Anyone who’s a customer of Chase knows how hardcore they can be about direct mail advertising. Martin writes:
Over the last 12-24 months, I’ve been annoyed with about 3-4 mailings a week from Chase for various add-on services and useless products. Already a customer of theirs, I did not appreciate this onslaught of advertising. Here’s a quick opt-out website in which you can cancel all direct marketing letters from Chase… dnmoptions.chase.com.
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A group of seven advertising companies successfully txt spammed half of China. [Forbes]
Phishers have a new target: your Google Calendar. Nigerian-419-type scammers are spamming sending their messages as meeting invites on people’s Google’s Calendars. This happened to me a few days ago. One way to combat it is to change the “Automatically Add Invites To My Calendar” setting from Yes to No.
Tracy Ham and Eggs shared a great tip with other readers on our Pizza Hut spam post earlier today: My last decent sized company had a “food@company” email. They opted into everyone deals and menu emails and when we wanted to order something we hit that email and searched for what we wanted.
When you place an order on Pizza Hut’s website, you have to create an account, and to create an account, you have to check the box that says you agree to their privacy policy and terms of use. It also says, “I agree to receive information about Pizza Hut®/WingStreet® couons, promotions, announcements, events and specials.” This e-commerce blogger is amazed that Pizza Hut would resort to such a sneaky tactic, which ultimately ruins the customer experience and probably costs them online orders.
ForestEthics has started a petition to enact a Do Not Mail registry, similar to the one that’s sort of in effect (when marketers choose to abide by it) for telemarketing. Their reasoning: junk mail is enormously wasteful and damaging to the environment. We agree, but we’re in favor of the registry for the simple reason that less junk mail means fewer uninvited distractions, ID theft risks, and trash we’d have to deal with every day.
Just got this PR spam in my inbox. I can’t wait to not buy this godawful ring. I just love the body copy. I think my favorite part is where they say that the fact the ring is only sold over the internet further enhances its uniqueness.
CODE ROYAL is the first jewel brand worldwide that combines a costly engraved white agate with a rose golden frame (massive) in 18 carat. White is the color of purity and innocence, of the unbroken light and the absolute truth. What accentuates the color white in a more beautiful way than the deeply symbolic agate gemstone?
If you buy something from the JCPenney website and uncheck the box for receiving email from them, guess what they do? They promptly send you an email in which they point out that you have asked them not to send you an email. And then they ask you to click on a link in the email and participate in a survey. And then, just in case you’re not amused/annoyed yet, the comedy team in their marketing department points out that should you want to receive emails from them in the future, you can visit their site and sign up. They have a lot of emails they need to send to you, you see.
A senior database administrator for Fidelity National Information Services, a widely used banking technology and data providor, has admitted that he stole 8.4 million customer records from the company and sold the data to a broker, who in turn sold them to marketers. He could face up to 10 years in prison but will probably get less because he confessed. We think he should have to open, read, and shred every piece of junk mail that his victims receive for the next, oh, say 10 years instead.
Brad Taylor, Google’s chief spam “watchdog,” suspects that spammers may actually be giving up as filters becomes more sophisticated and fewer of their messages get through.
Google won’t disclose numbers, but the company says that spam attempts, as a percentage of e-mail that’s transmitted through its Gmail system, have waned over the last year. That could indicate that some spammers have gotten discouraged and have stopped trying to get through Google’s spam filters.
Other experts disagree, claiming that spam is on the rise.
My spam has gone down like a million % since switching to Gmail from Yahoo mail. This amusing video shows you some of the techniques Google uses to keep spam out of your inbox. Just about all the spam we get is as a result of the forward set up from our old yahoo to our new gmail account.
The FTC has made a big to-do about fighting spammers and identity thieves, so naturally the underworld’s response has been to release a spoof FTC email into the world that is loaded with bad virus things that will attempt to steal your personal info. The FTC is urging everyone to not open this email. But you already don’t open unfamiliar attachments from people you don’t know, right? If you answered “No,” we have a shrink-wrapped hard drive from Best Buy we’d love to sell to you.
We didn’t know about this (possibly because we have enough interesting email to read without bothering with spam), but apparently the new cool thing is to send MP3 spam.
A reader writes in to warn that if you purchase from Cascade Toboggan, be prepared to be treated with suspicion and hostility, and to have your order canceled if you attempt to straighten things out. Michal used a fairly common spam-tracking technique when he placed an order with them earlier this month—he put their company name as part of his email and shipping addresses, so that if his information was sold, he’d be able to source the perpetrator. We’ve done this ourselves in the past, and it works. However, the owner of Cascade, Dana, says this is trademark infringement, and even after getting Michal to agree to remove the name from his personal info, canceled the order and effectively banned Michal from future business.
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The next big leap forward in spam technology: mp3 spam! [Red Tape Chronicles]
Kilbride and Schaffer began spamming in 2003, sending out millions of spam messages advertising hard-core porn sites. The messages contained graphic images that were visible to whoever opened the e-mail. Later in 2003, the two men began using servers in Amsterdam to make messages they were sending from Phoenix appear to be coming from outside the United States.
Our favorite moment: when Halleran asks, “If I cancel my account with you guys, will that stop the mailing?”, and the man on the other end just sighs in angry exasperation.
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A increase in spammers trying to capitalize on the housing crisis can mean only one thing: spammers can read newspapers. [Symantec]
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