MainSleaze

Last November I blogged about a spamtrap hit by Peebles, a U.S.-based retailer of clothing and accessories. Today Peebles hit that spamtrap again with an email that just *might* be an opt-in confirmation, although the language does not make that clear. The ESP is CheetahMail, a division of Experian.

If this is in fact a closed-loop opt-in confirmation, then Peebles will finally get my spamtrap off of its list, along with other spamtraps that I strongly suspect were on that same list. My spamtrap was a pure spamtrap, an email address that never belonged to a real person. One day, however, it started to receive email, and then the floodgates opened. A creative spammer probably generated it as part of a dictionary attack. It was later associated with a name that never belonged to it, probably as the result of a failed e-pending operation. I don’t know if Peebles associates it with that name, but this email address was never legitimately on their list. I hope that they’re rid of it soon.

Sending IP: 8.7.42.173

Spam Sample:

Actual Headers:

Received: from mta931.e-stagestores.com (mta931.e-stagestores.com [8.7.42.173])
        by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
        for <xxx>; Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:xx:xx -0600 (CST)
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
DomainKey-Signature: <xxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:xx:xx -0000
Message-ID: <<xxx>@mta931.e-peebles.com>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:rm-<xxx>@e-peebles.com>
From: "Peebles" <peeblessalesalert@e-peebles.com>
To: <xxx>
Subject: Want To Receive Exclusive Online Offers?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Reply-To: "Peebles" <support-<xxx>@e-peebles.com>
Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="<xxx>"

Readable Email:

From: Peebles <peeblessalesalert@e-peebles.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Want To Receive Exclusive Online Offers?
Reply-To: Peebles <support-<xxx>@e-peebles.com>

Peebles
http://e-peebles.com/a/<xxx>

Please Confirm Your Email Today!
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL:
http://e-peebles.com/a<xxx>

<removed>

Exclusive Savings…
Just a Click Away!

I would like to continue to receive special offers and promotions, get advanced notice of sales & more!
Confirm Your Email Address Now:
http://e-peebles.com/a/<xxx>

After confirmation, check your inbox for a special offer, valid in-store and online!

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http://e-peebles.com/a/<xxx> for more details.
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