Feb
14

International Sales Group: Selling High-End Real Estate to Bankrupt Real Estate Firms?

Florida-based real estate sales firm International Sales Group (ISG) is emailing a list that contains almost a dozen of my spamtraps. Most of those spamtraps were email addresses at real estate firms that went bankrupt between 2008 and 2011. ISG is either emailing a list that they have not contacted in years, or they bought a list or hired an email appender. Their ESP is Vertical Response, whose abuse department appears to have gone AWOL sometime in 2014.

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Jan
29

Ahern and Associates: ONCE AGAIN Spamming a Purchased or Email Appended List

Transportation management consulting company Ahern & Associates, which appeared on the Mainsleaze blog once already, is emailing a large number of spamtraps, at least a half dozen of which are non-typoed pristine spamtraps. This time, they are emailing through ESP Vertical Response, which has been completely unresponsive to spam complaints for the past few months.

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Jan
19

Knowledge Hub Networks: Spamming a Pristine Spamtrap

Longtime spamming company Knowledge Hub Networks emailed a non-typoed pristine spamtrap today. I would not normally blog about such a company on the Mainsleaze Spam blog, because in my view a company whose sole means of obtaining business is spamming purchased and email appended lists does not meet the criterion of “an otherwise legitimate company”. However, these days they are spamming through a legitimate ESP — Vertical Response.

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Jul
12

Metromode Media: Detroit News and Information… to an Abuse Reporting Address?

Metromode Media, an online portal for business and life in southeastern Michigan, just sent an advertising email to a role address at a domain that closed in 2002. The role address, when live, was used to report criminal abuse activities by users of the domain. The ESP is Vertical Response.

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May
29

KaBloom.com: Selling Flowers to a Seven-Year-Old Spamtrap

KaBloom.com, an online florist, has for many months been sending bulk email advertisements to a spamtrap that closed in 2006. (I first noticed these spams in July 2011.) The ESP is Vertical Response.

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Apr
03

“Recovering Politician” Jonathan Miller: Keeping the Ol’ Campaign List Alive….

Former Kentucky state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Miller, who now writes and tweets under the sobriquet “The Recovering Politician” (@RecoveringPol), apparently isn’t all that willing to let politics go. He’s still sending email to his old campaign list, which includes an email address that has not been live since 2003, long before he was running for governor. The ESP is Vertical Response.

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Feb
09

Eat24: How NOT To Win a Customer Back :(

Eat24, a U.S. company that allows people to order meals from participating restaurants and delivers those meals to their homes, just sent YET ANOTHER bulk advertising email to the tagged email address that I gave them when I tried their service a few months ago. At that time, although they did not ask permission to do so, they put that email address on a mailing list. I unsubscribed after I received the welcome message by clicking the Unsubscribe URL, and also sent email to abuse@eat24hours.com telling them, in no uncertain terms, that an email address given to complete a transaction did not grant permission to send bulk email. I didn’t hear from them again til today, when the attached spam arrived. The ESP is Vertical Response.

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Jan
31

Liberty Capital: Offering Small Business Loans to a Role Address

Liberty Capital, which provides loans and financing to small businesses with less-than-pristine credit, is sending bulk email to a role address that was closed in 2004. Role addresses rarely send email, and almost never ask to receive bulk email. In addition, this address has not been live for eight years. The ESP is Vertical Response.

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Jan
24

Israel Ministry of Tourism: What Happens When You Ignore Bounced Email, Part 2

The Israel Ministry of Tourism is sending emailed invitations to an email address that was closed in 2009, and just recently completed its timeout period and was re-enabled as a spamtrap. The ESP is Vertical Response.

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Jan
23

Diverse Careers: Advertising Job Fairs to a Spamtrap

Diverse Careers, a California-based job board and career fair management company, is sending email newsletters to an email address that has never existed at all. This email address, along with a plausible but incorrect name, has been receiving a great deal of job-related and recruiting spam from what appear to be different organizations in the past several months, suggesting that it may be on a “targeted” list for sale. The ESP is Vertical Response.

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