Feb
22

Barack Obama: When the Same Email is Both Solicited and Spam

The re-election campaign of U.S. President Barack Obama sent a bulk email today to two email addresses of mine. One of those email addresses was subscribed to that list by me a couple of months ago, so that I could keep current on election news. (During campaign seasons I usually subscribe an email address to most candidates’ lists to see what they have to say, and how they handle their lists.) The other is a spamtrap that, if it ever belonged to a real person, was closed no later than 2005. Both of these emails were sent from the same IP and are otherwise identical. The ESP is Blue State Digital.

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Feb
21

Jon Bruning: Campaigning to a Spamtrap?

Jon Bruning, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in the state of Nebraska, is sending bulk email notices to an email address that was closed in 2004. The email address appears to have belonged to a small company that went bankrupt many years ago, and to have been used to manage that company’s ISP service. It does not appear to have been a personal email address for anybody. The ESP is IContact.

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Feb
21

General Mills Bell Institute: Continuing to Spam a Long-Closed Email Address

Over three months after I blogged about spam from Bell Institute, the research arm of General Mills, to one of my spamtraps, and over two months since the spam resumed after a Bell Institute representative claimed that the problem was fixed, the spam from Bell Institute to that spamtrap continues. The spam started in mid-November 2011; Bell Institute had not emailed that particular spamtrap since it was re-enabled after its timeout period. The ESP is SilverPop.

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Feb
21

Blair: *Still* Selling Clothes, Accessories, and Home Goods to a Spamtrap

Almost three months after I blogged about spam from Blair, a U.S.-based mail order operation, the spam continues unabated to that spamtrap. Whatever the original reasons for this email address being on Blair’s list, they don’t seem concerned that their email is hitting a spamtrap. Their ESP is Yesmail, a division of Infogroup.

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Feb
21

Gerber Life: Selling Baby Life Insurance to an E-Pended Address?

Gerber Life Insurance Company, an affiliate of the U.S.-based company that makes baby food, has started sending bulk email advertisements to an email address that has been closed for years. This email address had not received any email from Gerber prior to a couple of weeks ago. In addition, the name in the email does not match that of the original owner of the email address, which is usually a reliable sign of an e-pended email address. The ESP is Acxiom Digital.

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Feb
16

Hewlett Packard: Emailing ANOTHER Long-Closed Email Address

Hewlett Packard is sending bulk email advertisements to a spamtrap email address that was closed in 2005. The ESP is Yesmail, a subsidiary of Infogroup.

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Feb
15

Rentals.com: Whoa, Nellie! Hitting LOTS of Spamtraps!

Residential real-estate listing portal Rentals.com just sent a number of bulk advertising emails to spamtraps at different domains. None of these spamtraps was active after 2008, and all were in timeout for at least twelve consecutive months. The number of spamtraps pretty much rules out the possiblity of typoed web form subscriptions. Either Rental.com emailed a list that has not been contacted for years, or they purchased a list. (This is the first email that I have seen from them to any spamtrap.) The ESP is E-Dialog.

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Feb
15

Coupons.com: Sending Coupons to a Spamtrap

Coupons.com, a web site that sends emailed coupons for products from major manufacturers and retailers, is sending coupons to an email address that was closed in 2004. Since the domain Coupons.com was first registered in 1994, the original owner of this email address might have requested these emails. However, the address has not been active for eight years. For four of those years, it rejected all email at SMTP time with a 500-level rejection. Coupon.com might have ignored bounces for those years, might have left the email address uncontacted for years, or might have accepted a typoed email address and failed to confirm it. A purchased list is also a possibility. The ESP is Responsys.

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Feb
15

eBusinessAppraisals.com: Offering “Business Evaluation” Services to a Spamtrap

eBusinessAppraisals.com, a company that offers appraisal services to online businesses and commercial web sites, approximately two weeks ago began to send bulk advertising emails to an email address that was closed in 2003. Since the domain eBusinessAppraisals.com was first registered in 2010, the only two ways that I can see this happening are a typoed subscription or a purchased list. The ESP is Marketo.

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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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