Ringling Brothers: Glad Tidings for a Spamtrap ;)
The Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus Center for Elephant Conservation, and their corporate parent Feld Entertainment, today sent an email advertisement to a spamtrap email address that, if it was ever live, was closed in 2003. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.
Feld Entertainment’s disclaimer reads as follows:
You are receiving this e-mail because you provided Feld Entertainment with permission to contact you at this address about special offers when you signed up to become a Feld Entertainment Preferred Customer, opted in to receive e-mail from us when you purchased tickets, or participated in a Ringling Bros. contest either at the arena (such as entering to win an elephant painting) or through a third party promotional partner (such as entering to win tickets on a newspaper or TV station’s Web site).
This is a PG-rated blog, so I am biting my tongue. This disclaimer makes it impossible to tell where Feld Entertainment obtained the spammed email address. Maybe they thought that all of the sources of their email addresses were opt-in. And maybe Rush Limbaugh is a Democratic Party activist in disguise….
It *is* a pity that something as cool as a baby elephant can’t have a better birth announcement than a spam email.
Sending IPs: 206.165.243.144
Spam Sample:
Actual Headers:
Received: from feld-144.feld.postdirect.com (feld-144.feld.postdirect.com [206.165.243.144])
by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
for <xxx>; Thu, 27 Sep 2012 05:xx:xx -0000 (UT)
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
DomainKey-Signature: <xxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:xx:xx PDT
From: "Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation" <Ringling-Bros@feld-ent.com>
Subject: Announcing the birth of Piper, 24th Asian elephant calf
To: <xxx>
X-Header-Versions: RinglingBros_CenterforElephantConservation.<xxx>@feld-ent.com
X-Header-CompanyDBUserName: Feld
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:<xxx>@feld-ent.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Message-ID: <RinglingBros_CenterforElephantConservation.<xxx>@feld-ent.com>
X-Vitals: <xxx>
Reply-To: RinglingBros_CenterforElephantConservation.<xxx>.cmn@feld-ent.com
X-Header-MasterId: <xxx>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="<xxx>"
Readable Email:
From: Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation <Ringling-Bros@feld-ent.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Announcing the birth of Piper, 24th Asian elephant calf
Reply-To: RinglingBros_CenterforElephantConservation.<xxx>.cmn@feld-ent.com
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center For Elephant Conservation Announces Birth Of 24th Asian Elephant Calf
It’s A Girl!
Piper
Born August 13, 2012 at 8:05 p.m.
316 pounds — 39 inches in height — 41 inches in length
Facts about the newest member of our family, Piper:
<removed>
———————————————————————-
THE FINE PRINT
All contents are (c)2012 by Feld Entertainment. We encourage you to forward this e-mail in its entirety to your friends and family!
You are receiving this e-mail because you provided Feld Entertainment with permission to contact you at this address about special offers when you signed up to become a Feld Entertainment Preferred Customer, opted in to receive e-mail from us when you purchased tickets, or participated in a Ringling Bros. contest either at the arena (such as entering to win an elephant painting) or through a third party promotional partner (such as entering to win tickets on a newspaper or TV station’s Web site).
Feld Entertainment hates spam as much as you do. Your e-mail address is never used for any reason other than for you to receive special offer mailings from Feld Entertainment. We apologize if you received
this e-mail in error.
TO CONTINUE RECEIVING MAILINGS ABOUT SPECIAL TICKET OFFERS for The Greatest Show On Earth(R) in your area, do nothing.
TO CHANGE YOUR E-MAIL OR TO NO LONGER RECEIVE E-MAIL ABOUT SPECIAL TICKET OFFERS from Feld Entertainment, visit
http://feld.p0.com/unsubscribeECOA.jsp?<xxx>
ARE YOU A FELD ENTERTAINMENT PREFERRED CUSTOMER?
If not, then what are you waiting for? It’s easy! Fill out the online form at:
http://link.p0.com/u.d?<xxx>
TO COMMENT ON THE CONTENTS OF THIS E-MAIL, please address your e-mail to:
WebMarketing@feldinc.com
We may not be able to respond to each email individually, but rest assured we’ll read them all! You may also contact us by conventional mail at this address:
Customer Service
c/o Feld Entertainment
8607 Westwood Center Drive
Vienna, VA 22182
VISIT FELD ENTERTAINMENT ONLINE