AthenaSecurity.net, a domain owned by Lisle Technology Partners, LLC, of Lombard, IL, is spamming. The address involved has not been given to anybody for inclusion on a mailing list, and it doesn’t appear in any web resources either. The mail doesn’t contain any hints as to where the address was obtained, why, and how. I wonder if this qualifies as mainsleaze or just the garden variety of spam.
Blogging will be light during the Christmas season, for the next two weeks, at least from me. I will be away from home on a road trip and visiting friends. I have not specifically asked the other bloggers, but assume that they will have other things to think about during this time as well. It would be nice if the spammers were also taking a vacation (sigh), but I see little hope of that. So not to worry: <Schwarznegger on> I’ll be back!<Schwarzenegger off>
Merry Christmas! (Feel free to substitute the holiday you celebrate or general good wishes.) 😉
Lenox, the highly-regarded American maker of fine china, is sending email to an email address that — if it ever existed — was closed before 2008. The email indicates that this email address “recently registered with a network website to receive special online offers”. As with Fuddruckers and a significant amount of other spam sent by ESP Yesmail, this is not true for any reasonable definition of “recently”. Either Lenox is allowing users to subscribe via a web form and is not confirming subscriptions, or Lenox purchased a list.
Fuddruckers, a high-end hamburger restaurant in the United States, is sending bulk email to an email address that has not belonged to a real person since 2007, offering the owner of that email address the chance to win a $500 gift card for “liking” Fuddruckers on Facebook. 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 Fuddruckers is allowing users to subscribe via a web form and is not confirming subscriptions, or Fuddruckers purchased a list. The ESP is Yesmail, a division of InfoGroup.
Professional community forum and webcasting service BrightTalk is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2007. This email address has not received bulk email from BrightTalk since it was re-enabled after its timeout period in 2009. BrightTalk may be mailing a very old list after allowing it to remain uncontacted for years, may be allowing unconfirmed web form subscriptions, or might have purchased a list. The ESP is Silverpop.
System Tools Software, Inc. is spamming addresses they know to be dead. I let them know (about the entire domain, of course) on March 6, 2010. The ESP here is Dundee Internet Services, more specifically their Lyris ListManager offering.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a U.S.-based advocacy group which campaigns against attempts by religious groups to unduly influence politics and government, has just started sending bulk email updates to an email address that was closed in 2007. This email address was in timeout from 2008 through late 2009 before being turned into a spamtrap. Until today, it has received no email from Americans United. The ESP is MailChimp.
S.C. Johnson, a U.S.-based household products company known to every small child (and everybody else) in the United States, is sending bulk emails to email addresses that have not been live for many years. These email addresses receive no legitimate email. Until today, they have received no email from S.C. Johnson. So why are these email addresses suddenly getting email from this company? One spamtrap hit might be a typo; several usually means a purchased list. The ESP is Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
InteleTravel.com, a reputable travel industry organization that recruits and supports home-based travel agents, is sending bulk emails to email addresses that either never existed or have been closed for years. None of the email addresses in question appear to have belonged to travel agents. One was at a company not in the travel business that has long since gone out of business. So how did these email addresses get on InteleTravel.com’s list? The ESP is Vertical Response.