SPAM... SPAM... SPAM... and Dean...
Dean campaign admits to using spam
By Declan McCullagh - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Howard Dean’s presidential campaign acknowledged on Monday that it had spammed an undisclosed number of people with unsolicited political advertisements. The campaign said Dean, the former Democratic governor of Vermont, remained opposed to unsolicited bulk e-mail and blamed the spamming on two contractors who had promised to contact only people who had specifically requested to receive the advertisements.
“We recently contracted with two vendors who made assurances that their lists were opt-in only,” the campaign said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. “On Tuesday, August 12th, Dean for America received notification from a supporter that spam was being sent. We terminated our relationship with both vendors immediately.”
The Dean campaign’s bulk e-mail, which was sent last week, was disclosed by the Spamvertised.org Web site, which tracks political spam. The e-mail message touted Dean’s accomplishments and asked for political support and donations, saying: “We are going to win this nomination and defeat George W. Bush in 2004, but we need your help.”
Last week’s spamming has the potential to embarrass a presidential campaign that both the media and its own campaign staff has touted as particularly Internet-savvy. A Newsweek cover story last week said Dean “is revolutionizing political fund-raising with his clever cyberstumping,” while Dan Gillmor, a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, proclaimed that Dean and his staff “truly get the meaning of the Net.”
This is not the first time the Dean campaign has been embroiled in a controversy over spam. The campaign’s Texas affiliate apologized earlier this year for spamming, saying “from now on, only people who personally sign up for our e-mail lists, contribute money, volunteer or sign a petition will receive e-mails from Dean for Texas.” ...
The Dean campaign did not immediately respond to questions about which e-mail contractors it hired, what kind of “opt-in” lists the contractors promised, or how many people’s in-boxes were affected.
I try to stay away from Dean News on this Blog but, this is a story that directly affected me, so here's my take on this...
I received not one, not two, not three but about a dozen of these Dean SPAMS. I own two ecommerce websites that were spidered for email addresses to use to send out these Unsolicited Emails. Even after I tried to Unsubscribe to these lists that I never joined using my business related email addresses, I still received more Dean SPAM.
As an internet-based business owner, I personally feel that SPAM is the lowest of low forms of Direct Marketing. Because I own two domain names that each utilize multiple email addresses, I receive at least 2000 emails a day that are SPAM. I spend a good part of the day wading through these on a regular basis.
If I am web savvy enough to know better than to use these Email Marketing services, and Dean has such a web savvy team, what happened here?
The Vendors Lied?
Dean campaign admits to using spam
By Declan McCullagh - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Howard Dean’s presidential campaign acknowledged on Monday that it had spammed an undisclosed number of people with unsolicited political advertisements. The campaign said Dean, the former Democratic governor of Vermont, remained opposed to unsolicited bulk e-mail and blamed the spamming on two contractors who had promised to contact only people who had specifically requested to receive the advertisements.
“We recently contracted with two vendors who made assurances that their lists were opt-in only,” the campaign said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. “On Tuesday, August 12th, Dean for America received notification from a supporter that spam was being sent. We terminated our relationship with both vendors immediately.”
The Dean campaign’s bulk e-mail, which was sent last week, was disclosed by the Spamvertised.org Web site, which tracks political spam. The e-mail message touted Dean’s accomplishments and asked for political support and donations, saying: “We are going to win this nomination and defeat George W. Bush in 2004, but we need your help.”
Last week’s spamming has the potential to embarrass a presidential campaign that both the media and its own campaign staff has touted as particularly Internet-savvy. A Newsweek cover story last week said Dean “is revolutionizing political fund-raising with his clever cyberstumping,” while Dan Gillmor, a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, proclaimed that Dean and his staff “truly get the meaning of the Net.”
This is not the first time the Dean campaign has been embroiled in a controversy over spam. The campaign’s Texas affiliate apologized earlier this year for spamming, saying “from now on, only people who personally sign up for our e-mail lists, contribute money, volunteer or sign a petition will receive e-mails from Dean for Texas.” ...
The Dean campaign did not immediately respond to questions about which e-mail contractors it hired, what kind of “opt-in” lists the contractors promised, or how many people’s in-boxes were affected.
I try to stay away from Dean News on this Blog but, this is a story that directly affected me, so here's my take on this...
I received not one, not two, not three but about a dozen of these Dean SPAMS. I own two ecommerce websites that were spidered for email addresses to use to send out these Unsolicited Emails. Even after I tried to Unsubscribe to these lists that I never joined using my business related email addresses, I still received more Dean SPAM.
As an internet-based business owner, I personally feel that SPAM is the lowest of low forms of Direct Marketing. Because I own two domain names that each utilize multiple email addresses, I receive at least 2000 emails a day that are SPAM. I spend a good part of the day wading through these on a regular basis.
If I am web savvy enough to know better than to use these Email Marketing services, and Dean has such a web savvy team, what happened here?
The Vendors Lied?
posted by Pamela J. Leavey at 5:17 PM
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