Nov
14

“The Tea Party”: Spamming a Shiny Brand New Spamtrap *after* the Election

An organization that I did not see or hear from during the recent U.S. Presidential election campaign, The Tea Party, began sending email a couple of days after the election to a brand new shiny spamtrap at a domain that I have owned for some time. This spamtrap has not previously received email from anybody: I enabled it last week after I reviewed my mail logs and noticed that somebody was trying to send email to it. The IP that sent this email belongs to ESP Sendgrid. The domain that sent this email, pd25.com, belongs to what I thought was a rival ESP, ExactTarget. The authorized use policies (AUP) of both ESPs decidedly require that bulk email sent through them be sent only to email addresses that opted in.

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Nov
13

Pepperos: Responding to a Non-Existent Credit Request

German advertising agency Pepperos Media GmbH is spamming an email address that never existed, offering the spamtrap easy loans and instant cash payouts. The email looks like a scam, but was sent by Optivo, a respected German ESP whose terms and conditions do not permit the sending of unsolicited bulk email (spam).

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Nov
13

Woolrich: Fine Winter Woolens… for a Spamtrap

U.S. woolen manufacturer Woolrich, which has been in operation since the early 1800s, just started sending bulk email advertisements to an email address that never existed at a domain that has not been live for over seven years. The ESP is ExactTarget.

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Nov
13

Blogging Hiatus Over :-)

As most of you noticed, I took a break from blogging for the past month. For three weeks of it I was on an extended driving trip around the Colorado Plateau (Valley of Fire State Park, Zion National Park, North Rim Grand Canyon, and lots else). I’m now back, however, and the mainsleaze spam is if anything increasing as time goes on, even after the flood of political spam dropped to a trickle after last Tuesday. So (my) blogging resumes today.

Hat tip to my colleague Atro Tossavainen for keeping the site going while I was gone. 🙂

Oct
09

Redbox: COI Doesn’t Fix All Bulk Email Problems

Because Redbox has been actively confirming subscriptions to its lists, I’ve kept quiet about the spamtrap hits that I see from them. They’re doing the right thing to confirm. I don’t want to discourage them. But their initial acquisition process for these email addresses is resulting in more initial spamtrap hits than any reputable company whose bulk email I’ve observed before. I think that they and their ESPs — Cheetahmail, a subsidiary of Experian, and ExactTarget — need to know this. Further, this raises an important issue for many companies that use bulk email: what to do about problems that confirmed opt-in (COI) doesn’t solve.

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Oct
06

Political Spam This Week: Mitt Romney (sigh)

It became obvious in the past week that the real story of political spam in this campaign doesn’t involve ESPs and legitimate bulk email. It involves snowshoe spam being sent either by U.S. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign, or a supporter. Whoever is sending this spam is sending much larger quantities of spam to purchased and other non-opt-in lists than all of the legitimate campaign mailing lists and ESPs combined.

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Sep
30

Political Spam Today: Donate! (Continued…)

This *weekend* the presidential campaigns doubled down on spam, as an FEC deadline at the end of September crept up upon them. Eight spams, all from one of the presidential campaigns or a Democratic Party campaign committee. One single spamtrap received copies of six of these eight spams. I’m not the typical email recipient, but if I had received that many begging emails from a candidate that I supported, I’d be tempted to vote for his opponent.

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Sep
30

Lowe’s: Offering Home Improvement Deals to a Spamtrap

Lowe’s, a U.S.-based hardware and home improvement store that competes directly with Home Depot, a few months ago started sending bulk email advertisements to a spamtrap that cannot have been live after 2002. Today Lowe’s hit a second spamtrap, an email address that (if it was ever live) closed in 2005. The ESP is ExactTarget.

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Sep
29

Political Spam Today: Donate! Donate! Donate!

Today the presidential campaigns doubled down on spam, begging their supporters to donate as much as they could in advance of an FEC deadline at the end of September. *Nine* spams, all from one of the presidential campaigns or a Democratic Party campaign committee. (While the Romney campaign is hitting plenty of spamtraps, the Republican party counterparts to the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees are either not sending as much spam or have managed to avoid my spamtraps.) Notable highlights include a double-header in the DSCC’s Spamming Senator of the Day Contest (Harry Reid and John Kerry) and thanks from First Lady Michelle Obama for a contribution — to a spamtrap that hasn’t been live for years and can’t have contributed any money to any candidate.

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Sep
28

Political Spam Today: Bill Clinton and Ann Romney Get Into the Act

Nobody took today off, probably because it’s the end of the quarter for FEC reporting. :/ Bill Clinton bright and early, followed by Romney campaign deputy digital director Abe Adams, Senator Al Franken, and Ann Romney. And several other groups. <sigh>

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