What The Hell Is Wrong With Them?

It has been a while since I posted an offense.  Mostly because it really is pretty rare that a legitimate company emails me real SPAM.

I have also decided to take a gentler attitude – I would email the company first for a response before I posted and I would refrain from calling people assholes directly anymore.

Well it happened last week – I got spammed from Samsung!

First – here is the email:

Hello,

We hope that this mail finds you in good spirit and health.

We would like to grab just a short period of your precious time to introduce our

company and one of our most innovative Service Offerings : Digital Space Convergence (DSC)

1. SAMSUNG SDS 

– Samsung SDS is a global ICT service provider with over 13,000 employees and USD 3.8 billion in revenue.

– Average annual growth rate of 10% over the last 5 years is a key indicator towards our capablities and competencies.

– We are the 3rd largest IT service company in the Asia Pacific Region & No. 1 IT company in Korea

– Our IT services to SAMSUNG affiliate companies such as Samsung Elec. and Samsung Heavy Industries

have been key to their success.

2. Digital Space Convergence

(Please Click the following link if you cannot see the DSC introduction video : http://youtu.be/QT82QJxv_QQ)

– DSC is an innovative convergence of the digital and physical environments.

– SDS provides the full set of comprehensive services needed to create added value through the convergence

of design and latest technologies.

(1. Space Planning/Consulting -> 2. Design/Layout -> 3. Digital Device/U-Service -> 4. System Integration)

– Our service not only enhance the User eXperience(UX) but offers new means of marketing and revenue to our customers.

3. Major DSC Business Reference

– Yonsei University U-Library

– Samsung D’light Space

– King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture

We hope that this mail has not been intrusive and that there is an opportunity for

us to provide you with our Services in the near future. More information about

both SAMSUNG and DSC can be found in the attached Brochures.

If you need additional information please contact us through our information below.

Sales Rep : Sung Soon Park, John Byun
e-mail : dscsales@samsung.com (or ssoon71.park@samsung.com , sj80.byun@samsung.com)

Thank you once again for your time!

Best Regards,

Samsung SDS

I was shocked – no opt out email, no address, no indication of whom the email was to in the first place.

And worse it had an attachment of a PDF of a PPT file!

So I went over to Samsung.com and looked up some of their marketing people and found this site:
http://www.samsung.com/us/business/oem-solutions/about-us/press-room.html

So I emailed all of them: Sung Soon Park, John Byun, Chris Goodhart, John Lucas, Lisa Warren-Plungy, and Daniel Munoz.

I wrote:

Hello,

Yesterday I received the following email from an employee of Samsung
(via an actual Samsung.com email address) that was in clear violation
of the 2003 CAN SPAM act.

1) The email does not clearly indicate who the recipient is – you are
not allowed to BCC people in this type of email. In fact I would have
to dig through the header to find which of my email addresses this
email was sent to.  This is a violation.

2) The email does not include a physical mailing address indicating
where the originator is located.  This too is a violation.

3) The email does not indicate how to opt out of future emails – this
is a HUGE violation – and not only are you required to have an opt out
but you would need to remove me in a timely fashion AND keep my name
on a list so that I would not be added again in the future.

4) The law also makes it clear that people who operate on behalf of a
company are the responsibility of the company (which is why I CCed the
marketing and communication people who while might be ignorant of
these actions are still responsible for them).

Each separate email in violation of the law is subject to penalties of
up to $16,000, and more than one person may be held responsible for
violations.

That is just the federal side of things – I could also sue you in
small claims court for personal damages.

I am shocked by this and would like a response from Samsung as to this
clearly inappropriate behavior!

How do you respond to this?

Well it has been four days and no reply.

Now to post this to twitter.

So this one is partially on me.

I got an email newsletter today from Entireweb.com.  I have no idea how I got on their list new list and there of course was NO opt-out.

So I went through my emails and yes – it turns out they email me all the time.

So I went to their website and YES I do have an account with them.

