The Freemasons are Spamming me!
I've started getting emails from a Masonic mailing list that I've certainly never subscribed to. I'm not sure whether it's a fake by a spammer trolling for addresses, or whether it's a legitimate email list with a somewhat clueless admin. Googling on the guy's name turns up a complete blank, but I'm still reluctant to use the 'unsubscribe' link, because too many spammers used fake unsubscribes to confirm live addresses.
The message at the bottom implies a clueless list administrator.
Let me remind you again that I try very hard to keep people off the list that don't want to be on there in the first place, and if they do end up on there accidentally, I get them off the list as quickly as possible. If you sent in a request to be removed and you're still getting this email, please, read the information at the bottom. It's as simple as that. Big fonts, cussing, threats, etc.. have no impact on getting you removed. :)
A lot of clues in there to indicate that false subscribes are a major problem for his list. Has this guy never heard of double opt-ins or confirmation emails? The longwinded unsubscribe stuff at the bottom does make it look as though he's maintaining the thing by hand.
If you get emails after you've asked to be removed it means one of several things1. I didn't get your request to remove you.
This happens OFTEN, I am sad to report. Just because you sent it and it didn't bounce back to you, does NOT mean that I got your email. Try sending it again.
2. You have more than one address on the list that needs to be removed.
VERY, VERY common!! The email address YOU enter into YOUR email program (such as Outlook Express) is simply the email address you type in. I have had MANY people make a mistake in typing their email address into THEIR system which means that when I try to remove your address from my list, I can't find it -- because it's not on there. As an example - If my real email address is [email protected] but I ACCIDENTALLY enter my email address as xxxx@xxxxxxxx (the E is missing) then when someone hits "REPLY" their email will go to [email protected]. I will NOT get that email.
3. Someone is forwarding my emails to you.
I can't control them. Sorry....
4. You email me to remove you from a DIFFERENT EMAIL ADDRESS than the one on the list.
This happens ALLLLLLL the time! If you get my emails at work and you email me from your home, it's your HOME address that shows up on my computer. I MUST have the email addresses that you use so I can gladly remove them, please.
5. BIGGEST PET PEEVE OF MINE ---
I have had people SWEAR to me that they didn't have any other email addresses. I would search and search for their address but I wouldn't be able to find it. FINALLY, they would say something like - "Oh yeah -- I DO get mail at (insert an email address they NEVER told me about before.) If you EVER get email at an address, it MIGHT be on the list. If you get email from me after you asked to be removed, you MUST send me the emails that you use so I can accommodate your request. This is a free service project which takes a lot of my time. I love providing this information to the Fraternity. But I will no longer play "hunt and seek" for email addresses. I can and will ONLY remove email addresses which you provide to me. I can't spend all day trying to guess which email address you MIGHT have that you forgot to mention to me.
I maintain a very strict "remove" policy. When asked to remove an address, I remove it immediately.
If for some reason you can't get an email through to me, just drop me a note at: some PO box in Texas I will reply.
The bottom line is simple - I ONLY want people on this list that WANT to be on it. If you don't want to be on it, please let me know. This newsletter goes around the world. I'd like to spend my time sending it to folks who want it.
I expect better things from mailing lists adminstered by people called Carl. Anyone else been getting these?
Posted by TimHall at June 04, 2006 01:22 PM | TrackBackMost of those are actually pretty legitimate problems. We're just quieter about it at the Phoenyx... even with a confirmation scheme, people are often convinced that we're spamming them.
1. This can happen very easily if you're not running your own mail server. Upstream spam blockers are nice as long as you don't mind false positives.
2. This is a real problem. People forget they subscribed with address #1, which is forwarded to address #2, and if site #1 strips the original names out of the Received headers, well, it's just a blind carbon and we have no way of guessing at where it's coming from.
3. Same here, only it means guy with address #1 accidentally typed address #3 into his forwarder, which is worse because at least in the previous situation, the guy might eventually remember he has address #1, especially when we can usually at least say "it's coming through AOL." In this case, though we have had to resort to emailing each and every AOL subscriber with a "this message was sent to address X" until the unlucky recipient got one.
4. This is pretty much the same as sitation 2.
5. Yeah, that happens. What's better, though, is when somebody says "I NEVER SIGNED UP FOR THIS WHY AM I GETTING MAIL?!?!??!" and we can pull up both their request and confirmation and present them with the headers and politely ask "Shall we send these to your ISP admin then, because it appears someone has been using your account without your permission?" Nine times out of ten, they don't even answer us after that, which is really disappointing.
All of this has tapered off in recent years, though, which I attribute to the fact that the only people who subscribe at all anymore know about mailing lists, and the rest wander off to web forums and blogs. Which means, I guess, that we'll start attracting them again soon. Remind me again why I'd want to do that?
Posted by: Karen on June 4, 2006 03:21 PMMy complaint on this one is that I've never signed up to this list. No 'you must have forgotten you signed up'. I have no interest in the subject and have never even visited any Freemasonty sites.
I can only assume he's not confirming subscribes (like The Phoenyx and every reputable site does), and my email address has been subscribed either accidentally by someone mistyping their own address, or maliciously for some reason.
Posted by: Tim Hall on June 4, 2006 04:42 PMYeah, he's guilty on that count, but that didn't really become a mandatory thing until the advent of spam-viruses that forged From lines from compromised machines' address books... and if he's manually maintaining the list, I'm sure he feels he can just ignore those. And mostly, he can... mistyping is relatively rare, and malicious is gonna get in no matter what. Heck, you can bypass the Phoenyx' confirmation if you just put a little effort into it: sign up a disposable address, confirm from it, then request an address change. Comes a point when extra "security" isn't worth the extra trouble for legitimate users.
At any rate, I imagine it's just a case of "let's yank the Mason's chain..." I've found myself subscribed to, or at least getting confirmations from, the occasional fringe mailing list, and it's generally pretty obvious that somebody's hassling a technologically struggling list owner. Hasn't happened to a Phoenyx list yet, probably because we don't look like an easy mark, and because roleplaying isn't an overly controversial subject. Or, well, it can be, but roleplaying fruitbats tend to be different from political or religious fruitbats, and seem to feel less compelled to take down sites they disagree with.
Its a real mailing list for masons I get it. I am sure its just an error.
Posted by: Martin Faulks on August 4, 2006 02:42 PM