Selling webmaster emails

[Keyser Soze]

Do you consider this acceptable?
Is it normal business for sponsors to sell their webmasters emails?
There is a program where a several webmasters complain about getting spam to programname@theirdomain.com and I just saw a post from them offering webmastermails for sale.

[CybrFire]

That idea sucks. How many webmasters, after finding out that their sponsor sold their email addresses without telling that person, would dump that sponsor?

More than a few I would hope.

If it's not in the sponsors terms to agree to & they still sell your email address...I say no way, that practice just plain sucks!

[Greenguy]

It's a shit thing to do, but it's probably burried someplace in the terms that you allow them to do it when you sign up.

Of course, Jim & I only send newsletters to our lists & will probably never sell them

[CybrFire]

You're right GG, it's probebly lost somewhere in the terms fine print.

Speaking of subscribers addresses...can I be the winner of that $1700 even though I still haven't found the red print on my newsletters yet? How about a hard luck story to win it, instead of finding the red bold 'you win'....my bird died yesterday.

Is that a hard enough luck story? It involved death...

No? Oh well, worth a shot anyways

[Keyser Soze]

Originally posted by Greenguy
It's a shit thing to do, but it's probably burried someplace in the terms that you allow them to do it when you sign up.

No just read all the TOS at *************, pornojunkies, freepassbucks and discountpassbucks and none of them say anything about sharing/selling my info.

It does talk a lot about ethics and how they don´t accept webmasters that use unethical business practices.

Oh well if I hadn´t dropped them after I couldn´t be taken of their spam list I would have now.

[Keyser Soze]

But it also doesn´t say they won´t sell my info to anyone so technicly they are ok to do it I guess

[Greenguy]

Are you getting mail from the program pushing another program? (menaing they didn't physically give them a file of the emails, but they are sending the email for someone else)

[Misty Kristy]

Originally posted by Greenguy
& will probably never sell them

LOLOL I like how ya slipped that one in there

[Keyser Soze]

Originally posted by Greenguy
Are you getting mail from the program pushing another program? (menaing they didn't physically give them a file of the emails, but they are sending the email for someone else)

No the issue is getting emails from other programs to the mail used to sign up for *************.

Last one I remember was from prizeoffers or prizeservers something like that.

[Greenguy]

Ahhh - ok - I understand now

[Keyser Soze]

They all have the same unsub link
http://unsub.us/ (info on unsub.us )
and the link code is http://clicktraq.com/cl.php?u=2257 or something similiar

[spazlabz]

I think the point shouldn't be lost that not only is it moronic to SELL webmaster e mails, but equally if not more moronic to BUY webmaster e mails. If there is one single group of people who collectively mass delete spam mails more than adult webmasters I haven't heard of them yet. What does a list like that go for? Can't be too much and if spammers are paying top dollars for a webmaster list they are dumber then previously thought.


spaz

[swedguy]

Today I got SPAM to the LL submit email address I started using 1 month ago.
Should almost do the same as with sponsor prgrams, just to find out who the fucker is.

[finnbear]

With some hosts you can put up an e-mail where you can use any id you want. You only have one e-mail account but it can have any name you want.

So, you can sign-up with sponsors using codes. Like my nick is finnbear so I use finnbear01 to sign-up a sponsor. Then if I start to get spam to that addy I know that sponsor has sold my e-mail.

I don't care too much if they sell my e-mail. Spammers find it anyway, and it's better to use my time working rather than trying to hide my e-mail address or cursing sponsors. They may be scumbags, but if their sites convert and they pay me, I can cry when I walk to bank.

[SirMoby]

If they're a good sponsor and making money then why would they need to sell my information? If they need to sell my information and annoy me with spam then they probably need to do some other things instead of just giving me honest commisions to earn a buck.

[finnbear]

Bad habits, bad habits...

Last year I found dialers in my PC. I investigated and found out many respected sponsors shot a dialer in my PC without asking.

If they do that, selling our e-mails is small fishes...

[Extreme John]

We have never sold a webmaster email, and it's not something we even consider.

I hate getting mail from people I never signed up to, which means my shit was sold or traded, screw that.

[kamilla]

Originally posted by finnbear
With some hosts you can put up an e-mail where you can use any id you want. You only have one e-mail account but it can have any name you want.

So, you can sign-up with sponsors using codes. Like my nick is finnbear so I use finnbear01 to sign-up a sponsor. Then if I start to get spam to that addy I know that sponsor has sold my e-mail.

I don't care too much if they sell my e-mail. Spammers find it anyway, and it's better to use my time working rather than trying to hide my e-mail address or cursing sponsors. They may be scumbags, but if their sites convert and they pay me, I can cry when I walk to bank.

I think most webmasters knows of catch-all e-mails and I know that many uses them - incl myself. And I'm sure most sponsors knows this too so selling their affiliates e-mails, their webmasters will instantly know they were the ones who did it

I understand that if you're doing well with a sponsor, them selling your e-mail may not be a big enough reason to drop them. But I would just be a little suspicious what else they do.... such as shaving...

Just my 2 cents
Kamilla

[mackey]

I think that would look bad on the person selling that information. Granted I'd love to get ahold of it. But I also think its better to get in touch with a webmaster the old fashioned way.

But thats just me...

I wouldn't do it.

[Phoenix]

I don't see it as being very sound, the average webmaster is highly net savvy. so spam is probably not going to work on them.

Getting to know them and establishing a rapport is the way to go

[Kath]

I get spam to addresses that aren't posted anywhere, used for any registration @ sites or even used to email people with directly... if you build it (your email address) they will come (the spammers). Sometimes I thought I knew who the source of the spam was, but found out later that it wasn't who I thought it was - this stuff is hard to track/pinpoint sometimes.

Spam - the great annoying mystery of the 'Net. Thank goodness for my spam blockers.

[tickler]

Originally posted by Kath
Thank goodness for my spam blockers.

Until they happen to bounce the email with the download links for the content/software you just bought.

Can be a real mess trying to get that sorted out.

[BigJohn]

I started using e-mail addresses related to the sight I'm signing up for. My server defaults them so a catch all address so no problems getting them. This makes it very easy to determine where the spam is coming from.

Sure wish I'd learned it earlier! I just finished (finally) changing my old important generic e-mails to something specific and getting my filters in order to pick out anything that I missed and filtering anything else that comes to those old addresses directly to the delete pile. The amount of spam that I actually see now has dropped from 450+ per day down to around 25.

[BigJohn]

Originally posted by tickler
Until they happen to bounce the email with the download links for the content/software you just bought.

Can be a real mess trying to get that sorted out.

True, that's happened to me before, I just turned off my filter and sent an e-mail asking them to re-send the original e-mail. A little delay but no biggie.

Now pre-set up a filter prior to making the purchase for the e-mail that I plan to use.