Well, LT (lending tree) seemed to be the one selling people the information. When I received calls from these people from the mortgages they mostly bought their hot leads from LT. When I did a couple lookups I found that in some cases the URL's for the mortgage spams (which are what I received a lot of) had the same technical contact email as LT. This isn't solid proof they are behind that batch of bulk spams that I still receive to this day but it doesn't help disprove.
All this means is that companies like LT are buying straight garbage emails and perpetuating the problem. I just mentioned them as they were on the top of my list of offenders spam on my end. > -----Original Message----- > From: Jo Rhett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 11:43 AM > To: Gary W. Smith > Cc: users@spamassassin.apache.org > Subject: Re: Psst! > > So how does Lending Tree come into it? Your original e-mail indicted > them for this spam flood... > > Gary W. Smith wrote: > > Jo, > > > > Here are the order of events, these are important. > > > > 1) I received a spam at [EMAIL PROTECTED] selling Viagra or > > something. > > 2) I opened the URL to the and went to the page for unsubscribing > > 3) I filled out the unsubscribe information for a fictional personal > > named Chris Mather. This constituted a "enter your email address to > > unsubscribe from" box only. > > 4) Days later I received spam at [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > a) Dear mather, chris., one of the emails contained (which also > > had a period after chris). > > 5) I received a spam entitled "refinance your mortgag3 in tree days > > (note tree was in the subject) to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > 6) I filled out the form, which asked only for your name, address, phone > > (please note it did not ask for email), value of property, etc > > 7) I received calls from multiple mortgag3 companies > > 8) I to this day receive upwards of 50 spams per say to this one account > > alone. (I think I have about 15 of these types of accounts doing the > > same job). > > > > So, where in this line did I say "please send > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]" lots of spam. > > > > The question asked earlier was how to you get someone to start sending > > spam, the quick answer is "unsubscribe". > > > > And as I mentioned before, this whole story is also in the SA > > archives... > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Jo Rhett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 11:27 AM > >> To: Gary W. Smith > >> Cc: users@spamassassin.apache.org > >> Subject: Re: Psst! > >> > >> Gary W. Smith wrote: > >>> Jo, please read in entirety... > >> Sure. > >> > >>> Um, no, I unsubscribed it from a list and then received LD spam... > >>> Therefore it's pretty much a spam gig. The solicited me first. > >> You filled your information into a web form ... and they solicited > > you? > >> *confused* > >> > >>> We aren't talking about the pretty LD emails they sent to clients. > >>> Don't get me wrong there. In fact, those come through just fine. > > It's > >>> the spams they outsource (or whatever) that come in. You know, they > >>> ones where they misspell both mortgage and your name... > >> Um... tell me. Did you misspell your name when you submitted it? > > Then > >> I seriously doubt it. > >> > >> The vast majority of mortgage account info come from public record > >> information, and that's also where most mis-spellings occur because > >> newspapers are too lazy to correct stuff like that. I'm not sure how > >> they got your e-mail (god hopes your mortgage agency didn't put your > >> e-mail into the public record)... > >> > >>> The history about this whole story is in the archives from about 18 > >>> months ago. I unsubscribed, received a crappy looking misspelled > > spam, > >>> went to the simple web page with a couple form fields, filled it > > out, > >>> and received lots of phone calls. For the return email address I > > used > >>> some bogus yahoo account. I can understand the phone spam but no > > where, > >>> and at no time, did I give them the spam email address other than > > the > >>> one time "unsubscribe" (which I think was also spelled wrong at the > >>> time). > >> Phone calls are more likely to be based on the public records that are > >> published any time you refinance. > >> > >> Besides, your story is confusing. The first step is that you > >> unsubscribed. You unsubscribed from what? This isn't the beginning > > of > >> the story... > >> > >>> So this is a completely valid spam account. There's no grey area > > around > >>> that one. > >> I can't comment on that, mostly because I don't understand your story. > >> It reads like it was tossed in a blender to me :-) (no insult > > intended, > >> but it is confusing as stated) > >> > >> -- > >> Jo Rhett > >> Network/Software Engineer > >> Net Consonance > > > -- > Jo Rhett > Network/Software Engineer > Net Consonance
