Blog for hpHosts, and whatever else I feel like writing about ....

Thursday 11 September 2008

Mininova made a woopsie - and we're paying for it!

Alas, Mininova made a woopsie with their Content Distribution System (CDS) mailing a few days ago, that resulted in their putting their members e-mail addresses in the To box, instead of the BCC box. You can guess the result.

Yeppers, since then, I've received a ton of spam from some of their members that decided to make the most of Mininova's mistake. Spam for example, from "Porno Soundtracks", who thought the spam was so ridiculous, that they decided to join in themselves!;

Oh my god ... this is getting ridiculous :) Well, seize the moment is what other do, so hereby the reason why we signed up in the first place - maybe others want to discuss their marketing efforts as well in a more constructive way?


And from UK based ibox-security.net, a company that any customer should think twice about using (they obviously couldn't give a crap aslong as they get the chance to make some cash);

Hi Guys,

I run iBox-Security a website development, hosting, SEO and IT services company in the UK. We are also in the process of building some software to run alongside the bit torrent application uTorrent which will help increase speed and keep traffic secure.

We offer great web services such as email, hosting and SEO be sure to check out site out at http://ibox-security.net and sign up to our newsletter at http://ibox-security.net/newsletter

iBox-Security | www.ibox-security.net


And what pray tell, did the Mininova staff do to warn their members about spamming? They sent the following of course;

Hi everyone,

Due to a human error, we send a minor part of our CD users an email with the addresses in the 'To' field instead of 'Bcc'. Our honest apologies for this mistake.

Having said that, the idea is not to build a community-feeling by replying to everyone. So from now on, anybody that uses "reply all" will see his CD account revoked.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

The Mininova staff


Which would be great - if it worked ....... alas it didn't, I've been receiving spam from their members since that e-mail, evidently I wasn't the only one. What did the Mininova staff do to enforce their first warning? Not much;

People,

Please stop mailing with "reply to all". Use the forum thread
mentioned below to post your experience.

Thanks for your cooperation.

The Mininova staff


Ooooh - that'll tell 'em!

Everyone makes mistakes, we all know that, but letting their members get away with spamming, because of their mistake, IS something they can and should, be held accountable for.

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