But when I went to look around there was no way to delete or cancel the account.  I had to email their ‘feedback form’ which wasn’t smart enough to know who I was even though I was already logged in.

It turns out that a few years ago I signed up so I could look at what they had to offer (I never paid them anything) and that apparently allows them to email me without any clear way of stopping them.

Nice

Jerks (me included for registering there in the first place)

You would expect more from a major corporation wouldn’t you?

But earlier today I received this email from: doritos_crashthesuperbowl4@yahoo.com

Its a yahoo email!  Nice!

The email looks like a letter its got all of these inlined graphics and NO opt-out!

I went to the website (which is big and all Flash) and when I clicked on the privacy policy I found this: …you may cancel your registration and/or remove yourself from our emailing list, you may do so by following the “unsubscribe” contained in one of our communications to you…

Hey idiots! You forgot to include one!

It was hard to find any real information about who to contact but as Jaya Kumar is the Chief Marketing Officer, I blame him as well.

Also the included an attachment of a flyer for me to print and post – not a URL to a download one from – they actually sent me an unsolicited attachment! What complete morons!

The worst part of all of this is that if this email had included the opt-out and didn’t look like it was written by a marketing firm that was owned by teenagers I would be interested in a contest like this for myself or my students.  But you don’t get involved with companies who don’t play by the rules!

Again – major idiots!

Here is the email:

Dear …

GIVE YOUR STUDENTS A CHANCE TO BE
FEATURED ON ONE OF THE BIGGEST TV
ADVERTISING STAGES, THE SUPERBOWL.

It’s time for your class to Crash the Super Bowl. Doritos® is
giving your students a chance to write, produce and direct
their very own 30-second Doritos® commercial to be aired
during the big game. America will vote for their favorite
spots and the top 3 will be featured during Super Bowl XLIV.

But that’s not all. When the Doritos® commercials take
the top 3 spots on the USA TODAY ad meter, we’ve got
$5,000,000 for the winners.

We’ve attached a flyer to share with your students. Online,
they can also find tips and tricks from last years $1,000,000
winner, the Herbert brothers.

Be sure to have them visit crashthesuperbowl.com
and submit your video by 11/09/09.

Best of luck.

Michael Fox
Brand Manager, Doritos

So ever since I started this blog I have started to look at my email more critically. Don’t get me wrong my spam filter is filled with garbage.
Its the stuff that isn’t garbage but that violates spam rules that bothers me.

I got a call for papers in my email this week. It was long and poorly formatted and after scanning all the links in it – there was not a one that told me how to opt-out! Worse yet it ended with:

Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com

So I know they are using a list management system!

I emailed back asking:
Where is your legally required OPT-OUT link?

I got the following reply:

http://ntms-conf.org/phpemaillist/?p=unsubscribe
Regards

Here is the kicker – not only did I have to ask (ie beg) for an opt-out link but the website is in French! FRENCH!

When I finally did unsubscribe – they redirected me to a page – again in French – and then … sent me another email! And this one had information on how to resubscribe.

So the email I didn’t subscribe didn’t tell me how to unsubscribe and when I did unsubscribe they sent me email, that  I didn’t ask for, telling me how to resubscribe!

Idiots!!!

What really bothers me is that the organization is legit being sponsored by IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

Not cool guys!  You should be ashamed of yourselves!

The original emails are here (and yes the spacing was like this):

Goodbye from our Newsletter, sorry to see you go.

You have been unsubscribed from our newsletters.

This is the last email you will receive from us. We have added you to our
“blacklist”, which means that our newsletter system will refuse to send
you any other email, without manual intervention by our administrator.

If there is an error in this information, you can re-subscribe:
please go to http://ntms-conf.org/phpemaillist/?p=subscribe and follow
the steps.

Thank you

(Sincere apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP.)

