I've found out that Yahoo, Google others are in bed with a major spammer. I've personally gotten a lot of spam from this company, which is a major advertiser on Yahoo and Google. I've looked into it quite a bit. I think that public exposure will do wonders to stop this.
Some time ago I saw an offer for a "free" screen saver offered by Freeze.com in an online ad. It looked like a really nice underwater screensaver. It turned out that the process to get this "free" screen saver was to answer an interminable series of questions, and I dropped out before I was through (by design, I think). Before I tried to abort this lengthy process, I'd given them my e-mail address. Luckily, instead of my real name, I made up one.
Shortly after that I began getting three spams a day addressed to the made up name, which I'd never used before. Freeze.com used a variety of domain names and e-mail addresses to fool my attempts to block them, but there were similarities. You could tell it was them. In fact, when I checked the domain names were all registered to Freeze.com's P.O. Box in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Besides screensavers and related products, two persistent Freeze.com enabled spammers are the "University of Phoenix" and "Devry University." Spam from these "Universities" came from Freeze.com domains.
I tried numerous times to get Freeze.com to stop sending me these spams. They won't. I let Yahoo know about this. No response. I reported all the addresses as spam to Yahoo, which should have triggered them to stop e-mails from these addresses. They won't.
Instead, large ads from Freeze.com continued to adorn my Yahoo e-mail screen, my Yahoo screen and also Google. In a press release Freeze.com says it is also doing business with AOL.
Freeze.com, LLC lists its contact information as:
P.O. Box 1142
St. Cloud, MN 56302
also:
26 6th Avenue N.
St. Cloud, MN 56301
1-866-290-7349
FAX 1-866-290-7349
They also send out spam from another corporate face,
Game Point Inc.
at the P.O. Box above
Robert Weber is the head of these companies.
(Taken from Whois)
If you want to confirm this, create a new e-mail address. A free service like Yahoo would be best. Go to freeze.com and try to obtain a free screensaver. Give them a fake name. You will shortly begin receiving spam addressed to this fake name. Repeat as often as you like. You will soon be the proud recipient of a ton of spam.
In searching the internet for information on Freeze.com's domain names, not infrequently, they appeared on lists of spammers. Why do people who keep these lists know this, but Yahoo and Google somehow don't? I think they do know.
Freeze.com's internet provider appears to be Time Warner Telecom according to Whois.
Do I think that Yahoo and Google are enabling a major spammer in exchange for ad revenues? I do.
Here are just some of the aliases under which Freeze.com has sent me spam:
thescreensaverplace.com
clockmail.com
screensavertown.com
bigdesktops.com
desktopindustry.com
desktoppuzzles.com
globalscreens.com
thescreensaverplace.com
optionalhelp.com
lookitsmail.com
ijotmail.com
You can do a lot to stop spam by putting these on your list of blocked addresses. I never got a non spam e-mail from these addresses.
Go ahead an look up the registration at Whois. This is not a complete list.
Yahoo ignored my communications to them about this. If you should feel like asking them why they are in bed with a spammer, I've assembed some contact information from Yahoo Financial:
Mr. Terry Semmel
CEO
Yahoo! Inc
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Corporate Headquarters Phone numbers:
Phone: (408) 349-3300
Fax: (408) 349-3301
If you should feel like contacting Google to ask them why they are doing this, I've assembed some contact information for them from Yahoo Financial too:
Eric Schmidt
CEO
Google Inc
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Corporate Headquarters Phone numbers:
Phone: (650) 623-4000
Fax: (650) 618-1499
Here is contact information that I've assembled for the two "Universities" who send out millions of spams in conjunction with Freeze.com. I'd love to know how they defend this. I personally received many spams from them long after I requested that this stop. I can attest to the fact that these are totally unwanted e-mails.
Dennis Keller
Chairman
Devry University
DeVry Inc
One Tower Lane, Suite 1000
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Corporate Headquarters Phone Numbers:
Phone: (630) 571-7700
Fax: (630) 571-0317
"DeVry University" is a for profit corporation that, among other things, operates medical schools in the Carribean, and whose Chairman earns four million dollars a year, according to their profile at Yahoo Financial.
Here's info on another Freeze.com spamming partner. University of Phoenix is a very interesting "University" where the CEO earns over twelve million dollars a year, according to their corporate profile at Yahoo Financial.
Todd Nelson
Chairman, Pres, Chief Exec. Officer
University of Phoenix
Apollo Group Inc
4615 East Elwood Street
Phoenix, AZ 85040
Corporate Headquarters Phone Numbers:
Phone: (480) 966-5394
Fax: (480) 379-3503
Unless otherwise stated, contact info and corporate information is from Yahoo Financial.
Hopefully by putting this information out in the community I can help stop this major spamming activity. If you want to keep informed about Freeze.com's new domain names, create a disposable free e-mail account and sign up for that free screensaver. Then you can use the domain names you glean there for your spam filters.
Very sincerely,
Bluegirl
Linear Mode
