AT&T is spamming the purest sort of spamtrap — an email address at a domain that has never had a legitimate email address at all — via ESP Cheetahmail (i.e. Experian). AT&T really should confirm opt-ins, or perhaps should prevent its marketing department from purchasing lists?
Outdoor Living, a seller of patio furniture and other backyard and patio furnishings and equipment, is spamming a years-dead email address via ESP VerticalResponse.
Everest University, a for-profit online/distance learning company affiliated with Corinthian Colleges, is spamming a number of pure spamtraps, email addresses that never existed except in the minds of creative spammers, via ESP ExactTarget. Spamtraps do not request information about high school diplomas or college degrees. This remains true even when you purchase a “guaranteed” e-pended list that assigns real names to email addresses that never had them.
The digital signage company Four Winds Interactive is spamming several spamtraps via ESP ExactTarget. One spamtrap might be a mistake; several at different domains almost certainly means a purchased list.
This morning I have been looking through my spamtrap collector for mainsleaze spam to report here, to get this blog started. After listing a couple of spams, I looked at the last few spam reports. With one exception, they’re all from Cheetahmail (Experian).
So I just searched the last week’s worth of spam in my spamtrap collector for any spam from IP ranges that I know belong to CheetahMail. In addition to the four spam reports so far, in the past week one or more of my spamtraps have received the following mainsleaze spam from Cheetahmail:
Radio Shack is spamming a years-dead email address via (surprise!) Cheetahmail (i.e. Experian), thanking the user for subscribing. :/ Radio Shack appears to have purchased a list. So much for their NO SPAM policy….
Wyndham hotels and resorts is sending offers to an OLD email address. Cheetahmail (i.e. Experian) is sending me a lot of spam.
Real Simple magazine is mailing via Cheetahmail (a subsidiary of Experian), and is hitting an email address that has not been live since the mid 2000s.
Jewel-Osco, a subsidiary of U.S. grocer Albertson’s, is spamming via ESP Cheetahmail (a subsidiary of Experian), and hitting email addresses that have never existed at all. It appears that Jewel-Osco has purchased an e-pended list.
Why is Motorola spamming spamtraps via Eloqua (a large ESP)? This is highly unusual behavior for a legitimate company, even one that sends opt-out bulk email (spam). This mail blast hit three of my spamtraps, and several spamtraps of other anti-spammers whom I know personally. Normally this indicates a purchased list.