I get unsolicited messages through the contact form… and of course… thats what its there for.
But when a publicly traded company fails this bad and spamming contact forms… Can you spot whats wrong ?
Now maybe its just me… but I would think the company who just settled a FTC lawsuit for 2.9 MILLION dollars for violating the Can Spam Act (the largest ever) and has pledged to completely change their spammy ways would be a little more careful. NAAAAAAAAH
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2412 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 87 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, there’s a good chance they will now after the public exposure on this blog!
Just to add to Justin’s comment. Outing them on Twitter should also get their attention.
someone is about to lose their job…
How much do you think they pay that guy to copy/paste? Unreal.
Matt
More than you’d ever believe
The company is getting free exposure for a mistake, well done.
I think that someone is named Mark Brown.
And possible, Mark Brown’s boss.
Yeah, I think so too Diane.
Oh dear value click thats pretty low for a big firm
Well outed Shoe
That’s lame! You would think these guys would at least make an effort to approach you. I like how he introduces his company like you don’t know who they are.
lol! wow, wow wo! this is just ridiculous! are they doing that bad they need to spam their way to profits? whew!
oh and in case Mr.Brown didn’t know -I think there’s a pretty good chance u just lost your job .
I don’t really mean to laugh at the guy because I feel bad for him (I also used the contact form today to call upon Jeremy for a little help), but I checked and rechecked what I sent like 3 times to make sure it made sense.
Funny comment. I literally lol’ed.
Yes luke but when you contacted me you did not have another person in the email ready to spam. Or did u? hrmm
I’ve never considered myself much of a spammer. I am more of an “if you build it they will come” sort of person
ValueClick are certainly not the only ad network resorting to this sort of thing at the moment. I get tonnes of email like this from ad networks I’ve never heard of, plus a few who ought to know better.
lol crazy people!!
I bet every website he sent to had “money” in the url.
Yeah, you know how these spammers roll.
I think the spammer should have titled the message “SET SAIL FOR FAIL!!” LOL!!!
In french we would say “ca passe ou ca casse” it fits or it breaks, well obviousely they decided for the second option here
I’d say it’s a bad economic indicator when “legit” companies resort to spamming. :S
That’s just too funny! He probably sent that email to 100 hundred people today. I hope they all repost his spam for the world to see. Thanks Shoe for the laugh. I also see you’re using cformsII I’ll have to check out that plugin now. I think I’m using easy contact, but I would like a little more diversity in my forms.
Shoe, You should reply back with a link to that FTC Filing. Maybe if all the guys he’s spammed since the First Filing can get PAID!
Well, if he used the contact form, at least he (technically) didn’t lie about looking at shoemoney today
Looks like some under-paid worker got a little too happy with the copy & paste function
I got a message the other day from one of their flunky’s.
Name (blocked out to protect the innocent)
Email (blocked out to protect the innocent)
Message Hello– I came across your site and would like to speak to someone about placing some offers with you and to find out a little bit more about how you operate & how we can work together. I am with Valueclick Media and we have numerous exclusive offers that I’m looking for placement on. If you would please have the appropriate person contact me regarding this, I’d really appreciate it. thanks.
(blocked out to protect the innocent)
idiots……
ROFL! That’s hilarious.
it would suck if you “accidentally” reported this to the FTC incase they kept a log of repeat spammers. Teach this company a lesson.
Ha, that’s bad enough to send the email through the comment form. I hate when companies send copy and paste crap through mine. Even worse to have it exposed on a big blog. But… even worse is how much VCLK stock has fallen!
I wonder if MoneyExtra is getting a ton more traffic now? Maybe Mr. Brown can go over there and get a job now?
OUCH! yeah, that’s gotta sting. Sorry Mr. Brown, maybe a little more thought next time huh?
But when a publicly traded company fails this bad and spamming contact forms… “Can you spot whats wrong ?”
Jeremy, I don’t know the law that well, please enlighten me as to what they did wrong other than the obvious second posting.
TIA,
David G.
Not sure if this is exactly what they did wrong, but I believe the CANSPAM act states you must include in your message the physical address of your company and a way for the recipient to unsubscribe.
However, that ruling is on unsolited email. Mr Brown used the Cform contact which as far as I know would have required that he actually submit the request, and in order to do that in mass would take a lot of time. Not to mention there isn’t anything that ShoeMoney would have to unsubscribe from.
So I’m not sure really what he did wrong, other than the double post, but could that have been a glitch in the Cforms plugin. I know there have been times after submitting a form that I hit the stop button and then send it again in hopes it will go through, only to realize that it posted twice.
Scott, you are absolutely correct.
Technically, this wouldn’t be covered by CAN-SPAM. The message, while spammy, wouldn’t be considered unsolicited email. It was solicited in as much as Jeremy has an open contact form on his site and invites people to use it to contact him for business. It is also an email generated from Jeremy’s server and sent to himself. Unless Jeremy plans on suing himself (would make for an interesting post), there’s not much more he can do than blog about it.
