Jan
19
Cheetahmail: Giving Up Email Append (YES!)
Today Ben Isaacson, the deliverability and compliance manager at Cheetahmail, posted a blog on the Cheetahmail web site, “A CheetahMail New Years’ Resolution: Giving Up Email Append”.
Jan
18
Burt’s Bees: Now Spamming a Spamtrap Near Me….
Burt’s Bees, a popular U.S.-based natural cosmetics manufacturing company, is now sending bulk emails to a spamtrap that it allegedly updated via the opt-out FreshAddress service several weeks ago. Despite this futile and pointless attempt to turn an opt-out email address into an opt-in email address, their email still hit one of my spamtraps. It will likely hit several others when the rest of the list is mailed. The ESP is Responsys.
Jan
17
Design A Print, Inc.: Customized T-Shirts for a Spamtrap
Design A Print, Inc., a South Carolina-based custom printing and design business, is sending bulk email advertisements to an email address that was closed in 2007. This spamtrap has not previously received email from Design A Print, at least not since it finished its timeout period and was re-enabled in early 2010. The ESP is Vertical Response.
Jan
17
Try It Local: Local Business Deals for a Spamtrap?
Try It Local, a “deals” web site that offers discounts on products and services of local merchants to its users, is all of the sudden sending bulk email to an email address that closed in 2005. This service has not sent email to this email address previously, at least not since it ended its timeout period and became a spamtrap in 2008. The ESP is ExactTarget.
Jan
17
How to Hit a Spamtrap and Do It Right
H-E-B, a regional grocery chain in south-central Texas and northeastern Mexico, is sending bulk email confirmation requests to a pure spamtrap with an associated name that never belonged to that spamtrap. The requests appear to be confirmed opt-in (COI) requests. If they are, then the spamtrap will not be added to H-E-B’s list despite either a typo during the subscription process or a subscription forgery. (Spamtraps don’t respond to confirmation requests any more than they subscribe for bulk email.) The sending ESP is PulsePoint.
Jan
17
Suunnittelutoimisto Jotain…: Illegally spamming for spamming services
Suunnittelutoimisto Jotain…, aka yrityspostia.fi, whom I have mentioned in passing here already, is spamming. (In other news, water is wet.) I’m really hard pressed to call this mainsleaze, but granted: it is sent by an entity that is readily identifiable from the message, it’s not botspam, and it’s not snowshoe spam, and it advertises services provided by the same entity that sent the message. So what else remains to call it but mainsleaze?
Jan
16
Academic Insight: Spamtraps Don’t Take the SAT or ACT
Academic Insight, a U.S.-based academic test preparation service, is sending bulk email advertisements to an email address that was closed in 2003. This spamtrap has also not previously received email from this company. The ESP is Vertical Response.
Jan
14
Computer Discount Warehouse: Sending to 6+ Year Closed Role Address
Computer and software retailer Computer Discount Warehouse (CDW) is sending bulk email to a role address closed in 2005. Although it never sent email or signed onto lists, this particular role address receives a great deal of snowshoe spam and a respectable amount of mainsleaze spam. This is probably the case because it doesn’t have a standard role address name and is therefore rarely suppressed or detected by the usual sanity checking routines at ESPs. The ESP is ExactTarget.
Jan
13
Rick Santorum: Campaigning to a 9-Years-Gone Email Address
The campaign of Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2003, asking for the support of his “fellow conservative”. The email nonetheless indicates that the email address was added to the system on January 10, 2012. The ESP is BlueHornet, a division of Digital River.
Jan
13
American Media, Inc.: Selling Magazines to a Spamtrap
U.S.-based publisher American Media, Inc. is sending email advertisements for Reality Weekly Magazine to an email address that has not belonged to a real person for over four years. This email address has not previously received email from American Media since it completed its timeout period and was re-enabled as a spamtrap. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.