper, Fonecta has had to shut down the email parts of its Kontaktikone spam machine because of Spamhaus listings.
Read more…
Got a response from the Data Protection Ombudsman today (on a matter related to Marjex Oy, Document No. 3030/4511/2012). It has several interesting points of which all Finnish spammers should take note.
Certain companies are absolutely desperate to sell every last possible bit of product during this holiday season. An example: U.S. toy and game retailer Toys’R’Us. Toys’R’Us is currently spamming one of my spamtraps, one that I consider highly likely to be the result of a typoed subscription and so don’t take very seriously. However, that one spamtrap receives from three to five emails per day.
According to a change on November 1, 2012 to its information in the Finnish Business Information System, Lateralus Enterprise is now resident at Valliniemenkatu 6 F 59, 48900 KOTKA. This 30 m² property was recently for rent. The ownership of the telephone number 040-594 0756 indicates the corresponding change, although Fonecta Finder hasn’t noticed yet that Lateralus Enterprise would have moved from Sokinsuontie 7 A 22, 02760 ESPOO. Even Tavoite Media‘s own web pages still display the old address. What’s more, it indicates another person as definitely having to do with Tavoite Media. So he’s not just a misguided customer, but an actual partner in spam. Thanks for confirming, dudes. BTW. If you list a portfolio of customers and three of the eleven are you yourselves, isn’t that kind of sad? (Getwin Oy, BisnesRekisteri.com, and Trendikauppa.fi.)