To start with, I've never used *****'s services ... but our company was hit with 10 emails from them on 7/17 with the subject line:

"***** REFUGEE SPECIAL - FREE SETUP FEE!"
(all originated from their sales department/servers)

Spam is bad enough, but we visited their site and saw that *****'s TOS (Terms of Service) posts all the standard language about how spam is not tolerated from their servers and violators will be shut down, etc.
I sent an email to their abuse department asking them if they were going to shut themselves down for violating thier own policies. Still waiting for a reply :-)

They must be really wanting for customers, since we received 3 mailings (snail-mail) promoting the same offer about 5 days after the spam.

This little incident is enough for me to avoid ***** ... figure a lack of company integrity is a good indicator on how they do business ... poorly.

Yeh. . . .Well. . . .I don't think anyone that hangs around this forum much would use em either:eek:

I say process those emails via spamcop

This forum will never come out again with the word '*****' , because they are going to close very soon.
I think will be next month.

Originally posted by Lah_Lah
This forum will never come out again with the word '*****' , because they are going to close very soon.
I think will be next month.

How do you know this? Can you provide proof to your claim?

This forum will never come out again with the word '*****' , because they are going to close very soon.

What are you smoking? Are you going to say Verio is next?

Sorry, I have nothing to proof it.

Because everyone here don't like *****.
If no people like them, this mean they are going to close.

Is that true??:D

(My english got improve or not??)

Originally posted by Lah_Lah
Sorry, I have nothing to proof it.

Because everyone here don't like *****.
If no people like them, this mean they are going to close.

Is that true??:D

(My english got improve or not??)

I highly doubt it. They are a very large company, and from what it seems they are expanding rather than sinking. I don't think we will be seeing this one at *uckedcompany.com anytime soon anyways.

I may not know, how they and running.

This is what I 'think' only

Aloha

true us on the board may not like ***** but thousands of laymen to hosting will buy there story and go with them just like the late night hair removal jells people will eat them up
so they will most likley be there just by pure size and number of people out there we are a small highly educated bunch that are into our niche
(most of us)

Originally posted by MilkMan
I say process those emails via spamcop

Been there ... done that! :) (but thnks for mentioning it)

They (*****) closed the calls, reporting that the email address had been cancelled (NOT) We wrote and advised the Spam Cop "Deputy" that they were being circumvented. Spam Cop replied that they would keep an eye out for them if they do it again ... sure ***** is shaking in their boots on that one.

Not much can be done on that end ... ***** controls the server and IP blocks

They must have spamed a HUGE list of people. We even got their emails :)

Originally posted by wth_0611
They must be really wanting for customers

Awww...give em a break. They've been around for quite a while...this is probably just some of their top gun sales and marketing gurus undergoing cross-training in "Identifying UCE 101". They're just using the exercise to tie in with some "cold call" advertising emails.

Perfectly acceptable from what I hear...

(Note...I *am* joking...)

Gary

I got a few of those. I think they send one to every email address they could find on my site. :angry:

That's probably why I get like 4 spam messages, all being the same everytime.

Are they close themself??

Originally posted by wth_0611
To start with, I've never used *****'s services ... but our company was hit with 10 emails from them on 7/17 with the subject line:

"***** REFUGEE SPECIAL - FREE SETUP FEE!"
(all originated from their sales department/servers)


I received the same message but they thought they'd get me by saying they visited my site and found my e-mail address there. The funny thing is the e-mail they sent the message to is nowhere on any of the sites I own or administer. I sent them the below response and as well, haven't heard anything since:


I read the below message and sales pitch and have a few questions. You mentioned viewing my web site but didn't say which one you viewed??? I am curious because I actually own and operate THREE web sites and also am very surprised since the e-mail address you sent this message to is not on any one of those sites whatsoever. Since I never asked for the information you provided, and I have no intention of switching hosting companies, I personally consider the below message SPAM. This is considered unsolicited e-mail and I'm sure you are aware that sending e-mail messages such as the one below is also against the law in many states and is currently under legislation to be banned for the entire United States of America. Read the below insert taken from the United States Law Library regarding such messages:


