As an example of how bogus rental e-mail lists can be, I got spammed by the usually well-behaved e-dialog last week. After some conversation with them, they forwarded this snippet from the list vendor electroniclist.com about the source of an allegedly opt-in list of lawyers (which, needless to say, I am not): > Hi Rick, Our lawyer and attorney list is comprised of advertised > attorney's addresses for contact information. We also use public > records and court cases and defunct databases where their e-mail > addresses may have been acquired into our database. That's why our > list is less expensive because it is deemed single Opt In by The > attorney publicly advertising their addresses or having been in > another database. Your advertisement fits the direct marketing > guidelines because you were asking them in a non commercial way to > join your list. Your e-mail piece completes what is called a CLC a > closed loop confirmation. I will note we have seen instances where a > wrong address of even the client of a case is shown as the attorney > of record and is not actually an attorney at all. Since a potential > client has requested CLC verification he has been removed from the > lawyer list until such a time that he requests to be in the legal > database. We can provide the actual verification requested with a > numbered identification, however the cost for the MIS involved would > not make it cost effective. We guarantee our lists which is on our > invoice to be only 92% accurate and with only one such request we > have met our advertised guidelines. You e-mail piece is not Spam as > you were not selling anything so no CLC was required. In the e-mail > industry what is presently transpiring is the individual ISP's are > handling spam complaints on their own. This what you have received > and can simply be answered by letting them they know they have > permanently removed and your information was of a non commercial > nature simply asking them to reconfirm their participation on your > list. English translation: this is a spam list of addresses scraped from the web and other mailing lists. Regards, John Levine, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4 2D AC 1E 9E A6 36 A3 47
