TartanWeb Buying E-mail Addresses / Spamming

[KiltedPilot]

I hate spam! I have hundreds of e-mail addresses (easy when you have your own mail server), and allocate different ones for each activity. This way I get to monitor how spammers get hold of my e-mail address.

I received a spam from TartanWeb.com today. I've never had any dealings with TartanWeb, and the e-mail address they contacted me on was the separate e-mail address I use for my UK Paypal payments (never used for correspondence). It is quite obvious, therefore, that they have obtained the e-mail address from a third party who I have ordered from. Because I only use this e-mail address for payments, and not as the contact e-mail, there is no chance I gave it as the contact e-mail address for an order, and in particular that I accidentally ticked the 'allow third parties to e-mail me' box.

I've e-mailed TartanWeb to point out that they are in breach of Regulation 22 of the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. It'll be interesting to see if/how they defend themselves. It's interesting that Regulation 30 of the same rules states that I can claim compensation from them (a free kilt?).

I never really understand this sort of behaviour in general. By spamming me they've garanteed that I'll knock them down the list of potential suppliers in future.

KP

[Big Paul]

FREE KILT!
FREE KILT!
FREE KILT! Go get'um!

[Robin]

I received 3, could be much worse

[Hamish]

I received 3, could be much worse

WHAT! Free kilts, Robin?

[DavidM_ScottishKilts]

Hi,

As many of you will know, ScottishKilts.net and Tartanweb.com are both part of a larger group of companies owned and operated in Glasgow, Scotland. Being the largest manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of highlandwear in the UK, we also do have another few companies/aliases under which we do business.

One of these is active on eBay selling our goods which are usually paid for via PayPal, so in fact, the item that you bought, was essentially from us. As you had bought highlandwear or highlandwear accessories from us in the past, we thought this would be relevant and of value to you, obviously we were mistaken.

I do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you, and have made sure you have been removed from our list.

As always with ALL our mail shots, it is very easy to unsubscribe if you do not wish to receive our future offers and promotions.


Thanks, and once again my sincere apologies,

David

[cessna152towser]

Thanks David M for explaining how these things work. Though I can never understand why anyone bothers to send spam. The spammer's address is only going to be added to the recipient's spamblocker blacklist and future mailshots be deleted unread. I receive on average two hundred spam e-mails a day of which around half are from new senders and thus need to be deleted individually and added to blacklist, which is an annoying waste of time and I tend to avoid buying from companies which advertise by this method.

[Tattoo Bradley]

I can never understand why anyone bothers to send spam. The spammer's address is only going to be added to the recipient's spamblocker blacklist and future mailshots be deleted unread.I tend to avoid buying from companies which advertise by this method.

Absolutely!!!

[ozone]

People bother to send spam because it WORKS!

Just look at all the poor saps suckered into the Nigerian money schemes. A very interesting video shot by 60 minutes in australia is worth watching. Spammers are like the brokers described in Bonfire of the Vanities....they live and breathe off of the little crumbs. If they can send out 100,000 emails for very little money/electricity/ etc. and get 2-3 reponses....then they have made their money.

Spam only exists because it is successful. Those of us smart enough or lucky enough to recognize it when it shows up in our inboxes ARE NOT who the spammers are after. I recently received some very convincing e-bay related spam about an item I had bid on and lost. When I alerted E-bay, they expressed admiration for the sophistication of the spam/scam. I have been on the internet myself since there were only bulletin boards and direct dial at 14kbps, so I am no spring chicken when it comes to hacking/spamming/scamming people.

Incidentally, DavidM was very graceful in his response and I salute his diplomacy and quick response.

Folks, be careful who you slam on this board because there are indeed parent companies and links that many of us may not be aware of. As some radio hosts say: " if you dont like it, turn the dial" In the internet world, that means: "unsubscribe"

[KiltedPilot]

Apology accepted, David.

Can I give you some advice, however, to help you avoid similar embarrassments in future (and, worse still, even prosecution). Please visit the UK Information Commissioners website, and download the guides for marketers.

If I understand correctly, you believe TartanWeb are allowed to send marketing e-mails to me because a related business to TartanWeb sold an item to me on eBay. This is not the case.

Regulation 22(3) of the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 states that a retailer can only send unsolicited marketing e-mails to a customer if either they either explicity request it, or they implicity 'soft opt-in'. That 'soft opt-in' requires that "the recipient has been given a simple means of refusing ... the use of their contact details for marketing purposes at the time those details were initially collected ...". In my case you harvested the e-mail address from my Paypal payment, which clearly does not satisfy this legal requirement.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 also have provisions for communications from different parts of a group of companies. The regulations require that any contact acquired after 11 December 2003 must give prior consent before receiving unsolicited marketing from a group company (see p25 of the guide). So even if I had given consent to receiving marketing e-mails from your eBay business, it does not necessarily confer any rights to TartanWeb enabling it to send marketing e-mails to me.

This is just the legal situation. The real issue, however, is that in the current climate, most people instantly lose respect for any entity sending out unsoliticited marketing e-mails, so it's best to always seek that prior consent.

KP

nb. Perhaps this thread should be closed given that an apology has been offered and accepted?

[Colin]

nb. Perhaps this thread should be closed given that an apology has been offered and accepted?

My thoughts exactly