Nov
14

Accutech Home Inspection: Emailing a Spamtrap

Accutech Home Inspection, a New Jersey-based company that inspects houses for sale and provides purchasers and lenders with a report on the home’s features and condition, is sending bulk email to an email address that has never existed except in the fertile mind of a spammer some years ago, when he or she created the email address and added it to a list for sale. The presence of this address on Accutech’s list could be due to a typo in a web subscription form combined with failure to confirm web form subscriptions (a foolish error), or to a purchased list. The ESP is Sendgrid.

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Nov
11

[RESOLVED] Serena Software: inviting a spamtrap to join a webcast

Silicon Valley firm, Serena Software, sent this webcast invitation to a pure spamtrap, ie an email address that has never been used as anything else but a spamtrap. The particular spamtrap normally gets spams advertising fake watches and herbal alternatives to certain blue pills, rather than mainsleaze spams. Makes me wonder how they went about building their list…
The ESP in this case is Marketo.

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Nov
10

Printing Industries of America: Advertising to a Spamtrap

Printing Industries of America, which describes itself as the world’s largest trade association for graphic arts professionals, is sending bulk email to an email address that was closed in 2007. The ESP is Streamsend.

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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.

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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.

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Nov
09

Canal Plus: still at it

As described here earlier, Canal Plus, a provider of premium TV services, is having a hard time managing bulk email lists of theirs. They’re still at it.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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