St. Mary’s University? Or Accu-Print? Which is Spamming my Spamtrap?
Either St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, or San Antonio printer Accu-Print, is sending bulk email advertisements to a spamtrap of mine that has never heard from either of them before. The From header say’s that the sender is St. Mary’s, while the message body states that the message was sent by Accu-Print. The spamtrap in question, if it ever existed at all, was closed in 2005. The ESP is ExactTarget.
I am not an attorney, but I believe that CAN-SPAM requires that email advertisements accurately identify the sender. In this case, I can’t tell who was responsible for this mailing. It is odd to see a mailing that appears to violate the CAN-SPAM law coming from a reputable ESP like ExactTarget. I suspect that whoever sent this did not show it to ExactTarget before they sent it.
Sending IP: 207.67.38.20
Spam Sample:
Actual Headers:
Received: from xtinmta01-20.exacttarget.com (xtinmta01-20.exacttarget.com [207.67.38.20])
by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
for <xxx>; Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:xx:xx -0500 (CDT)
Received: by xtinmta01-20.exacttarget.com (PowerMTA(TM) v3.5r15) id <xxx>
for <xxx>; Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:xx:xx -0600
(envelope-from <bounce-<xxx>@bounce.exacttarget.com>)
From: "St. Mary's University Office of Undergraduate Admission" <uadm@stmarytx.edu>
To: <xxx>
Subject: Play the Luck of the Irish Game - Happy St. Patty's Day
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:xx:xx -0600
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-<xxx>@leave.exacttarget.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
x-job: <xxx>
Message-ID: <xxx>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="<xxx>"
Readable Email:
From: St. Mary’s University Office of Undergraduate Admission <uadm@stmarytx.edu
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Play the Luck of the Irish Game – Happy St. Patty’s Day
<removed>
This email was sent by:
Accu-Print
3503 CrossPoint
San Antonio, TX 78217 USA
Manage Subscriptions | Update Profile | One-Click Unsubscribe
We apologize for this email hitting your inbox. The only people that should have received this email are students who have enrolled at the school or students who have asked to receive correspondence from the school.
There is a one-click unsubscribe button at the bottom to comply with any emails being sent to a wrong person.
Again, we apologize for you receiving this email. We have no idea how it could of happened.
But how did this come to be sent to so many people who weren’t students? And who sent it? You didn’t answer that question, and nothing in your name tells me whether you are with St. Mary’s University or Accuprint, or (I suppose) some other entity. An apology without an explanation isn’t worth much.
And, just in case you didn’t know this, having an unsubscribe doesn’t turn spam into non-spam. Most people learned years ago not to unsubscribe from bulk email that they never asked to receive.
We hope you enjoyed playing the St. Patrick’s game. Sorry, if trivia and a fun game got you so down.
How many questions did you get right?
Interesting…. I think that we might have just had our first troll on the blog. What a milestone. 😉
Note sent to ExactTarget. They’re a good ESP; they’ll at least investigate.