A new twist on confirmation

I got multiple copies of a request to “confirm my email address” recently. What’s interesting is the text surrounding the confirmation request.

Hello,
I have a list of potential customers in your area. The list includes several ways for you to contact them.
I would like to send you a sample of this list to the address I have on file: spamtrap@example.com.
Can you call me today at 1 (800) 676-2011 Ext 619 to confirm your email?
Thanks,
Travis Smith
Prospect Profile Specialist
1 (800) 676-2011 Ext 619

This message came to multiple spamtraps of mine. But I thought it was interesting that they’re actually trying to confirm addresses, even if the text surrounding it is a bit of a lie. None of the addresses the message was sent to is associated with any sort of commercial site.
Wonder how many confirmations Travis is getting? And if he’s actually sending “lists of customer addresses” to them, or if he’s actually just taking the confirmed addresses and adding them to the lists he is selling.

Related Posts

Ah, Spammers.

The too many.
The stupid.
The spammers.
The blog spammers are still actively attempting to get their claws into my blog. Today the comments included:

Read More

The dark side of email marketing

Everyone I talk to when dealing with issues inevitably has to tell me they are legitimate email marketers. They’re not spammers, they’re just business people. I often find it difficult to fathom why they need to tell me this. It’s not like email marketers are criminals or anything.
Two recent stories reminded me how evil some folks are. While I’ve not had any direct contact (that I know of) with any of the players on this end of things I have zero doubt that if they called me they would tell me that they were legitimate email marketers.
In one case, a members of a spam gang kidnapped the teenage daughter of someone investigating their activities. The gang held her for more than 5 years in horrific conditions. Yesterday Joseph Menn, author of “Fatal System Error” posted on Boing Boing that his friend got his daughter back. It is a heartbreaking story and incredibly sobering.
In another case, the Russian police arrested a man who ran spammit.com, a clearinghouse for viagra sellers to find spammers to send their mail. Reports say that mail volumes dropped by a fifth after the site was taken offline.
There is real evil in the email marketing industry. Sure, they’re spammers and we can all stand up and say they’re not legitimate. But, this is what the ISPs and Spamhaus and law enforcement are dealing with on a regular basis.

Read More

Confirming addresses in the wild

A lot of marketers tell me “no sender confirms addresses” or “confirming addresses is too hard for the average subscriber.” I find both these arguments difficult to accept. Just today I subscribed to a mailing list that had a confirmation step. The subscription form was pretty simple.

Read More