Thursday, May 3, 2007

* Sandra Verthein Spams Rogers Park Residents


Eyes on Eastlake said... "I just recieved a letter/email from the DFA... Anyone else get one?"

Margot Hackett said.. My client, who is not active in politics got this email and forwarded it to me. I got the same email seconds later. I sent an email back asking where the hell they got my email address. Whereas I am clearly a Gordon supporter and want to be informed of how this suit is going, I have huge issues with emails sent to me from groups whom I have not contacted for information and or agreed to receive literature.

It's like Joe's spring cleanup email. I used to be on the 49th ward blast email list. When I moved, I changed my email and never updated the 49th ward office. This is the first email I have received from that office since August.

These guys are using spam methods and it isn't winning any kudos from me.

Normally, I am always interested in emails regarding our community. But I do feel that these two unsolicited emails are an invasion of my privacy. Not because of political leanings, but because I never authorized access.

Joe, you can tell your staff and your hoodlums to erase my address from your list. PRONTO!!!!!!!!!!


Rebecca Rouilly said...." Constant Contact is the vendor who sent the push email on behalf of DFA - but there's a problem. You see, Constant Contact has a strict "no spam" policy. That means if DFA didn't ask you for your email address themselves, then they have no right to use it with Constant Contact to send push email. Constant Contact has a no "third party" list rule. I just talked to Constant Contact recently for another project I was working on, and comfirmed these policies.

If you didn't give your email address to the Rogers Park/Edgewater Steering Committee of DFA in the past, please write to abuse@constantcontact.com right away and complaint about it - they are a good company and will take your complaint seriously. Hopefully they will refuse to do business with DFA in the future."


Dear Constant Contact -

I am a supporter of the candidate being attacked in the email attached and I NEVER gave my email address to the organization (DFA) that sent it.  I am very upset that I recieved this through Constant Contact.  I thought your company had a strong anti-spam policy and that you also had a policy of not using third party email lists.  There are many people in my community who are wondering how on earth DFA got their personal email information since they never gave it to DFA - you will probably be hearing from them soon. 

Constant Contact has a reputation of being a quality company with decent privacy standards, but this has really shaken our confidence.  Please let us know how this situation will be corrected.

Thanks for your help,

Rebecca Rouilly


BLOGNOTES: If you've received this spam email from Edgewater Sandra, please follow Rebecca's template and let Constant Contact know at the below email address. If anyone has any better photos of Sandra, please send them. I'd like the 49th ward residents to know what she looks like.

abuse@constantcontact.com

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you're on Moore's newsletter contacts, you would have gotten this email. His office doesn't have a strict privacy policy because they've also given their email contacts to Fagus' Democratic Party - 49th Ward.

DFA, a bunch of web novices, don't get the rules of spamming and privacy policy. They should have embedded a disclaimer in the message somewhere otherwise, it's an obvious unsolicited email list they acquired from Moore. Where's heck is the quality control? First it's using Craig's photo of the Green Team, a Gordon supporter's house, and Gordon's photo(theft of intellectual property) in your brochure. Nice job.

Al Iverson said...

I live in Rogers Park, work for a competitor of Constant Contact, and am on a first-name basis with their anti-spam/policy enforcement staff. Please, forward me any examples of spam that you've received on this front and I will raise the issue with them immediately.

Spam is NOT cool, regardless of the politics.

You can find my email address at contact.aliverson.com

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandra,

I used to be on his newsletter contact list with my old email address, but have never updated that information.

Several of my clients and friends, whom have never been on the 49th ward list in the past, got Joe's email and the DFA's email as well.

I ran into my neighbor Laurie today, who told me she was getting email from Joe and never had before. My client Hazel, who is not a blogger or on the ward email list got both the 49th ward emails as well as the DFA. She has no idea where they got her email address from.

I got another blast email from the 49th ward office, advertising the spring clean up and bike reycling program today. Since my email address is on my blog for lost and found pet posts and has been posted here in the past, I am assuming that is how it got back on the list.

On both emails there is a click here to remove yourself from our mailing list icon. I probably won't do it, I do like to stay informed. It's just the principle of the whole thing that bothers me.

Anonymous said...

BTW, I did forward the email to constant contact as Rebecca recommended this morning. I have yet to receive a response.

Rebecca, you and I didn't get to finish our conversation regarding your dogs two weeks ago. I am ready, able and willing to help you. My website is www.dog-tired.info. All my contact information is there.

Unknown said...

Who has the phone number for this office of DFA?

Unknown said...

Where Moore might have gotten this list or his internal privacy policy (or lack of one) isn't really relevant - according to Constant Contact's policies, DFA isn't allowed to "borrow" or rent lists from other organizations and use them without the consent of the people to whom the email addresses belong.

It is sort of hard to believe that DFA didn't know this policy considering that Constant Contact is really explict about it. Constant Contact expects its clients to be honest about how they generate lists and sign documents stating that their lists are "opt-in" only. So, draw your own conclusions about DFA's behavior here.

Like Al says, spam is not cool and being dishonest with vendor partners is not cool either. If you are unhappy with DFA, the best thing to do is let Constant Contact know by writing to them at abuse@constantcontact.com There is no need to phone them - just forward them the original email from DFA and let them know DFA didn't have permission to use your email.

There is no reason to think that Constant Contact was anything other than a good faith player here, but in order for them to fix this, we need to let them know that DFA wasn't given permission to use these email addresses. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Thanks Margot. I'll be in touch soon.

Anonymous said...

Day two, still no return mail from constant contact in response to my complaint.

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