Sep
04

On The Forensic Capabilities of LeadForensics

The study of forensics refers to scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection of crime. It is an odd choice of name for what I think is a data seller, especially one whose targeting seems poor enough to be spamming me. They claim to want to help me generate more leads for my website, but my website doesn’t sell anything. I do not really need any leads.

They are sending from IP address 46.236.37.232, which appears to be an email platform called Message Focus or Adestra.

From what I can tell, the only forensic capability this entity has shown me is that they seem to buy B2B spam leads, which is very disappointing.

Mar
06

WASTE advertising gone AMOK?

WASTE apparently has something to do with music. AMOK seems to be a new album by a band called Atoms for Peace. It sounds interesting, based on the musicians involved. The only problem is that I did not sign up for this list and don’t have any recollection of receiving any sort of email from WASTE previously. So, I think this is spam, and it makes me sad.

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Jan
09

Esquire Magazine: How did you find me?

What an exciting offer! Esquire seems like a nice magazine. Though, I have to admit, I can’t tell you the last time I’ve ever purchased or read an issue of Esquire. I’ve never subscribed to Esquire, online or offline, and I have no idea why they would be sending this to me. I am definitely not a registered subscriber nor did I opt-in to this. It smells to me as though they are obtaining addresses from a third party.

I hope their ESP, E-Dialog, will look into this. I can’t have been the only person to receive this.

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Aug
05

Uh oh, Steve Corsi is on fire!

Somebody better grab a fire extinguisher, because Steve Corsi is on fire. I’m not sure who Steve Corsi is, but GamedayNetwork.com is so eager to tell everyone about this that they seem to have purchased a list containing many spamtrap addresses. I’m seeing copies of this mailing to multiple addresses, including both never-valid addresses and addresses that have been dead for more than 10 years.

The ESP is SimplyCast.

The text version of the message was empty except for a couple of “click here” links. I did not load or include the HTML as I did not want to falsely register image load activity to imply that my spamtrap addresses were alive.

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May
22

Compensation Management Resources

Do you know who Compensation Management Resources is? I do not. Nonetheless, they’re sending mail to an address at a domain that has had no valid users since at least early 2007 (but probably much longer). The sender’s methodology seems legitimate — they’re using a legitimate list management software package called Lyris. But the address they’re sending to sure feels like evidence of spam to me.

The ESP or list owner seems to be Business 21 Publishing, based in Pennsylvania in the USA. Their Lyris server appears to be hosted by an ISP called NetAtlantic.

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Jan
02

Possible Email Append from Deb Shops

Deb Shops has all the hot fashion in junior and plus sizes, or so their website tells me. I have never been to a Deb Shops store, and I do not think they even have one in my town. I only heard about them when they started sending unsolicited commercial email to an email address of mine back on December 28, 2011, with two more mails since. Based on the email address receiving this mail, I think this was an email append or similar process. The ESP is Bronto.

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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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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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Oct
31

Callbox Sales and Marketing Solutions

I didn’t receive this one myself. Instead, I noticed it on the Spamhaus Blocklist “Lastest SBL Changes” page.

Looks like a company called “Callbox Sales and Marketing Solutions” is trolling for B2B leads and it attracted the attention of Spamhaus, who has now listed the source IP on their SBL. The ESP is Streamsend.

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Oct
26

Whitepapers Weekly

Does this count as Mainsleaze? Whitepapers Weekly is not a big brand that I know of, but they seem to be sending mail via a legitimate email service provider called Benchmark Email, to email addresses that have never existed. Apparently, this time around, they’re dying to talk to me about enterprise database options.

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