What to Do When Company Breaks Privacy Agreement? 43
Mustang Matt asks:
"Earlier this month, I caught
ALXNet redhanded in breaking their
own agreement in their privacy disclaimer. I've started generating
unique email addresses for use in signups that are formed like
[domain]@mydomain.com. [ C :"mydomain.com"
is just used as an example, here] I just received spam to
alxnet@mydomain.com, and here's the kicker: what I received was not
even from ALXNet! It was filled with forged headers regarding an
online trading newsletter, and this address has never been used
anywhere else other than their signup. How can I hold them
accountable? All I've done so far is asked Yahoo to close the account
they are using." What, if anything, can be done about companies
that pay lip service to their privacy agreements? For those SPAM
busters out there, an example of the SPAM's headers is included,
below.
SPAM with full headers:
Return-Path: directaccessus@yahoo.com
Received: from yourwebsite.com (66-108-136-65.nyc.rr.com [66.108.136.65])
by linux.thoughtprocess.net (8.11.0/8.11.2/SuSE Linux 8.11.1-0.5) with SMTP id fB7M8Dv07978
for alxnet@mydomain.com; Fri, 7 Dec 2001 16:08:13 -0600
Message-Id: 200112072208.fB7M8Dv07978@linux.thoughtprocess.net
X-Authentication-Warning: linux.thoughtprocess.net: Host 66-108-136-65.nyc.rr.com [66.108.136.65] claimed to be yourwebsite.com
Reply-To: directaccessus@yahoo.com
From: directaccessus@yahoo.com
To: alxnet@mydomain.com
Subject: Trading Newsletter
Sender: directaccessus@yahoo.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 17:12:38 -0500
X-UIDL: 6cadc61cbcf01cac2a66f167c5416863
Use the power of the free market (Score:5, Interesting)
Then your only weapon is to let them know you're pissed and to change company. A little sad, but hopefully if enough people care about this then you'll find a company willing to maintain its reputation.
The situation in some other countries is a little different; in some european countries you have to sign in advance a statement that says you are aware of the privacy policies. Most of the times you have to sign a statement saying you are aware you have no privacy. In the end the outcome is no better and sometimes worse than the american market solution to privacy.
Re:Use the power of the free market (Score:2)
Re:Use the power of the free market (Score:1)
Alxnet's employees (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Look like terrorists (Score:1)
We took this shot right before we returned back to the terrorist training camp : )
With best regards,
Alx Grepe (the guy at the far right with the sun blinding his eyes)
Alxnet.com
Re:Look like terrorists (Score:1)
/Alx
post about it on slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:post about it on slashdot (Score:1)
what no lameness filter on the story!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:what no lameness filter on the story!! (Score:1)
Re:what no lameness filter on the story!! (Score:1)
looks fine on konqueror
IE doesn't wrap the long lines
Re:what no lameness filter on the story!! (Score:1)
Re:what no lameness filter on the story!! (Score:2)
Yahoo won't cut them off... (Score:1)
Simple solution (Score:1)
I always sign up as (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I always sign up as (Score:1)
Re:I always sign up as (Score:1)
Re:I always sign up as (Score:1)
Re:I always sign up as (Score:1)
Upstream ISP (Score:2, Interesting)
I forward the spam to all of the upstream servers in the form abuse@upstream.com, root@upstream.com, postmaster@upstream.com.
Nearly always, I get no response, except in one case I received an email stating that the company had been warned that if this happens ever again, their hosting contract will be cancelled. I thing this is enough justification to continue this procedure.
Send the spam to the spammers (Score:1)
Re:Send the spam to the spammers (Score:2)
So now I can't use that account even for legit email that maybe I wanted to get...
Re:Send the spam to the spammers (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Send the spam to the spammers (Score:2)
Alxnet Responds - official commentary (Score:2, Informative)
My name is Alx Grepe and I am the founder and owner of <B>Alxnet AB</B>,
owners of alxnet.com / alxbook.com.
I have come to know of this message thread thru a reader who e-mailed me for
an advice on this matter.
<B>To start off:</B> Alxnet.com does NOT promote spam. We did NOT send the
message out. We collect e-mails to use for login purposes at our services as
well as populating our news letters.
We also offer advertisers to send e-mail advertising to our users on a
<B>100% double opt-in</B> basis where the advertiser does not actually get
the e-mail but rather send it out thru our list broker, PostmasterDirect.com
We do NOT send out mailings to our users on our news letters without their
possibility to remove themselves at any time.
<B>Second:</B> We will investigate how this message was sent out to him, and
as the sender seems to be using RoadRunner services in NYC, I bet it's not
too hard to track him/them down. I've had problems with spammers using
RR.com myself before. Whoever did this has hurt our business name and will
not get a happy new year...
We do not yet know how he managed to harvest this e-mail address, but we'll continue looking at it. All we know is that it did not originate from us.
<B>Third, is Matt attempting FRAUD?</B>:
As I wrote a response to Matt I noticed something about his e-mail address
that made me recall that I did in fact remember the domain it was sent from,
mail.win.org).
I looked up my e-mail box, as I save all outgoing e-mail, I found a letter
sent from him to me that I had sent to Paypal.com:s abuse department.
The mail was sent to me from Matt thru Paypal to the address at which I
signed up for the alxbook.com domain in the whois registry:
alexander.grepe@ABC.SE
I never see mail go to that address with the abc.se in capital except when I
recieve spam harvested from Network Solution. (they seemed to upper-case
domain names in e-mails for some reason)
What's worse, the letter Suject read:
"Bill for Email Processing"
the body read, in short:
Money Request details
Ammount: $50
Event: Bill for e-mail processing
Event Date: December 13, 2001
Note:
Your company has been found in violation of your privacy agreement [...] and in
violation of Missouri Senate Bill 763.
[...]
Thank you for doing business with us, Unpaid accounts will be turned over
to the legal department.
Alx: how rude is that?
<A HREF="http://www.alxnet.com/mkaatman.txt">http:
Is Matt trying to rip us off? This sounds like a kind of invoice scam which is a classic trick. During many years faked
invoices have sent out to companies, who afraid to get listed at authrities as non-payers or ending up with a legal situation
accepts and pays bills to FRAUDsters.
You judge if he did right or wrong, my opinion is clear.
Matt has not contacted me in any way except this, thru PayPal. I have discarded his e-mails as just another clever way to scam people off.
PayPal has been informed of this act as I hope it'll come to his attention how wrong this is.
For any further information on this event, feel free to contact me, Alx Grepe,
by e-mail: alexander.grepe@abc.se
or phone: +46-708627783
I'm playing with open cards on this to let you know we are not violating privacy rules, nor do we tolerate attempts of fraud thru e-mail...
Re:Alxnet Responds - official commentary (Score:1)
Alxnet answers - we know where he got the spam (Score:5, Informative)
My apologies to ALXNET (Score:5, Informative)
All I can say is that I gave them two weeks to respond, sent them paypal bills per articles discussed here on slashdot, but in the end, this is my fault and I apologize for that.
Now they've contacted paypal, so I imagine my account will get frozen which is unfortunate due to the amount of money I have sitting there.
If they had only responded to any of my emails earlier this all could have been prevented.
It's unfortunate that only after getting publicity for what appeared to be a major flaw on their end were they willing to respond.
Again my apologies. Have a Merry Christmas.
Matt
Re:My apologies to ALXNET (Score:1, Flamebait)
Reading of troll stories on Slashdot is a violation of my principles.
Please send me your email address so that I can bill you $15,000 under the New York Unsolicited Email and Self-Important Fucktard Enforcement act.