Third International Conference on

New Technologies, Mobility and Security

Technically Sponsored by IEEE COMSOC and IFIP TC6 WG

December 20 – 23, 2009, Cairo – Egypt

http://www.ntms-conf.org

Overview

——–

NTMS‘2009 is the Third International Conference on New Technologies,
Mobility and Security that will be held from 20 to 23 December 2009 in
Cairo, Egypt. NTMS‘2009 conference is technically sponsored by IEEE
COMSOC, IFIP TC6 WG and IEEE Egypt.

NTMS‘2009 aims at fostering advances in the areas of New
Technologies, Wireless Networks, Mobile Computing, Ad hoc and Ambient
Networks, QoS, Network Security and E-commerce, to mention a few, and
provides a dynamic forum for researchers, students and professionals
to present their state-of-the-art research and development in these
interesting areas. The

event will be combined with tutorial sessions and workshops.
Tutorials will precede the main program, aiming at the dissemination
of mature knowledge and technology advances in the field. Two or more
Workshops will immediately follow the main conference, offering the
opportunity for a more focused exchange of ideas and presentation of
on-going research relevant to following tracks (More information and
the full call-for-

papers can be found on the conference web):

Track 1 : Mobility

——————

Mobile 3G, 4G, LTE (Long Term Evolution), convergence (IMS, etc.)

WiMAX, WLAN, DVB, WiFi

PAN, BAN, WSN, UWB

Wireless MAC protocols

Media sensor and ad hoc networks

Self-organizing of wireless networks

Mesh networks and autonomic systems

Optical networks and switching (new generation SDH, OTN)

Satellite Systems

Vehicular Communication Technologies and Systems

Mobility management and Handover

Scheduling Techniques for Wireless Systems

Routing, QoS and scheduling

Resource allocation management

Analysis, simulation, measurement and performance evaluation

Cross-layer network design and optimization

Cognitive radio and smart antenna

Testbed experiments, Mobile/Wireless Applications and Services

Wireless and mobile multimedia systems

Integration of heterogeneous mobile, wireless and wireline networks

Mobility, location and handoff management

Wireless services and middleware platforms

Track 2: Security

—————–

Authentication protocols and services authorization

Data and system integrity and confidentiality

Availability of secure services

Key Distribution and management, PKI and security management

Trust models and Trust establishment

Identity management, authentication and access control

Deployment and management of computer/network security policies

Monitoring Design for security, distributed Intrusion Detection
Systems & Countermeasures

Single and multi-source intrusion detection and response

Traffic filtering and Firewalling

IPv6 security, IPSec, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

Privacy, contract agreements, and payment systems

Prevention, Detection and Reaction

Design, and Revocation of malicious parties

Light-weight cryptography

Quantum Cryptography and QKD

Applications of Cryptography and Cryptanalysis in communications
security

Mobile code security & Security management

Secure PHY, MAC, Routing and upper layer protocols

Secure Cross layer design

Secure naming and addressing (Privacy and anonymity)

Network security metrics and performance evaluation

Security modelling and protocol design

Smart cards and secure hardware

Biometric security: technologies, risks and vulnerabilities

Information hiding and watermarking

Vulnerability, exploitation tools, and virus/worm analysis

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks and countermeasures

Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems

Web, e-mail , m-commerce, e-business and e-commerce security

Testbeds, performance evaluation and formal specification methods

Virtualization for security and reliability

Track 3: New Technologies & services

——————————

This is a new twist.  So I get this email indicating that I requested a price alert for a manual saddle stapler.  It has my email address on it and some bogus name and a link to purchase the product.  I went to the site and then I called Customer Service who had no idea was a ‘Price Alert’ was and talked to someone in marketing who then agreed to remove it from my email.

I went and looked at their site and it turns out that ANYONE can request a Price Alert on any product by just typing in any email address.  There is no verification done that the email address is valid and the email contains no instructions on how to delete or remove a Price Alert should be it erroneous, fraudulent, or if I simply changed my mind!

They said that their marketing department is going to get back to me – but just from a base practice perspective – Shoplet.com you are a idiots!

