Fight for the Future: Political spam

Fight for the Future, a non-profit formed in late 2010, is spamming addresses that are very unlikely to have anything to do with U.S. politics anyway and that, if they’re real, stopped existing years before Fight for the Future was formed.  The ESP is SendGrid. The realnames seem real enough, the addresses seem made up. I wonder if this is a case of malicious forge-subscriptions.  If that is so, practicing confirmed opt-in would have prevented this.  The message itself does not shed any light on the address list building mechanisms of this sender.

Spamming IPs: 50.31.40.130, 50.31.40.131, 50.31.38.99, 50.31.39.181

Sample spam headers:

From bounces+x-x-x=x@list.fightforthefuture.org Fri Apr  6 19:xx:xx 2012
Return-Path: <bounces+x-x-x=x@list.fightforthefuture.org>
Received: from o18.list.fightforthefuture.org (o18.list.fightforthefuture.org [50.31.39.181])
 by x (Postfix) with SMTP id x
 for <x>; Fri,  6 Apr 2012 19:xx:xx +0300 (EEST)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=fightforthefuture.org; h=
 content-type:mime-version:subject:from:to:date:message-id
 :reply-to:list-unsubscribe; s=smtpapi; bh=gb+jtc54C6bDQMlqc74Pze
 0vCL4=; b=FyVsot7gesf7vpC7aswYQdVXebJzvlp+g1yhZGYoMM+o2dqBEj+A9k
 PRzFXDU79foMK3z5gBsqyEDPt01hUO2PLzCLsk0e7BVmKv85eG2OPodqfDxdxeu/
 TLcBAYf5dCMqIPVcC+gLsg6GWN1Uc82AqA2xYdEKc8ZQbsj3j4tGI=
Received: by 10.8.49.76 with SMTP id x.x.x
 Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:xx:xx -0500 (CDT)
Received: from outbound.actionkit.com (unknown [10.9.180.5])
 by mi2 (SG) with ESMTP id x.x.x
 for <x>; Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:xx:xx -0500 (CST)
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="----=x"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Subject: Obama AFK?
From: Tiffiniy Cheng <info@fightforthefuture.org>
To: x <x>
Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:xx:xx +0000
Message-ID: <x-x-x@list.fightforthefuture.org>
Reply-To: Tiffiniy Cheng <info@fightforthefuture.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsub-fftf-x-x.x@fbl.actionkit.com>
X-Sendgrid-EID: x
X-Sendgrid-ID: x
Content-Length: 15317
Lines: 294

Human-readable spam contents:

            [1]Let’s get more signatures than any petition on whitehouse.gov.

[2][IMG]

Dear X,

Can you believe this?  After the largest online protest in history, the
Obama administration is still voicing support for SOPA.

We promised to ask for your help if SOPA returned. We’re asking now. This
kind of backtracking demands a strong, fast response. We’re running a
petition to demand that Obama drop all support for internet censorship.

Our goal? Get more signatures than the top petition on whitehouse.gov —
151,000 signatures. [3]Tell Obama to promise: “I will never advance
legislation that blocks websites or disconnects Americans’ internet
access.”

What is the White House working on exactly? Just the other day, the
administration sent a letter to Congress to demonstrate their support for
new internet censorship legislation. A few weeks ago, the White House
struck a deal to give corporations private powers to shut down your
internet connection (after “six strikes” without due process or judicial
review), completely in secret.

Obama’s internet would let private companies block sites and turn off our
web connections. Blocking websites censors free speech, hurts jobs, and
breaks the internet. These are tactics used by totalitarian governments
and we believe they’re never ok.

[4]Let’s get more signatures than any petition on whitehouse.gov.[5][IMG]

As Wired noted*, “The White House did say that it wouldn’t endorse a bill
that endangers freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risks, or
negatively affects the DNS system. On the other hand, it says elsewhere
that “combating online infringement” — not protecting free speech — is a
governmental priority “of the highest order.” What about free speech,
Obama?

[6]Sign the petition now, then share it to keep the internet strong. Our
friends need to know where the President is currently standing on SOPA.

We couldn’t have stopped SOPA and PIPA without you and all of your
friends! And we can’t do it without you now. Let’s make sure SOPA 2.0
never gets written.

Thank you,

Tiffiniy, Zak, Fight for the Future!
[7]Share this on Twitter [8]Share this on Facebook

————————————————————————–

* The Wired article can be read in full here:
[9]http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/21?akid=x&t=1

To learn more about the White House’s support of internet censorship, see
this article on CNet:
[10]http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/21?akid=x&t=2

References

Visible links
1. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=x&t=3
2. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=x&t=4
3. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=x&t=5
4. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=x&t=6
5. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=x&t=7
6. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=x&t=8
7. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/22!?akid=x&t=9
8. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/23?akid=x&t=10
9. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/21?akid=x&t=11
10. http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/21?akid=x&t=12

You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
http://a.fightforthefuture.org/cms/unsubscribe/unsubscribe/?akid=x&t=13

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