Name & Shame Companies That Spam

A question about : Name & Shame Companies That Spam

I would like to suggest a campaign to name and shame companies guilty of spamming. I realise most people may not be aware where the spam they get comes from, but for many years I have used Sneakemail addresses to create a unique address for each place I submit an email address, so I have been keeping an eye on what happens.

One thing I have found is that contacting companies to let them know there is a problem seems to yield no results at all - the spam keeps coming, so I have to delete the address and start again or just delete and avoid the source from then on. However, this does not help anybody other than me and I find it quite frustrating and time consuming that they keep getting away with it.

I can certainly recommend the service provided by Sneakemail very highly for this reason. I just find it frustrating that despite having evidence of spamming it is still difficult to bring those responsible to account. I know I can go and delete the addresses, but that is not the point. We trust these companies with our details and this trust is abused and the law is being broken.

Secret Escapes is currently the source of floods of spam, usually with a ZIP attached and with text along the lines of my new photo.

Chemist Direct has in the past been the source of so much spam I contacted them about it. They denied all knowledge. I had to delete the address and generate a new one when I ordered from them again. This address once again was targeted by spam in short order. I no longer support this company. If you must use them, do not trust them with an important email address.

I would be interested to hear feedback from other money savers about this suggestion and indeed if others use Sneakemail, maybe we can build this list to help those who do not use it identify possible sources of spam.

Best answers:

• Gets my vote. Good Idea.
• Hi makintracks
  Sounds like you've been doing some good investigative work here!
  Please feel free to report any other findings in this thread and others may do the same.
  The thread may also come up in search to help other people with scam evading tips. Our guide may have some general tips too https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/no-more-junk
  We'll keep an eye on the thread here at MSE Towers but this looks like a good campaign for forumites to work on together!
• The Fragrance Shop.
  I bought 1 bottle of perfume and signed up their newsletter to get a couple of quid off.
  Within 2 days I started getting about 2 email a week from them, then it increased to about 4 a week.
  Then I realised that there was an 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of the emails. Phew!
• Spamming has reached such endemic proportions and is so thoroughly international in its character that sadly it is never going to be stopped. However where reputable companies use it, usually through third party agencies, they should be exposed and their practices used against them. Well done and best of luck in your efforts
• Be very careful. Many of these companies we may judge to be "spamming" may actually have our consent from the signup process, or a privacy policy. Often they include an 'unsubscribe' link in each email that they send.
  A lot of spam is sent to promote legitimate companies without their knowledge or approval. This is because of 'affiliate programs' - where almost any website owner can be given a referral link with an identifier in it, and they'll be paid a commission for each user they refer. Companies often have no idea who their affiliates are because it is often managed by another company, and the number of affiliates makes it very difficult to police (although they do try). Spammers are often spreading their own link to try and earn commission, while making the email appear to be from the retailer.
  I'm concerned that this will turn into "naming and shaming" innocent companies for emails that people have actually signed up for when they didn't read a signup form, or that we'll be unfairly accusing companies of spamming when they're not.
• but sometimes it is people they employ and are unaware of some of the bad tactics used but people do in mosr circumstances sign up
• Phone spamming is getting worse we need someone to stop this.