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Wondering about affinity.com


emanmb

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I've been getting a good deal of spam solely from affinity.com, (according to spamcop) and I'm wondering what kind of business they run, if "legit" and if responsive to spam complaints and so on.

It's frustrating, because of yahoo's recent tinkering, I can't FWD the data hidden in images (which I block anyway) so I could help bust the sites that are probably in these emails as well.

I did find this article through Google but not anything recent here in SC-ville. hxxp://spamlinks.net/blog/archives/2006_09_01_archive.html

Thanks to anyone who has time to answer!

Eric

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I've been getting a good deal of spam solely from affinity.com, (according to spamcop) and I'm wondering what kind of business they run, if "legit" and if responsive to spam complaints and so on. ...
Hi Eric. I have had no dealings with them but I suspect SC's notifies may not be effective. Checking one of their IP addresses http://www.spamcop.net/sc?track=207.36.180.11 yields a reporting address of abuse[at]affinity.com yet robtex says they are listed in abuse.rfc-ignorant.org - http://www.robtex.com/dns/affinity.com.html Pulling up the robtex 'chart' indicates their own sitehosting is through hostwaycorp.com as does http://www.spamcop.net/sc?track=http%3A%2F...ww.affinity.com
...I did find this article through Google but not anything recent here in SC-ville. hxxp://spamlinks.net/blog/archives/2006_09_01_archive.html...
That is interesting, thanks.

Dealing mostly with their website, SiteAdvisor mostly gives them a clean bill of health, apart from one spam report. SenderBase notes a huge netspace - http://www.senderbase.org/senderbase_queri...nity%20Internet so spam reports are not remarkable. Norton Safe Web finds their website safe. It advertizes

Performance-based marketing campaigns that effectively reach your target audience. Tap into in-house properties and exclusive distribution channels.
which would certainly ring some alarm bells within the ranks of we, the spam-bedevilled. But of course "internet marketing" is actually a legitimate and legal enterprise. Just given a bad name by spammers and black-hat SEO operators.

Perhaps others may be able to add some direct/actual knowledge?

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If they are a legitimate 'internet' marketing business, you may have inadvertently 'signed up' by buying something at one of their 'affiliates' For instance, I bought something at What On Earth, which also is Signals and some other place so now I am getting email from Signals. The same thing happened to me a long time ago (pre-forum) and it was true when I researched it that the website said I would get email from several businesses. Most online businesses have a check box right by where you are entering your email address that asks whether or not you want to receive email notification from them about 'specials' but either I missed it or, like the other one, it wasn't obvious. I had a long discussion with a server admin in the ngs who maintained that since I had a prior relationship, it wasn't spam, even though I had not asked for it specifically. So, if they seem to be legitimate (for products as well as website), then it is unlikely that any report of spam would be listened to. My rule is never to unsubscribe from email I haven't subscribed to, but in a case like this I will sometimes send an email to the contact email explaining that I didn't sign up and want to be taken off, but won't use the unsubscribe.

I should go and look and see what they are selling to see if the above scenario is possible. I doubt very much that anyone who reports spam would buy one of the 'just barely legal' products that would use real spam address lists. But there are still marketing departments that will buy 'targeted' lists, not realizing that most people consider any email that is unsolicited and selling something to be spam.

So, it might be worth it to contact them directly and ask to be removed from whatever lists they are using - or to let them know that something is using their system to send spam.

Miss Betsy

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So, it might be worth it to contact them directly and ask to be removed from whatever lists they are using - or to let them know that something is using their system to send spam.

I've used a similar approach by asking them where they got the address in question. That is where I found a "contact sharing" site.

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Thanks guys!

I have contacted them via their web site asking to have them look into the problem and contact me with any questions as well as to let me know of the outcome with no response.

I pasted several typical spams in the message as proof. I have also included abuse[at]affinity.com in my FWD list for all those spams as well. I may have to look into a more direct way of reaching them.

I may have triggered something when ordering some holiday gifts from a site I'd not dealt with before.

Eric

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  • 2 weeks later...

Seems via SC reporting, knujon, et al, as well as the source which was Hostway and complaining to them as well as fwd'ing to their abuse address and affinity's is what turned off the flow of spam. It was interesting to see a direct approach finally having an effect.

I also found that reverting back to the "classic" version of Yahoo web based email I was able to fwd the html which was hidden in the emails by my Yahoo prefs. This revealed that cooplabs.com was the host for most of the spam sites in the emails. Reporting to abuseATaffinity had no effect which is why I turned to include hostway's abuse address in my reporting.

So far it's been a few days since any spam came from them and knock on wood, we won't be seeing any more from them anytime soon!

:D

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... It was interesting to see a direct approach finally having an effect. ...
Yes, you've done well Eric. Now there's some 'bulletproof' Chinese hosts I would like you to have a chat to :D. Just kidding but I am getting so sick of the one I like to call "Black Betty" - betsy.du[at]bj.datadragon.net - part of the unresponsive hosting of a multitude of Chinese spamsites/redirectors or whatever they are.
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Don't forget the Korean ones! :D Good ol' certcc.or.kr and kisa.or.kr and the newer one (in my experience) sejongtelecom.net.

Yes, you've done well Eric. Now there's some 'bulletproof' Chinese hosts I would like you to have a chat to :D. Just kidding but I am getting so sick of the one I like to call "Black Betty" - betsy.du[at]bj.datadragon.net - part of the unresponsive hosting of a multitude of Chinese spamsites/redirectors or whatever they are.

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