May
07
Advanstar: When in doubt, diversify
Not that it’s very useful. Yesmail is still just as Yesmail as before.
May
07
Whoa, Nellie! Turkish Airlines: *Flooding* my Spamtrap
This morning when I logged on and checked my spamtrap, I found over two dozen spams from Turkish Airlines, which I believe is the national airline in Turkey. Somebody — specifically, somebody responsible for Turkish Airlines Iran, if the From addresses are any clue — purchased a very dirty list. I don’t recall ever seeing spam from Turkish Airlines before, so if Turkish Airlines has no idea how this came about, I would recommend investigating the marketing department for somebody who believes in the tooth fairy, responds to 419 Advance Fee Fraud scams, and thinks that there is such a thing as an “opt-in” list for sale. The ESP is Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
May
01
“Conservatives United 2012”: Anonymously Spamming Rick Santorum’s List :(
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.
May
01
Cellectis SA: Still spamming scientists
Cellectis SA, an old acquaintance on this site, continues to spam scientists, which is not altogether very surprising given EmailVision’s rather lackluster response the last time around. We hear there’s a new guy in town (manning abuse@, that is), so let’s see.
May
01
Mettler Toledo: Spamming scientists
Mettler Toledo, a global provider of precision instruments and weighing equipment, wishes to reach out to scientists whose addresses they must have harvested from scientific articles available via PubMed. The ESP is Eloqua.
Read more…
Apr
29
Broderbund: Why Confirming Subscriptions is Worthwhile
Several months after I first posted about spam from Broderbund, the company is still regularly sending bulk email advertisements to the same email address as before. Careful examination of the spamtrap indicates that it was probably never a valid email address. It receives no other email except botnet and other criminal types of spam, and the logon portion of the email address shows up regularly in dictionary attacks. The ESP is ExactTarget.
Apr
29
BigPoint: Sending Gaming Newsletters to a Spamtrap
San Francisco-based online gaming company Bigpoint sent yet another email newsletter to a spamtrap email address today to promote DarkOrbit, one of its web-based online game offerings. The email address was closed in 2005, and rejected all email until it was re-enabled in 2010 as a spamtrap. The ESP is Emailvision.
Apr
29
Verizon Wireless: Advertising Cell Phone Service to Many Spamtraps
Verizon Wireless, one of the largest U.S. mobile phone carriers, today sent bulk email advertisements to at least a half dozen of my spamtraps. The only possible explanation that I can come up with for this number of spamtrap hits is a purchased list. The ESP is *of course* Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup, which appears to specialize in bulk email for companies who don’t care whether they spam or not.
Apr
25
Capital One: Offering a Credit Card to an E-Pended Spamtrap :/
Capital One, a bank with an aggressively-advertised credit card program, just sent a bulk email advertisement to a spamtrap that has never heard from Capital One before. Worse, the email uses a name that was never associated with that email address when it was live. So how did Capital One acquire that name and email address combination? One spamtrap hit isn’t conclusive, but this smells very much like a bad e-pend to me. The ESP is Epsilon Interactive, via its subsidiary Bigfoot Interactive.
Apr
25
Most Holy Family Monastery: Proselytizing to Spamtraps
Most Holy Family Monastery, a sedevacantist Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery based in Fillmore, New York, today sent a bulk email to several spamtraps, explaining why the current Catholic Church has in their view gone astray from God’s plans and offering a package of literature and DVDs for sale. None of these spamtraps (or any other spamtraps of mine) have previously received email from this organization. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.