Anyone else being apparently being spamed by 'Alpha Digital'?

[Dave]

I've recently started receiving emails from Alpha Digital offering me
Sun kit. They have a notice at the bottom:

"We do not wish to offend any one, if you require your details to be
excluded from further E-Mails & Offers please reply to:
***@alpha-digital.co.uk with the word REMOVE in the subject header"

So, I thought I'd give them the chance and I replied, with REMOVE in the
subject line. But still the spam comes in.

I'm not sure if it is from them, or perhaps someone claiming to be, as
the originating IP is not even close to that of their domain name. But
my guess is it probably is them.

So if anyone from Alpha Digital is looking at this, please check the
REMOVE emails you have received (sent 29th of October) and remove me
from your mailing list.

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Post by Dave
I've recently started receiving emails from Alpha Digital offering me
"We do not wish to offend any one, if you require your details to be
So, I thought I'd give them the chance and I replied, with REMOVE in the
subject line. But still the spam comes in.
I'm not sure if it is from them, or perhaps someone claiming to be, as
the originating IP is not even close to that of their domain name. But
my guess is it probably is them.
So if anyone from Alpha Digital is looking at this, please check the
REMOVE emails you have received (sent 29th of October) and remove me
from your mailing list.

Replying to spam, even with a "remove" request is a risky thing to do at
best!! Any reply or unsubscribe request verifies that a human being
read the spam and, therefore, the address is valid and mail is read by
humans. You risk getting MORE spam.

At the very least, inspect the header to assure yourself that the
originating IP address matches that of the ostensible sender.

[Dave]

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Replying to spam, even with a "remove" request is a risky thing to do at
best!! Any reply or unsubscribe request verifies that a human being
read the spam and, therefore, the address is valid and mail is read by
humans. You risk getting MORE spam.

I do know this, but sometimes I wonder if its better to ask to be
removed. At least they are not the viagra type.

I did contact them some years back, but I have never asked to be on
their mailing list. They quoted me some silly prices then, so I never
bought anything.

I've had about 20 emails since 2006, but 7 of them have been in the last
10 days. So they seem to have stepped up the rate a bit, which is why I
want to get rid of them.

[Giorgos Keramidas]

Post by Dave

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Replying to spam, even with a "remove" request is a risky
thing to do at best!! Any reply or unsubscribe request
verifies that a human being read the spam and, therefore, the
address is valid and mail is read by humans. You risk getting
MORE spam.

I do know this, but sometimes I wonder if its better to ask to
be removed. At least they are not the viagra type.
I did contact them some years back, but I have never asked to
be on their mailing list. They quoted me some silly prices
then, so I never bought anything.
I've had about 20 emails since 2006, but 7 of them have been in
the last 10 days. So they seem to have stepped up the rate a
bit, which is why I want to get rid of them.

Receiving email because you are on a 'list', which you have never
asked to be a part of, is as "spammy" as one can get.

One random post in several years is probably ok to ignore it is
properly flagged by spamassassin and filtered. Seven posts in 10
days are, in my book, a good enough reason to block the sender's
domain in my `/etc/mail/access' and promptly forget they ever
existed :P

[Doug McIntyre]

"Richard B. Gilbert" <***@comcast.net> writes:
..

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Replying to spam, even with a "remove" request is a risky thing to do at
best!! Any reply or unsubscribe request verifies that a human being
read the spam and, therefore, the address is valid and mail is read by
humans. You risk getting MORE spam.

No true SPAM has a legit return address, nor does SPAM typically come
with a remove link either.

True SPAM is just blasted out, they don't care if it gets delivered or
not, they don't care if you get removed, or added, or whatnot. Its
just blast blast blast. They couldn't deal with the bounces if it was
a real legit mailbox, most often the return address is set to another
victom anyway.

OOTH, there's plenty of legit sites out there ready to sign you up &
share your name and email. But they have legit remove links, and it
really does remove your name from *their* list, not necessarily the
ones they bought your name from, or sold your name again to. My Mom
signs up for a lot of this junk, and following the remove links when
I'm in a generous mood does cut back on the amount she gets like crazy.

