Dec
07

Bank of America: Transactional Email to a Spamtrap :(

Bank of America is sending non-bulk transactional emails to an email address that was closed in 2008, and that subsequently rejected all email for a period of over a year before being re-enabled as a spamtrap. The email contains a customer name and the last four digits of a credit card number. :/ This is not spam; the email was not bulk. However, if Bank of America were paying attention to bounces, it should long since have realized that this email address was not receiving its notifications. Bank of America needs to verify its customer list NOW to fix this security breach. The ESP is ExactTarget.

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Dec
06

A Whine About Winetasting.com

Winetasting.com sounds like a really interesting website. It’s a shame that the first time I have heard of them appears to be because they sent me spam. That is pretty uncool; I like wine and buy it every now and again. But I won’t buy anything from anybody who sends me spam. How did they come to have my email address? I suspect the purchased a list. This address was one that I used on some other online store a couple of years ago. The ESP in this case is Cheetahmail.

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Dec
05

ColorFX: Selling Printing Services to a Spamtrap

Online printing company ColorFX is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2007. The email address belonged to a small company that has not been in business for almost five years. From mid-2008 through the end of 2009, the email address rejected all email with a 500-level error; it should have long since been removed from any properly-run bulk email list. The ESP is IContact.

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Dec
04

Just Fabulous: Stylish Shoes for a Spamtrap?

Shoe matching service Just Fabulous is sending bulk email to an email address that has never existed (a pure spamtrap). This particular spamtrap appears to have recently been added to an e-pended list; it has started to receive snowshoe and mainsleaze spam in significant quantities in the past three months, almost all of it using a first name that is a plausible deduction from the spamtrap itself. The ESP is ExactTarget.

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Dec
03

What do Sprint-Nextel and Burt’s Bees Have in Common?

Just tonight two legitimate mainstream companies — cellular telephone carrier Sprint-Nextel and cosmetics maker Burt’s Bees — both spammed a number of spamtraps. I doubt that either company is aware of it. Both companies apparently hired a third company, Freshaddress.com, that calls itself “The Email Address Experts”, to reconfirm certain email addresses for them. FreshAddress.com used the ESP Listrak to send opt-out “reconfirmation” requests to several spamtraps.

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Dec
03

Tim Burga, Ohio AFL-CIO President: Emailing a Spamtrap?

The president of the Ohio chapter of the AFL-CIO, the largest trade union in the United States, is sending “get out the vote” emails to an email address that closed before the last presidential election. Either the AFL-CIO ignored bounces from early 2008 through late 2009, is sending email to a list that has not been contacted since that period, or has purchased a list. The ESP was Salsalabs, the ESP side of liberal U.S. political activist group Wired for Change.

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Dec
01

Barnes & Noble: It’s Been a While! (since a Spamtrap responded…)

I bet it has been a while since a pure spamtrap (an email address that never existed) responded to Barnes & Noble’s marketing emails! That’s right — B&N is sending bulk email offers to an email address that never existed, and has been sending those emails for over a year. The ESP is Cheetahmail, a division of Experian.

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Nov
30

IMAGINiT Technologies: Emailing an E-Pended Role Address

IMAGINiT Technologies, a subsidiary of Rand Worldwide, is sending bulk email to a role address. This email address was used to receive email, but not to send email; it would never have subscribed to receive email from any person or company. The name in the email is not associated with this role address; it appears to have been added later, likely via an e-pending process. The ESP is Eloqua.

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Nov
29

Kate Bosworth Welcomes Me With Spam

Long, long ago I registered an email address on the San Jose Mercury News website for some reason or other. Today, somebody called the Twin Cities Pioneer Press is sending mail to me at the address I gave only to the Mercury News. Was my email address stolen or sold? No, probably not. A quick investigation reveals that both newspapers are owned by the same company, MediaNews Group. Was it spam? Most definitely! Somebody I didn’t give my email address to (Pioneer Press) is sending me mail to an address that I gave to some other company (or in this case, sister company). It may or may not be legal, but it is most certainly a bad practice.

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Nov
29

IWA Publishing: Selling Specialist/Technical Books to a Role Address?

IWA Publishing, the publications wing of the International Water Association, is sending bulk email to an old role address that was closed in 2007. The ESP is MailChimp.

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