Oh blimey, manager Mark Brown has certainly lost his job… unless of course that name too is fictitious. This is one of those times when just saying the statement “to err is human and to forgive divine” won’t save Mark Brown. Pity.
His spam just reached thousands more people through this post….
Yes, Craig, too bad for him, really. I will like a follow up on how this ends up. Jeremy, do let us know if you hear anything further from them, eh?
uh oh… looks like someone is in trouble!
YIKES!
Is it considered spam if they use a contact form?
Mr. Shoe…. Are you using a plugin to turn your post into tweets? If so which one is it?
Thank You Sir..
the message is that spam is no good and doing it is worse. it seems every affilite company on earth does that and bless their soul because they make money. that green stuff is something else!
SPAM! Arg, it really disgusts me when people spam contact forms. I get it all the time on one of my other sites and it really bugs me. >.>
That was a great idea Diane had about outing them on Twitter… I love how you just showed it off to 32,000+ people too!
I like my SPAM with eggs, thank you – NOT in my contact forms!! lol
Danelle Ice (Homemaker Barbi)
SPAM again… thats really bad for that guy and also now its being spread to other guys also
crazy!
really bad strategy for promotion
That is hilarious. Did you reply?
I don’t know why people do such things. Credibility is most important for any company. really bad…
You are right, but the truth is that most companies do things like this that are seen as not align with credibility… it’s just that they hide it very well. I remember hearing this statement – all fish eat human flesh, but it’s the shark that gets a bad name,
That’s really unprofessional…You think they could do a little better in trying to get some people on their side.
lol that is horrible
That’s hilarious. Maybe that guy needs to lay off the sauce when he’s spamming.
LOL. That is hilarious.
lmao what a fail
i hate spam and spammer but i didn’t see it in contact form ( maybe because i don’t have any contact form in my website”s” ) .
I wonder what they would do once they see this post.!
Dennis,
Dude, take your gorgeous wife and beautiful kids on a vacation. I’m not talking about your typical working pimp yourself vacation. I am talking about a vacation where you go without your friggin t-shirts and pimping for the almighty buck. Just a fun vacation with your family. I think you owe them that big shot, even if it kills you!
pretty funny – it’s likely ust a team overseas doing tedious bus dev email work for you. I doubt he actually wrote that himself
That’s pretty funny. I wonder how many sites he submitted his paragraph to in one day?
Nice… You know if he would have taken the time to actually contact you, he would have probably been rejected (because you manage your own ad inventory). But he would have had the opportunity to build a relationship, and that is what really matters in business. Not only has “Mark Brown” (if that’s even a real person) lost that opportunity, you have exposed him as a spammer. Gotta love that…
Haha that is funny. How said.
How sad*
Spamming contact forms? Yuck. You would think he would of learned his lesson and move on, lol!
This is quite funny.
Did you replied to Value Click back ?
Wow, I guess the burn of losing a few billion dollars didn’t last that long…
Ya i also agree with that spamming will be stopped.
Hey,
Some did you reply and what did you say?
Lol….what the heck. Lesson learned here is, when you are spamming, triple check your email.
PS : in other way, why you must spam others if your website really make so much $$$
What a pity… I think he not know you..
A famous blogger…
o great this is just so strange. I wonder how many sites he submitted his paragraph to in one day?
I think companies are just getting desperate right now to pull in business.
Hopefully we will get rid of all these networks thanks to this crisis.
They must really want your busy to send a rookie to your site and try to solicit business or they are desperate!
Great post
They wouldn’t have to spam to get new members if they hadn’t royally screwed affiliates back in the day, see this thread:
http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27952
Perhaps it is some kind of phising email. In these kinds of companies you don’t get paid until you reach a quantity, for example $100, so you put the adds and then you reach the $100, the person who has sent the email dissapears and you don’t get the commissions.
Damn spammers..
I didn’t know there was any Can Spam act, but it doesn’t seem to be working….
I don’t think they’re the first to use spamming as a mean to attract attention.
Wasn’t it valueclick who got a lawsuit action against themselves? Or not?
Looks like a bit of lazy lead generation to me. I would think that if I was targeting one of the top bloggers (someone who could generate a large commission for me), I would take 10 minutes and craft a unique email.
That is too funny, how can they still send out spam after that and plus it looks like its all just copy and pasted
Annoying – yes. Rookie mistake – yes. CAN SPAM violation? Not so much. First, CAN SPAM is fundamentally an opt-out law. So, any emails prior to an unsub requests are ok unless the names were harvested, stolen, etc. Also, the intent of CS is to govern mass communictions, not 1:1 messages from sales people. Some debate on this but the FTC’s been pretty consistent about leaving it alone at this point.
He surely have done mistaken here, as he copy paste the same word twice. Why would he have to do that??
You’re a jerk, Jeremy. Everyone makes honest mistakes and this is obviously one of those moments. Where we show our true colors is in how we react…don’t you think Mark has a family? What goes around, comes around…
I think Mark Brown will do just fine… maybe he’ll just be a pittle less copy/paste happy in future
LMFAO, great names! How bout Ben Dover??