[Dave]

Post by Doug McIntyre
..

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Replying to spam, even with a "remove" request is a risky thing to do at
best!! Any reply or unsubscribe request verifies that a human being
read the spam and, therefore, the address is valid and mail is read by
humans. You risk getting MORE spam.

No true SPAM has a legit return address, nor does SPAM typically come
with a remove link either.

I don't agree with that. I have seen plenty of spam that comes with
removes links. I think it makes it look good, and if challenged in court
they could at least say they did not want to spam people, but they are
sorry their removal mechanism broke down.

Post by Doug McIntyre
True SPAM is just blasted out, they don't care if it gets delivered or
not, they don't care if you get removed, or added, or whatnot. Its
just blast blast blast. They couldn't deal with the bounces if it was
a real legit mailbox, most often the return address is set to another
victom anyway.

In this case, the return address (***@alpha-digital.co.uk) is valid.

It is a company I have dealt with before. He knows my name. But I've
never asked to be put on his mailing list.

I thought he might have had the decency to remove me when I asked, but
that is not so.

Post by Doug McIntyre
OOTH, there's plenty of legit sites out there ready to sign you up &
share your name and email. But they have legit remove links, and it
really does remove your name from *their* list, not necessarily the
ones they bought your name from, or sold your name again to. My Mom
signs up for a lot of this junk, and following the remove links when
I'm in a generous mood does cut back on the amount she gets like crazy.

One can at least track who done it by using a unique email address. I
have not done that ofnent, but once nealt with these people

http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/

not wishing to be spammed, I used an email address of pcnextday@ a
domain I own. I never got any spam from them, but had i done so, it
would have been easy to trace.

I don't know of anyone taking legal action against spammers, but lets
say I get fed up with the stuff from alpha-digital, I could quite easily
pay an IT firm £100 or so, to get me removed. Next I send them a bill
for £100. If they don't pay, I go to court through the small claims
track. I suspect they pay up at that point, but if not, a court might
well rule against them. I can imagine they would be a bit more careful
in that case of ensuring their removal procedures worked!

[Jim Leonard]

Post by Dave

Post by Doug McIntyre
No true SPAM has a legit return address, nor does SPAM typically come
with a remove link either.

I don't agree with that. I have seen plenty of spam that comes with
removes links.

It is the dirty little secret of that industry that the "remove me"
links/processes are actually used to confirm a real human at the other
end of the address. If you click/respond, they know your address is
valid and that you are receiving the spam.

[Huge]

Post by Jim Leonard

Post by Dave

Post by Doug McIntyre
No true SPAM has a legit return address, nor does SPAM typically come
with a remove link either.

I don't agree with that. I have seen plenty of spam that comes with
removes links.

It is the dirty little secret of that industry that the "remove me"
links/processes are actually used to confirm a real human at the other
end of the address. If you click/respond, they know your address is
valid and that you are receiving the spam.

It is, after all, the defining characteristic of spammers; they are liars.

I never, *ever* do business with spammers. Are you listening, SAP, Oracle?

[Cydrome Leader]

Post by Dave

Post by Doug McIntyre
..

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Replying to spam, even with a "remove" request is a risky thing to do at
best!! Any reply or unsubscribe request verifies that a human being
read the spam and, therefore, the address is valid and mail is read by
humans. You risk getting MORE spam.

No true SPAM has a legit return address, nor does SPAM typically come
with a remove link either.

I don't agree with that. I have seen plenty of spam that comes with
removes links. I think it makes it look good, and if challenged in court
they could at least say they did not want to spam people, but they are
sorry their removal mechanism broke down.

Post by Doug McIntyre
True SPAM is just blasted out, they don't care if it gets delivered or
not, they don't care if you get removed, or added, or whatnot. Its
just blast blast blast. They couldn't deal with the bounces if it was
a real legit mailbox, most often the return address is set to another
victom anyway.

cron a message back to him, at say 1000 messages every hour. request they
opt out.

I've had results with this technique before.

[John Schmidt]

Post by Cydrome Leader
cron a message back to him, at say 1000 messages every hour. request they
opt out.

