I received an email today from a John Webber:
Hello,

I am interested in your services and I have some questions.
Please give me clear and informative answers and I will register 4 accounts, because my current host is down and i need to move everything fast.


1. What can you tell me about your company history? How many years you are in business and how many customers you have?
2. What moneyback guarantee you offer? When it applies? I mean what should happen so I could request refund? (for example if server down for XX hours)
3. What types of support do you offer? What is your support response time and how many staff members you have?
4. Do you offer any discounts for yearly payments? Is there any bonus features I can get?
5. What is your average uptime and can you issue partial refund if server will be down?
6. Can I host multiple domains on 1 account (add-on domains) and how many domains can I park?
7. Do you have reseller hosting packages? If so - how many domains can I host, can you setup private name servers.
8. How many email boxes I can create, is there any attachment size limitation?
9. Account Upgrades. Is there any fee for upgrades? What is the cost of additional resources?
10. What else can you tell me about your company and services? Why should I join you?


I am very sorry for so much questions,
but we have terrible experience with current company and we are looking to purchase 4 different accounts from you guys.

John Webber

This email came to an address that hasn't been used in a long time, it was the primary contact address for a company that my company bought out about 18 months ago. I remember receiving a VERY similar email to my primary contact address several months ago. I can't find that email right now, but I swear the wording was nearly exactly the same.

Here's an interesting forum post from another host that apparently got the same email:
http://forums.splitinfinity.com/showthread.php?p=12

Note that in his email, he says that his current host is down and he needs to move fast. I remember this email from at least 4 months ago, because it was before we moved to our current location. SplitInfinity made that forum post about two weeks ago. I remember replying in detail to the message and hearing no response.

Anywho, I don't know who this guy is or what he's doing. Has anyone else seen this email?

I've never seen anything like this before, but my gut feeling tells me that something's not right about this email.

All of the questions he's asking are fairly standard. Maybe a bit more detailed than normal, but still not that unusual. I wasn't at all concerned when I got that message the first time.

Who's John Webber? A spammer?

We got this exact email from John W. (only last initial, but probably stands for Webber) on April 30th this year. It was replied to as if he was serious, we had no reason not to. The email was sent to our sales address. We never received an order from him, however, I remember having a different theory about the email about 2 weeks after it was replied to.

2 weeks after it was replied to, I was reading an article in PingZine or WHIR Magazine regarding the response time/quality of various hosting companies. I had a feeling that we had just been tested...hope we passed :D

I was reading an article in PingZine or WHIR Magazine regarding the response time/quality of various hosting companies. I had a feeling that we had just been tested...hope we passed :D


Hmmm... May be you are correct. if you all compare with the mailheader which you have got it then we can come to conclude!!

Web Hosting review?

Maybe it's a web host reviewer. Reviewing hosts in the industry and compiling data for a site, magazine or something. Just treat it like any other sales inquiry. If they actually signup then enforce the standard fraud prevention.

We received that exact same e-mail as well. Let me know if you need any information about it.

After some digging, it appears we received it as well. :S

I received it as well.
I guess you could say I was a "victim" as well.
I just answered it like a normal sales email. :)

I received that email ~15 months ago, I had no reason at the time to believe it wasn't a genuine sales enquiry.

If this is a web hosting review site sending out these emails. How is this NOT spam? I mean, they're taking up our time with no real intent on purchasing. They benefit because it gives them material for their commercial website/magazine.

You can argue that we benefit as well by getting free publicity that we never asked for. But, wouldn't most spammers argue that we benefit from their stuff as well?

Thoughts?

--Tina

I agree with Tina here. We received a similar email too. It's also very confusing because some of us were worried it's a hacker or a fraud email and were reluctant to provide information to the sender. We did eventually though and received no reply back.

My thoughts are if it is a web hosting review they have contacted too many hosts and gone one step too far.

Matt :)

I agree with you Tina.

If not spam this is really just a mild social engineering atempt to compile data about your company and how you run your business.

I don't think this one email is going to do too much damage but im sure if one like it with the proper questions could cause issues.

