Spirit Airlines, a discount airline based in Miami, is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2008. Spirit Airlines may not confirm web form subscriptions (which allows typoed and forged email addresses to be added to its list), may ignore bounces (which allows old/closed email addresses to remain on a list), or may have purchased a list. The ESP is Yesmail, a division of InfoGroup.
Online electronic products discounter eCost.com is still sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2007. There is no record of eCost.com contacting this email address between the time that it finished its timeout period in 2009, and late October 2011. eCost.com has changed ESPs since late October, however: it is now using SilverPop.
Brakes Plus, a U.S.-based auto service chain, is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed many years ago. The email indicates that this email address “recently registered with a network website to receive special online offers”. This is not true for any reasonable definition of “recently”. Either Brakes Plus is allowing users to subscribe via a web form and is not confirming subscriptions (a foolish error), or Brakes Plus purchased a list. The ESP is Yesmail, a division of InfoGroup.
Air Wick, a subsidiary of U.K.-based multinational home products manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser, is sending bulk email to email addresses that have been closed for many years. None of these email addresses has received marketing emails from Air Wick via any ESP since they finished their timeout period and were re-enabled as spamtraps. Either Air Wick is emailing a list that has not been contacted since before 2008, or Air Wick has purchased one or more lists. The ESP is Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
Chase Bank is sending advertising emails to an email address that has been closed for many years, claiming that the owner is “an Amazon.com Business Rewards Visa cardmember”. The ESP is Acxiom Digital.
Integrated information technology company 8×8, Inc. is sending bulk email to email addresses that have been closed for many years. The presence of these email addresses on 8×8’s list could be due to emailing a fallow opt-in list that had not been contacted since before 2008 (a foolish error), or to a purchased list. The ESP is Marketo.
RedPlum, a coupon and deals portal, is sending bulk email to an email address that has not existed since 2007. Nonetheless, the attached spam states that the email address “recently registered with a partner site to receive special offers”, and the email associates a name with the email address that never belonged to it. It is possible that Red Plum is simply including a misleading and inaccurate statement in its bulk email to head off spam complaints, but the long-closed email address and the bogus name taken together strongly suggest that Red Plum is using a recently purchased e-pended list. :/ The ESP is Yesmail, a division of InfoGroup.
Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, a research wing of multinational food giant General Mills, is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2007. Bell Institute has not emailed this email address since it was re-enabled after its timeout period in 2010. Either Bell Institute is emailing a list that has been allowed to lie fallow for years, has failed to process bounces, or is using a purchased list. The ESP is SilverPop.
This issue was marked “resolved”, but the spam started up again at the end of November 2011.
Clothing and accessories retailer As We Change, whose target market is “women over 40”, is sending bulk email to an email address that belonged to a single man before it was closed in 2007. After looking through this seller’s catalog, I seriously doubt that anything in it would have been of interest to the previous owner of this spamtrap. 😉 The ESP is E-Dialog.