Because two wrongs make a right, correct?

JS

[Cydrome Leader]

Post by John Schmidt

Post by Cydrome Leader
cron a message back to him, at say 1000 messages every hour. request they
opt out.

Because two wrongs make a right, correct?

It not a wrong, it's a solution.

they spammed me, I asked for them to stop until they agreed. It's pretty
simple.

I also have a spam forwarding system that forwards spam from places that
sold my email address that I used for contact with a company (a unique
address for each company) back to addresses at other companies that did
the same. It's spam delegation, and not my problem, but something for
asshole companies to deal with among themselves.

[John Schmidt]

Post by Cydrome Leader

Post by John Schmidt

Post by Cydrome Leader
cron a message back to him, at say 1000 messages every hour. request they
opt out.

Because two wrongs make a right, correct?

It not a wrong, it's a solution.

"1000 messages every hour" is a solution?

JS

[Dave]

Post by John Schmidt
"1000 messages every hour" is a solution?
JS

In case anyone missed this, they have now removed me from their mailing
list, and apologised my initial request to be removed was overlooked. I
did not appreciate being added to their mailing list without asking to
be on it, but at least they have stopped.

[Cydrome Leader]

Post by John Schmidt

Post by Cydrome Leader

Post by John Schmidt

Post by Cydrome Leader
cron a message back to him, at say 1000 messages every hour. request they
opt out.

Because two wrongs make a right, correct?

It not a wrong, it's a solution.

"1000 messages every hour" is a solution?
JS

It gets attention pretty fast.

[Dave]

Post by Cydrome Leader

Post by John Schmidt

Post by Cydrome Leader
It not a wrong, it's a solution.

"1000 messages every hour" is a solution?
JS

It gets attention pretty fast.

Perhaps not from who you want though - your ISP is quite likely to give
it some attention.

[Cydrome Leader]

Post by Dave

Post by Cydrome Leader

Post by John Schmidt

Post by Cydrome Leader
It not a wrong, it's a solution.

"1000 messages every hour" is a solution?
JS

It gets attention pretty fast.

Perhaps not from who you want though - your ISP is quite likely to give
it some attention.

That's when you "discover" and correct a "misconfigured" script.

It's really not a problem.

[Dave]

Post by Dave
I've recently started receiving emails from Alpha Digital offering me
"We do not wish to offend any one, if you require your details to be
So, I thought I'd give them the chance and I replied, with REMOVE in the
subject line. But still the spam comes in.
I'm not sure if it is from them, or perhaps someone claiming to be, as
the originating IP is not even close to that of their domain name. But
my guess is it probably is them.
So if anyone from Alpha Digital is looking at this, please check the
REMOVE emails you have received (sent 29th of October) and remove me
from your mailing list.

I have an update on this. Today I received some more spam (this time
Cisco kit), for this company, but I sent a reply saying

*** From me to Alpha Digital ***
"Might I suggest you take a look at some recent discussions on
comp.unix.solaris and other newsgroups about your company."
********************************

I quickly got this back:

**From Alpha Digital to me****
"Good morning David,

I have just read the recent discussions and was wondering if you had
written the post on there. If you did I would like to apologise for this
and would never intentionally keep you on my mailing list if you didn’t
wish to be on it. Please reply again with remove if you no longer wish
to receive my special offers.

Also we have done you a few quotes before in the past which is why I
have your details.

I once again apologise if this has in anyway offended you."
*****************************************



Anyway, after a couple of emails hack and forth way, the situation has
been resolved. I am off this persons contacts list.


The final email from him is below:

------
Thanks David your email address has been removed from my contacts list.
However if you do receive any Lists in the future please let me know as
I will look straight into this.

Thank you for letting me know about your posts and I hope you will let
every one know we have come to a happy conclusion.
-------

I've received the odd mailing from others in the company over the years,
but very small volumes of it, so I was not too bothered.

I guess whether you believe it is OK to add someone to a mailing list as
a result of them making a sales inquiry is a matter of opinion. It is
not one I agree with myself, but at least they have had the decency to
reply now and remove me.

dave