Thoughts?

Tina, while I can see your point, I disagree with it. The definition of spam is:

Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.

The operative words for my argument being "unsolicited". Technically, all sales inquries are solicited via our company websites. We put the notion out there that we want to hear from you if you're interested in hosting. What's to say that this person doesn't have a genuine interest in hosting? When did timeline become a factor to distinguish between sales inquiry and spam. Perhaps they are doing research on various companies, writing their business plans and are going to open a hosting company - starting with a reseller account from your business?

Based on your argument, I almost feel like you are stating that in order for him to avoid the stigma of being called a spammer, he now must register for an account at all the companies this email was sent to. If he already has a hosting account, does this somehow remove his spammer-name as he has/had a general interest in acquiring a hosting plan?

I think I've rambled on long enough and maybe not making sense anymore, but hopefully, I got something of a point across :D

Perhaps it is not spam but to submit a sales request just to compile data on a hosting company for commercial use is not something I would consider a legitimate use.

The operative words for my argument being "unsolicited". Technically, all sales inquries are solicited

Of course. But, what we're talking about isn't a genuine sales inquiry - its an email for the purpose of commercial gain.

--Tina

Now that is amuzing. I still have that e-mail sitting in our sales Que. :) I just happened to go by this thread and I am glad that I did.

I thought it was interesting when I read it. We replied back as if normal. I have seen this happen before with accounts. However, now I feel cheated because everyone else was includes too.

Oh Well!

Of course. But, what we're talking about isn't a genuine sales inquiry - its an email for the purpose of commercial gain.

--Tina

How do you know that? You're basing this on speculation. Interesting how in the "land of the free" where the suspects are "presumed innocent until proven guilty", conclusions are so easily jumped to.

The first idea of commercial gain came from my "guess" that it was meant for a hosting review article. If you have other facts that would dictate that these emails are solely for commercial gain, please share.

Got one of those 'Webber' eMails as well, for the second time this year and treated it as Spam, didn't report it though just deleted it.

It's obvious from reading the eMail that whomever sent has no interest in doing business. Anyone who is truly interested in doing business will have the common sense (courtesy?) to first view the Web pages of the product/services. Then they will ask questions based on what they've seen.

Anyone sending a Hoster an eMail that asks, "7. Do you have reseller hosting packages? If so - how many domains can I host, can you setup private name servers." when details are freely available on a Web page, obviously has a hidden agenda in mind. Especially when you consider the information provided by answering some of the other questions.

My advice is to chuck it and forget about it. Don't waste the time to answer when it can be better spent on "real" Sales enquiries. ;)

Not every customer is going to spend the time to do research when they can just ask you directly. Even after hearing how many hosting companies have received an email from this person I still think the best thing is to answer it like any other sales inquiry. It’s not like it takes more then 5 minutes to run through the answers for this person.

I can’t see why anyone would think answering a few sales questions like this would be a security issue, unless they are not confident in their server admin ability to keep everything locked down and secure.

I don't think what he is asking here would be a security risk but if you have someone asking the wrong person the right questions you never know what could happen.

I am just saying you have to think before you write.

I can’t see why anyone would think answering a few sales questions like this would be a security issue, unless they are not confident in their server admin ability to keep everything locked down and secure.

I for one take caution with these messages. I don't want people using anything to attack us in any shape or form. Just because your server has the latest firewall does not mean it can't be brought down.

My £2

-- Matt :)

It’s not like it takes more then 5 minutes to run through the answers for this person.
If you can answer those 10 question in less than 5 minutes, then either you type at super human speed or have very little to say in your eMail replies.

I can’t see why anyone would think answering a few sales questions like this would be a security issue, unless they are not confident in their server admin ability to keep everything locked down and secure.
Although question #7 was used as an example, it was just an example. And why do you assume this is an issue with Server security? Except for yourself, nobody mentioned or implied that.

