Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:27:06 -0700 (PDT)
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@pfir.org
Subject: AT&T Resorts to SPAM
Dave,
It appears that AT&T has now begun a spamming campaign for their local
service offering. Customers of other AT&T services (and quite possibly
non-customers as well, it's hard to tell for sure) are getting promotional
e-mailings via Bluestreak, apparently one of the Direct Marketing
Associations' happy marketing members. The messages include
references to domains such as http://www.prq0.com, and are arriving
from domains like http://processrequest.com, both of which redirect
to http://www.bluestreak.com.
These mailings, which address the recipient as a current AT&T long distance
customer, are reaching persons who have *not* provided AT&T with their
e-mail addresses. If we assume that these are not random, scattershot
mailings, it appears probable that some sort of data matching service may
have been used to obtain these addresses for long distance customers who
chose not to give AT&T their e-mail information in the first place.
Of course, it's never a good policy to trust opt-out URLs in spam, but
included within the messages is a long URL specified for future opt-outs.
However, it is too long to paste properly (even in segments) into some newer
Netscape browsers, at least from various text-based e-mail applications.
Even with a compatible browser, attempts to access the opt-out URL yielded
an
unexplained error message from the server in my tests.
The customer service telephone number provided for more information will not
allow you to reach a person unless you provide a "phone number of interest"
and would not function at all for persons not using touch-tone phones.
No doubt AT&T would claim that their "prior business relationship" with
customers would prevent such unsolicited e-mail communications from being
categorized as spam, regardless of how they managed to get hold of the
e-mail
addresses in question.
But if it looks like a spam and acts like a spam, it's still spam.
Shame on you, AT&T.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@privacyforum.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
SIPA ALL- ALUMNI MEETING ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9th:
The Office of Alumni Relations is hosting an all-alumni planning session on
Saturday, November 9th at the Kellogg Center, room 1501 on the 15th floor
at SIPA from 10am - 2pm with coffee/bagels and lunch included.
This will be an opportunity to discuss activities for all of SIPA's
regional, international, degree-specific, and affinity-based programs for
the current year that ends on June 30th. Our office not only wants to plan
events and activities that meet your needs, but we hope to significantly
improve communications with our graduates. We would love for you to be
involved in the planning process and to volunteer for specific projects.
Since the School is currently without a SIPA-wide alumni body, we would
also like to discuss the formation of an association.
Please feel free to come even if you cannot stay for the entire period.
Space will be available for break-out sessions after lunch for more
specific discussions that emerge in the morning.
Please RSVP to mailto:sipaalum@columbia.edu if you are interested.
Thanks to
Marylaine Block's
NEAT NEW STUFF, OCTOBER 18, 2002
InfoSecBlog.com - Information Security Blog
http://www.infosecblog.com/
"Raoul Wegat, übergeek and Chief Security Officer at ITSecure," offers daily posts, with attitude, on viruses, serial spammers, and other security threats and nuisances.
Religion Newswriters Association Reference Library
http://www.religionwriters.com/public/pages/library.html
Links to course syllabi, online religious reference books, religious magazines and newspapers, denominations, demographics, and more.
Wall Street Executive Library - the Web's 1450 Best Business Sites
http://www.executivelibrary.com/
You're welcome to copy and distribute this listing for non-commercial purposes as long as you retain this copyright statement:
Neat New Stuff I Found This Week
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2002.
[Publishers may license the content at reasonable rates.]
Six months worth of neat new sites are available at the web page.
11:53:32 PM 
