Nov
09
BrightTALK: Advertising Web Conferencing Services to a Spamtrap
BrightTALK(tm), a video and web conferencing service based in the U.K., is sending bulk email to an email address that closed in 2007. The ESP is SilverPop.
Nov
09
MacTech: Inviting Spamtraps to a Conference
MacTech Magazine, a long-time and well-known magazine that covers Apple Macintosh issues, is sending bulk email to two email addresses that were last live in the early and mid-2000s. MacTech may be emailing a list that has not been emailed for years or might have ignored bounces for some years in the early and mid-2000s. One of these two email addresses belonged to an avid Macintosh user who almost certainly was a subscriber at some point, so a purchased list although possible is less likely in this case. The ESP is Benchmark Email.
Nov
08
Ford: Emailing a Five-Year Dead Email Address
Ford Motor Company is sending bulk email to an email address that last had a real person using it in 2006. It was in timeout from late 2007 through early 2009, and then re-enabled as a spamtrap. Ford may be emailing a list that has not been emailed for years, may have ignored bounces in 2007-2009, or might have purchased a list. The ESP is Responsys.
Nov
08
MAIF: Mailing a Pure Spamtrap :(
MAIF, a French insurance company, is spamming an email address that has never existed at all. This email address is present on many lists for sale in countries whose primary languages are French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and receives a good deal of spam from otherwise legitimate companies in those languages. Their ESP is Mail Advantage, a subsidiary of CheetahMail, a subsidiary of Experian.
Nov
08
Convio: Using E-Pended Lists?
Convio, a company that provides donor contact and coordination software for non-profit organizations, is sending bulk email to a long-closed email address that, when live, was a role address rather than an individual email address. This email address was used to receive email, but not to send email. It would never have subscribed to receive email from Convio or any other person or company. The name in the email was not associated in any way with this email address; it appears to have been added later, likely via an e-pending process. Their ESP is Eloqua.
Nov
08
Microsoft Store: Selling Windows & Office to a Spamtrap?
Last week Microsoft Store, a new online and retail outlet for computer giant Microsoft, started sending bulk email to an email address that never existed (a pure spamtrap), at a domain that has never had a legitimate email address. The ESP is ExactTarget.
Nov
08
Smashinn.com: Teaching a Spamtrap to Play Tennis?
Smashinn.com, an online tennis supplies and equipment store affiliated with online merchants TradeInn.com, is sending bulk email to the same long-closed email address as its partner site Scubastore.com did a week ago. The ESP for both of these web sites, and a number of affiliated web sites that are also spamming the same spamtrap, is Emailvision.
Nov
07
Hunter Mountain: Purchasing a List?
New York ski resort Hunter Mountain is sending bulk email to a long-closed email address. The email address was last “live” in 2007. The ESP is BlueHornet, a division of Digital River.
Nov
07
Oakley Sign: Emailing a Long-Closed Email Address
Oakley Sign, part of Orlando-based iForia, Inc., is sending bulk email to a long-closed email address. The company web site has an extremely poor rating in the Web-O-Trust, and the WOT page for the domain indicates that SpamCop has seen spam advertising it today. Further, a comment on that page indicates a history of blog comment spam. The ESP is ExactTarget.
Nov
06
Coast to Coast Career Fairs: Spamming E-Pended Lists for Job Fair?
Several weeks ago I blogged about spam from Coast to Coast Career Fairs LLC, an organization that sets up and runs career fairs in cities across the United States, to a spamtrap that never existed at all. Since then, the spam has continued. Subsequent spams from this sender showed that they have a name assigned to this spamtrap address, a name that has no connection to the email address in question since that email address has never been valid. This is a strong sign that Coast to Coast Career Fairs is using a purchased e-pended list. Their ESP is StreamSend, part of Web development and hosting firm EZ Publishing.