/rant on

For the record, I am not the mysterious John Webber (and I think his "survey" method is inane), but if you have an email address dedicated towards getting sales it seems odd to think of people who email without buying as spammers. You know, I've only rarely recieved a response from a sales inquiry to a web host. Other types of companies reply with a much higher percentage (i.e. most all of them), but I suppose the majority of web hosts are too paranoid. That's alright, the paranoid ones don't tend to get my business. That's just my view as a consumer. The type of questions that I ask may already be addressed on your web site but as a host you should make some effort to reply to them anyway. If your prices are too low to warrant actually spending time trying to get more customers then raise them.

/rant off (Sorry, I just find it terribly annoying when I don't get a reply or worse get sent a link to a page. Pardon the last line, the search for a web host is somewhat similar to commiting suicide by a thousand paper cuts.)

Although question #7 was used as an example, it was just an example. And why do you assume this is an issue with Server security? Except for yourself, nobody mentioned or implied that.

I don't want to point fingers but if you read the thread you will pass by a post that says: "It's also very confusing because some of us were worried it's a hacker or a fraud email and were reluctant to provide information to the sender. "

Haven't got this email as of yet, but I surely won't be replying to it.

If you can answer those 10 question in less than 5 minutes, then either you type at super human speed or have very little to say in your eMail replies.I agree, that email would definitely take more than 5 minutes to type a quality response. Besides, why respond to it when you know that MANY other people have received this, especially dating back to 15 months ago. It's a waste of time.

I got the same email! But with another name; Bob. I answered the email, and 3 weeks after, he replied! But with more questions, so I replied again, and 2 weeks after he replied, but with 2-3 questions more, I replied and then..... Hes gone.

It was fun :) but really wierd email. lol.

I don't want to point fingers but if you read the thread you will pass by a post that says: "It's also very confusing because some of us were worried it's a hacker or a fraud email and were reluctant to provide information to the sender. "
Point taken. Must have missed reading that post. :)

If your company is serious about sales, then I see no reason not to respond or to delay your response.

We receive a high volume of sales-related requests, and we have developed a set of standard answers for the most common questions. Yes, it can be annoying to receive an e-mail from someone who has no intent on purchasing, but just in case they are testing you, put forth your best effort.

Unless an e-mail is blatant SPAM ('buy viagra here') and the person seems to be asking a genuine question, we answer every one in a timely and professional manner. Yes, there is a pattern here, and John Webber is giving us a headache, but I really don't see anything "fishy" about the contents of the e-mail, save for some sentence structure and grammatical errors. That would merely suggest he is not a native of an English-speaking country to me.

:lovewht:

Most of these questions have already been asked by other potential customers and are simple copy and paste so no I'm not super human, if you can grant me those powers I’ll take them. But seriously we do keep a structured response to most standard questions. It keeps the responses more professional and saves the staff time.

Hello,

Sorry for digging this old thread. I just want to say I've been getting this same emails about 6 times from my old host name and rebranded to Tribolis for nearly 2 years. I'm glad to have found this thread as I got tired of this repeat emails. This person never replies back and really sound like a spammer. For example, if we respond that email and he can collect our ip to spam or whatever.

Should I delete John's email or reply back? If I respond, it's a waste time and he won't purchase our plan. Can't he stop emailing to hosting for every 4 months or so? He should just collecting the hosting's answer from his questions.

Can you spot his hoster? can it be a hosting company using such tricks?

Yup !! We got that mail twice in 2 years..
Although we replied in a timely manner, I still think this is a spam ...

I know..I know...older post, but got an email from him on my personal address. I took a look at the headers and found it came from accountbox.com

http://whois.domaintools.com/accountbox.com

Anyone else see something peculiar about the Whois? ;)

EDIT : Heck, I didn't even need to dig that far, the whois for findmain.com is also registered to a hosting company.

Well, the title of this caught my eye, not that I remember the guy's name. But after reading the first message from the OP, I distinctly remember getting this email at one of our sites too. As I recall it was almost word for word. I do think I replied as best I could, but it was a very weird request because I have NEVER gotten an email with SO many questions.

I got it on two of my sites within a day of each other about 2 weeks ago.

I answered one and ignored the other.