The email transcript is as follows:

from: pricealert@shoplet.com
title: Price Alert For: Manual Saddle Stapler (sku #: SWI06155)

Dear BrittniCovert:

Please be advised that we have received your “Price Alert” request and it has been processed as follows:

Date         : 8/6/109 14:58 EST
Name         : BrittniCovert
E-mail       : REMOVED

Sku #       : SWI06155
Title        : Manual Saddle Stapler
Current Price: 94.96
Target Price : LgINAumYuOwieICrZl
url          : http://www.shoplet.com/office/db/SWI06155.html

Thank you for submitting a price alert. We will notify once your target price is reached.

www.shoplet.com
The Only Bookmark You’ll Ever Need!

About Internet Shopping Outlet:
Internet Shopping Outlet, the leading award-winning Internet e-marketplace, offers consumers and businesses the lowest prices on over 4 million products with fast, easy, secure online shopping, and world-class customer service at a network of six online specialty stores, including Internet Hardware Outlet, Internet Software Outlet, DownloadOutlet.com, BookBuyers Outlet, The CD-ROM Outlet and TheAutoReport.com

Ok, maybe Kevin isn’t an idiot – but his company’s corporate policies certainly make him look like one.  Congrats Kevin – you are my email of the day!

Kevin or his company must have collected my email from the Internet because I work in a Library.  He doesn’t address me directly.  Doesn’t tell me how he got my email nor does he offer to allow me to opt out from future mailings!

I shouldn’t have to call, email, or beg to not get further mailings. More importantly the lack of an opt out is a sure indicator that they don’t feel that it is a mailing list.  But it is – somewhere he has my name – somehow he emailed me – and he has no mechanism to NOT email me again.  Shame on him.

But wait there is more!  He has one of those this is private and confidential bullshit things at the end of the email. So I should respect HIS privacy?  Perhaps he shouldn’t randomly email people his contact information (which I have re-posted below).  My only hope is that some bot will come and crawl this page and collect his email and phone number.

Now to be fair – I did call the number and try and get a hold of him.  Alas I only got voicemail.  I called back again and asked to speak to their legal department to discuss their FTC violations but she wanted to know where I was calling from and what company.  I told her that I didn’t need to be a company to have my mailbox violated by their spam. I did try and explain the situation further but she really didn’t get it. So I am compelled to voice my disgust in the only way I know how.  The Internet.

The email transcript is as follows:

from: Kevin Thier – kthier@newspaperarchive.com
subject: Newspaper Archive

Hello, hope you’re having a great day! This is Kevin Thier with Access.NewspaperArchive.com.

 

I am the new Product Manager for your region and wanted to make sure you had my contact information.  NewspaperARCHIVE.com is the largest online historical newspaper database in the world.  It contains over 110 million newspaper pages ranging from 1752 to the present date.  All the data is fully searchable by keyword, date, subject, etc – making it easy for anyone to search historical content from all over the planet.

 

Let me know if you’d like to see all of our content for yourself, I’d be more than happy to give your facility a free two week trial. Simply reply to this email or give me a call at 888-870-0484 ext. 40 and I can get you started today. If it’s something you would like to continue, I can give you a special quote for one year’s worth of access.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you soon, thanks for reading!

 

Sincerely,

 

Kevin

Kevin Thier
Product Manager
Heritage Microfilm
NewspaperARCHIVE.com
4049 21st Avenue SW,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404

Phone: 319.390.9442 +16 or 1.888.870.0484 +40

Email:kthier@newspaperarchive.com
Web:www.heritagemicrofilm.com
Web: www.newspaperarchive.com
Web: access.newspaperarchive.com

OUR MISSION: It is the mission of Heritage Microfilm to be the world’s leading provider of historical newspaper content, focusing on individual people and the events that impacted their lives.  Through constant improvement, we are committed to providing a high volume of quality content via innovative and useful delivery methods.  Heritage Microfilm will demonstrate this commitment by empowering creative employees who possess a high level of personal accountability and a dedication to excellence.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmission may contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the information contained herein (including any reliance thereon) is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this transmission in error, please immediately contact the sender and destroy the material in its entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you