NEXTEL Spams with Paper

September 1, 2003
 
It's not unusual for a business to get two, three, sometimes dozens of jumk mailers on the very same day. After all, the business probably has numerous people who could all be on the junk mailer's list. So why should I get a little angry when I got three junk mails from NEXTEL? They were all the same, with one very important difference: one was addressed to a non-existent email address. And that made me sit up and take notice.

NEXTEL makes a blunder

One was addressed to me. Okay. Another was addressed to the treasurer of Showker Graphic Arts, here at Showker Inc. Okay too, maybe. However, the third was addressed to the name used in an email address.
      You see, from time to time we allow a contributing writer or editor to have a graphic-design.com email address. These are used only to send an email to that writer, in reference to that article, avoiding the use of the writer's real email address which would be harvested for spam. Then when we get mail to that address, if it's not spam, we forward it to the author.
      Now, this particular spam harvester had to be pretty smart, or else was gathering email addresses specifically with intention of putting the name with the company to send junk mail and/or spam. We've gotten numerous spams to this address so no big deal -- but not only did they send junk mail, they called the addressee "Manager." The nerve!

Go ask NEXTEL

We called NEXTEL for the inside story. After more than appropriate amount of time held hostage in NEXTEL's electronic phone system, and after being given several "other" numbers to call, we tracked down a NEXTEL person in their marketing department.
      While the person did know what spam is, she had no idea about any mailing, or where the mailing list may have come from. However she did indicate that NEXTEL was contenplating getting service in this area, and this was probably a mailing to gather attention about their walkie-talkie service. (Like I need a walkie-talkie about as bad as I need another hole in my head!)
      Assuming NEXTEL uses an agency which purchased the mailing list, I pointed out that the list provider had used a non-existing name from email. The marketing assistant didn't quite get it.
      I further pointed out that by Virginia State Law, that was an instance of illegally gathering email addresses, and that those who use the address could be implicated in the commission of a Felony.
      At that point she promised to have their director contact me to hand over the mailer's name, so I could in turn get to the mailer to chase down the harvester of the email address.

Stop at nothing

This is further evidence that the email system is being seriously abused. The spam harvester would have had to get the name and then match it up with other names at graphic-design.com, until they established a physical mailing address. They probably did this through the "whois" domain look-up system, since we are listed as the official owner of the domain.
      So it was no accident that the address got mixed in -- and certainly an indication that the email address was harvested not just to send spam, but to sell to unwary ad agencies and clients who are led to believe the names are legitimate names. I'm shocked that NEXTEL didn't have better sense to hire a reputable agency.
      This story hasn't ended yet. I've not heard from NEXTEL, but I intend to call again, and chase the paper trail to the email address harvester. In the State of Virginia it's a Felony. So stay tuned, you'll probably be hearing more about this among these 60-Second windows.
 
This is one direct mail piece had exactly the opposite result from its intent. There's a very good chance I'll NEVER be a NEXTEL customer.
 

Until next time, thanks for reading

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