Some outfit that I have never heard of before, PC&D B2B Trade Group™ aka Carwash.com, started sending bulk email advertisements last week to an old email address of mine that was retired over a decade ago. Carwash.com is part of EBSCO Publishing. The ESP is ExactTarget.
U.S automobile rental business Dollar Rent-A-Car is suddenly sending bulk email to an email address that a) did not request it and b) has never existed. In this case, the likely cause is that a certain user at a large U.S. ISP *did* request this email or at least rent a car from Dollar without unchecking the “send me offers” check box on their web site, but provided a typoed email address that Dollar did not confirm before placing it on their list. In other words, these offers are going to a spamtrap *instead of* to a customer who almost certainly requested them and is likely to want them. The ESP is Responsys.
Certain companies are absolutely desperate to sell every last possible bit of product during this holiday season. An example: U.S. toy and game retailer Toys’R’Us. Toys’R’Us is currently spamming one of my spamtraps, one that I consider highly likely to be the result of a typoed subscription and so don’t take very seriously. However, that one spamtrap receives from three to five emails per day.
Outdoor goods retailer and outfitter Cabelas, about whom I first blogged in January, just sent a bulk email to the same spamtrap after a hiatus of several months. Previously Cabelas handled its own bulk email. It has now moved its bulk email operation to ESP ExactTarget.
U.S. business newsletter Investor’s Business Daily just sent an advertisement to a spamtrap that, as far as I can tell, has never existed at all. (The domain has never as best I know had a deliverable email address.) The ESP is Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
U.S. women’s intimate apparel boutique Victoria’s Secret is once again sending email advertisements to one of my spamtraps. This follows a somewhat more serious spam outbreak from this company in late summer, when they hit a number of my spamtraps. At the time I did not blog about it because Spamhaus listed them. (I usually try to warn companies about spam before it gets to that point.) The ESP is Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian.
U.S. athletic equipment retailer Sports Authority recently started to send bulk advertising emails to two spamtraps. Both spamtraps have been closed for over a decade. The ESP is E-Dialog.
Earlier this summer I noted a growing number of spamtrap hits from U.S. department store Macy’s. I was about to blog about it when Spamhaus beat me to the pitch and listed them in the SBL. As I recall, they were in and out of the SBL two or three times before the spam from them died down. Unfortunately that did not last; they are once again hitting my spamtraps. It’s just a couple now, but if the previous pattern is repeated, they are headed for more trouble with Spamhaus, Returnpath, and private blocks as well. The ESP is Epsilon, via its subsidiary Bigfoot Interactive.
Tradeinn.com, which I blogged about twice last year (here and here), is still sending bulk email to the same long-closed email address as it did last October and November. The ESP for all of these web sites is Emailvision.
Country Inns & Suites, part of the Carson Hotels chain, recently started sending bulk email to a spamtrap email address that has never received email before. As with yesterday’s spam report, I saw delivery attempts in my mail log and enabled the email address a few weeks ago. The ESP is Epsilon, via its subsidiary Bigfoot Interactive.