Unprofessional Business Acts - Spamming & Email Harvesting
Oh boy has this one hit home BIG TIME in the past couple of weeks. There is a huge spammer around right now who’s not only spamming a bunch of work at home moms … but also harvesting email addresses.
Between myself, Kara, Val and Lauren I’m guessing that we’ve now received probably over 50 of this women’s newsletters. And guess what? We’ve received this many copies within about 2 or 3 issues!Â
She’s sent to every one of our legitimate email addresses as well as some fake. See, I myself have something set up as a “catch all” email account. So, if someone sends something to anything that ends in @mommyshelperonline.com, I still receive it. For me, she made up addresses such as contact@, sales@, etc. etc.Â
She must be using some form of harvesting software because for Kara and I, she also used an email address that is used to only accept payments. This email address is not published anywhere besides in HTML code for our shopping cart on one site.
Normally, when I’m adding things to my “unprofessional business acts” series I don’t use names or website addresses unless I have permission. However, in this case … We’re all so tired of receiving these emails that this time I am going to. Another reason I’m going to is because this particular women is well aware that this is not allowed. I know this because I have told her and so has all three of the others mentioned above.
I know for a fact that she certainly read my warning because she did indeed remove some of my email addresses. I’d also like to share with each of our readers exactly what can happen if you’re caught for spamming and/or email harvesting:
The following is an overview of the CAN SPAM Act from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission):
- > You cannot use false or misleading header information. This must be accurate and identify you or who you are affiliated with.
- > You cannot use deceptive subject lines. You cannot use one subject line to encourage someone to open the email and have the contents of the email say something different.
- > You must offer an opt-out method. This is so that the receiver can choose to not receive any other mail from you. This law is often misconcepted at being for mailing lists only. By law, this is not so. This includes any commerical emailing at all. (This includes business opportunities.)
- > The email must be identified as an advertisement and you must include a valid physical postal address. You must let it be known that you are sending a solicitation email which is an advertisement. You also must include your postal address along with opt-out instructions.
Be sure to read and inform yourself of the full Can Spam Act. Ignorance is NOT an excuse! Did you know that each violation is subject to fines of $11,000.00?
As I said, this particular spammer has been well-warned and has decided to NOT take the proper action. It’s bad enough that she’s harvesting emails. It’s bad enough that we’re recieving issues of a newsletter that we did NOT opt to receive. But we’re not just recieving one per issue - we’re receiving several per issue. It’s gotten entirely out of hand!
The more I investigate this all … the more people I find she’s doing this too. There is one particular yahoo group that is immense in size. She’s apparently chose to take the addresses from these people also. It’s also obvious that she’s targeting work at home moms. I guess I could say this is about the only thing she’s doing right. With her list of websites … she’s targeting the right group, lol!
For those of you that also have fallen victim to Samantha Kobs of KobsMedia, WahmWahm.com, DirectSalesMommy.com and SalesMommy.com to name a few … you can take the following actions to report her:
Simply forward the newsletter that you did not subscribe for to her mailing list provider here:
abuse@streamsend.com (Use this email address ONLY for emails received from Samantha Kobs!)
You can also forward this newsletter to the FTC here:
spam@uce.gov
Now keep in mind … if you’ve fallen victim to any spammer, you can forward the email to the above address to the FTC. This email account creates a database to store the information so they can pursue law enforcement actions against spammers.
And if you haven’t figured it out from what I’ve said above … NEVER, EVER, EVER SPAM! It’s just not worth it.
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Comments
After just being bombarded with unsolicited emails over my scrapbooking business issues - these last round of emails from Ms. Kobs have really set me off!
Ignorance is no excuse - and after you’ve been asked, and told to remove email addresses from your list that were obviously harvested in the first place - it is then complete disregard to continue to send those unsolicited newsletters & emails!
Posted by: Lauren | April 16th, 2008 13:04
Most of the time I’m nice about things and let them off with a warning when they say “I didn’t know”. Although I do make them fully aware of what they are doing is ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL.
However, this woman KNOWS and I’m done being nice. Spam laws were put in place for a reason, and she’s in full violation. Those addresses were HARVESTED and in no way, shape, or form did she have permission to send us her crap. SHE KNEW IT! So yes, I’m making an example out of her and doing everything I can to get her shut down.
Don’t think me completely heartless to the wahm world because I DO understand, to a point. This woman crossed the line and is fully aware she’s making people mad. Don’t hesitate to turn her in!
Posted by: Kara | April 16th, 2008 13:14
Yep, done being nice. 2 weeks ago I was angry and sent her a nicer email telling her to take me off her list of spam. She said sorry, blah,blah, blah and that she’d take care of it. Of course we know how far that went.
Thank you for posting the abuse email so I can send her there. I’m taking those steps and I’m also reporting to her hosting company. I’ve had it!
Posted by: val | April 16th, 2008 13:35
Thank you girls for naming names on your blogs! I do indeed know who this is and I have heard numerous times about her harvesting folks email addys from yahoo groups, forum boards etc and then spamming ads to people who never signed up to receive them.
Posted by: Shelly | April 16th, 2008 15:11
I’m with Shelly on this one…
and yes thanx for naming names, cuz’ I’ve gotten all kinds of spam from Ms S. Kobs
and even posted on her new forum she just took over to REMOVE ME and she posted some lame nonsense.
Blech!
Tara
Posted by: Tara Burner | April 21st, 2008 13:46
I have a question….what would happen if someone just took a disliking to you, you had never spammed them, and they reported you for spamming? This has never happened to me, but I can see the wheels turning in some mischievous heads.
Posted by: nancy | April 21st, 2008 14:38
They wouldn’t be able to turn you in for spam if they didn’t have any emails from you. Although if they signed up to your newsletter (double opt-in), they can cry spam all they want but the proof they signed themselves up is there. This is why it’s important to have a mailing list provider (like Aweber, which is what we use) to take care of those issues. Someone can claim they’ve been spammed by you, but your mailing list provider has the proof this person did in fact give you permission to send them emails.
The problem here was that NONE of us subscribed to ANYTHING. She was adding people to her list without using the double opt in process. So turning her into her mailing list provider got her immediately shut down. They could instantly see all these emails were added by her.
Posted by: Kara | April 22nd, 2008 13:03