Nov
01
Hewlett Packard: Emailing a Long-Closed Email Address
Hewlett Packard is mailing an email address that was closed in 2007, and after its timeout period was re-enabled in 2009 as a spamtrap. The ESP is Acxiom Digital.
Nov
01
SC Fuels: Purchased List? Sure Looks Like It….
SC Fuels, a national distributor of automotive fuel and home heating oil, is spamming an email address that was closed in 2002, at least a year before its own domain was registered. I see no way that an email address closed in 2002 and not re-enabled as a spamtrap til 2005 could be on this sender’s list except because of a typo combined with failure to confirm subscriptions, or a purchased list. The ESP is Constant Contact.
Nov
01
Real Simple Magazine: Advertising People Magazine to a Spamtrap?
Real Simple magazine is spamming a second spamtrap, advertising a different magazine that I assume is part of the same group of magazines. The ESP, as before, is Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
Nov
01
GuideStar: The Consequences of Bad Bounce Processing
GuideStar, a highly respected non-profit organization whose work is to collect information about and provide resources to other non-profit organizations, is still sending email to an email address that almost certainly did request that email — sometime in the late 1990s. The email address was closed and disabled in 2004, however, and was not re-enabled as a spamtrap until 2008. Four years of 500-level SMTP rejections failed to get it removed from GuideStar’s list. How much of that list now consists of old, dead email addresses? How much of it now consists of spamtraps? The ESP is fortunately Lyris, which actually cares about good list management and should be able to help GuideStar fix this problem.
Nov
01
FootSmart: Selling Shoes to Spamtraps?
Comfort shoe specialists FootSmart sent email to an old web site role address that was closed in 2007, and after its timeout period was re-enabled as a spamtrap. This email address even when live did not send email and would not have subscribed to receive bulk email. The ESP is ExactTarget.
Oct
31
AT&T: Still Trying to Get a Spamtrap to Buy U*Verse
Three weeks later, AT&T spammed the same spamtrap it did earlier again, pushing it to buy AT&T’s U*Verse service. The spamtrap in question is a “pure spamtrap”, that is, an email address that never existed at all. The ESP is still Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
Oct
31
Viking River Cruises: Selling Travel to a Closed Role Address?
Viking River Cruises, a highly-rated cruise company, is sending bulk email advertisements to an email address that can’t have requested them since 2007, and probably never did. They sent this email via ESP Epsilon Interactive, also called Bigfoot Interactive.
Oct
31
ScubaStore.com: Teaching a Spamtrap How to Dive?
ScubaStore.com, an online diving equipment and supplies shop affiliated with online merchants TradeInn.com, is sending bulk email to an email address that took its final dive in 2007, and after its twelve month timeout, was resurrected as a spamtrap. The ESP is Emailvision.
Oct
30
eCOST.com: Selling to a Long-Closed Email Address
Oct
30
Famous Footwear: Selling Shoes to a Spamtrap?
Apparel company Famous Footwear is sending bulk email to an email address that, to my knowledge, never existed. The ESP is Yesmail, which is hitting an astonishing number of my spamtraps lately.