MainSleaze

An organization that calls itself “Conservatives United 2012” but that has no web site that I could find and sends email as conservativesunited2012@gmail.com instead of under a domain of its own, just started sending bulk email to an email address that was created earlier this year and subscribed only to former senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s campaign list. The email was sent by ESP BlueHornet, a division of Digital River. URLs in the message body point to email marketing firm VerveMail.

Although the email address in question is not a spamtrap, its existence and use have been tightly controlled. It didn’t exist prior to January 2012. It was only used once, to subscribe to campaign mailings from Rick Santorum. It has never responded to any emails from Santorum’s campaign or any other source. The transfer of this email address was done entirely without the owner’s permission. The email indicates that this email address was added to Conservative United 2012’s list on April 20, 2012. It doesn’t claim that the user opted-in, a refreshing touch of honesty in an email that otherwise demonstrates very little of that quality.

The MainSleaze Spam blog focuses on spam by legitimate organizations. I posted this blog because I knew that the source of the spammed email address was a legitimate organization: the campaign of Rick Santorum. I am unsure that Conservatives United 2012 deserves to be considered legitimate. A legitimate organization does not normally hide behind a free GMail account, fail to provide a URL to their web site, fail to provide a postal address or phone number, and otherwise go out of its way not to be easily identified.

Sending IP: 67.216.226.175

Spam Sample:

Actual Headers:

Received: from smtp.sindal.bluehornet.com (smtp.sindal.bluehornet.com [67.216.226.175])
        by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
        for <xxx>; Tue,  1 May 2012 12:xx:xx <xxx>
X-MSFBL: <xxx>
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
Received: from [10.64.xx.xx] ([10.64.xx.xx:xx] helo=localhost.localdomain)
        by <xxx> (envelope-from <bounce-use=M=<xxx>@returnpath.bluehornet.com>)
        (ecelerity 3.0.28.38595 r(38597)) with ESMTP
        id <xxx>; Tue, 01 May 2012 10:xx:xx -0700
Message-ID: <xxx>
Date: Tue, 01 May 2012 10:xx:xx <xxx>
From: "Conservatives United" <conservativesunited2012@gmail.com>
Reply-To: conservativesunited2012@gmail.com
To: <xxx>
X-Outgoing: <xxx>
Subject: Red State: Obama's Big Lottery Gamble
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsub-<xxx>@listunsub.bluehornet.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    boundary="<xxx>"

Readable Email:

From: Conservatives United <conservativesunited2012@gmail.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Red State: Obama’s Big Lottery Gamble
Reply-To: conservativesunited2012@gmail.com

*******************************************************
*Note: If you are having trouble viewing this message,*
*copy and paste the link below into your browser *
*address field and hit the Enter button on your *
*keyboard. *
http://email.vervemail.com/<xxx>
If you would like to change your preferences *
or unsubscribe, copy the URL below: *
This message was intended for: <xxx>
You were added to the system April 20, 2012. For more information please follow the URL below:
http://email.vervemail.com/<xxx>

Follow the URL below to update your preferences or opt-out:
http://email.vervemail.com/<xxx>

*******************************************************

<removed>

Today I am begging you to please read about the latest ridiculous power grab by our President and his administration. This article written by Stephen DeMaura the Executive Director for Americans for Job Security lays out exactly the risk we face as a nation if Congress doesn’t act right now. I read this over at Red State, and you should check out their other great articles.

Please visit @tellObamaNO and use the hashtag #tellobamano today on Twitter!