47 U.S.C. Sec. 227 (b)(1)(C) provides: "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine." Facsimile machine is then defined in Sec. 227 (a)(2)(B) as "equipment which has the capacity to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line onto paper." This is broad enough to cover an e-mail account, modem, computer, and printer together.
47 U.S.C. Sec. 227 (b)(3)(B) creates a right of action in state court for $500 in damages for each violation (or actual monetary loss, if greater), tripled in the court's discretion for a willful or knowing violation.
Unfortunately, this doesn't cover spam from overseas, where so much of it seems to originate.


Now, I could just unsubscribe as it is stated at the bottom of the original message, however, I never asked for this information so therefore, I never subscribed in the first place. I have been signed up with a web hosting forum and haven't heard much in the way of good news about *****. Sending messages such as the one below further explains the tactics that you are willing to enforce to gain sales. I, however, will not be switching and if I do decide to move to a different host, you have helped me to eliminate ***** from a possible option.

Are your report this problem, where can report to?
For spam causes

Originally posted by Lah_Lah
Are your report this problem, where can report to?
For spam causes

The only real place to complain to is the originating ISP/service where the spam actually originated. If it violates their TOS, most times action will be taken. In the case of "off-shore" mail servers that promote spam services, not much can be done.

You could use the services of http://spamcop.net - pretty handy in saving time in identifying the originator of spams and reporting (saves some time). Their pay services can also help in filtering allot of junk through their POP servers.

Many ISPs and hosting companies take action/follow-up on complaints sent through SpamCop - but there are some that will not accept the reports. In these cases, you'll need to write directly to the ISP that was the source of the email and to any hosts that maintain URLs listed in the spam you received.

If you have enough documentation, you can also fire off a complaint to http://mailabuse.org/ (MAPS) - they maintain a "blackhole" list of spam sources. The list is used by some ISPs and large mail servers in blocking mail from some servers that are large spam sources. (Note: I haven't kept up with all the changes at MAPS, so you'll need to check their site to see if they are even still useful)

Originally posted by CWIhosting
They must have spamed a HUGE list of people. We even got their emails :)

It looks like they targeted customers/resellers of several major providers ... used the Verisign (NSI) registry to grab the email addresses I guess.

Originally posted by wth_0611


The only real place to complain to is the originating ISP/service where the spam actually originated. If it violates their TOS, most times action will be taken. In the case of "off-shore" mail servers that promote spam services, not much can be done.


Unfortunately, this is true. The laws I mentioned earlier in this thread are pending and obviously can only be enforced for the United States when they eventually become actual law. I'm sure other countries are doing what is needed to enforce laws in their areas. As for the United States, when this becomes law, if a company spams you and they are located in the US, you will be able to go after them. Lucky for us, ***** is located in Texas (part of the US).

actually, I believe that they pulled the list straight from netsol. There were about 50000 snail-mailers and who knows how many emails that were sent out. :)

Can't be from Network Solutions, at least not for the one I got. My domain is not registered with Network Solutions and if you do a whois lookup on it from there, the e-mail they sent this to is not listed. I'm not sure where the list came from but I can only guess that some places (including Network Solutions) most likely sell their customers data. That would only make this more realistic as to how they got so many names at once. It sure wasn't because they viewed my web site.

Originally posted by markblair
Can't be from Network Solutions, at least not for the one I got. My domain is not registered with Network

If you have a .com .net or .org you're in the VeriSign registry ... who owns Network Solutions (and now registrar.com I believe) and is responsible for all the US domain names. Even if you use another service (TuCows, GoDaddy, etc.), Verisign/Network Solutions gets $6 from the ICANN member ... great job breaking up the little InterNIC monopoly, huh?

... back on track ... they (*****) probably either bought a mailing list based on the registry of targeted blocks of IP numbers assigned to major hosting companies. I know in our case, there is no love lost between OLM (our provider) and ***** .. they used to be an OLM reseller :eek:

:cartman: