For years now I’ve maintained a system where I use a unique email address when I sign up for any particular service. This has helped me to better keep track of emails, and filter the emails.
Its also had the nice side effect of allowing me to see who has sold my email address, been compromised, or spammed me in other ways.
And so, I’ve decided its about time to start calling out these companies (especially the ones which claim to be anti-spam), so here we go! Where possible, I’ve always tried to follow up with the company, and provide explanation below.
I define spam not as newsletters, or reminders - but when I start getting drug, pharmaceutical and penis emails.
A number of my email addresses have been compromised due to security breeches at 3rd parties. The worst has been Aweber. They’re a newsletter provider who has been compromised not just once, but twice, and had their full list of email addresses for all their mailing lists stolen. *sigh*.
Spammed due to aweber compromise:
- appsumo (they no longer use a weber)
- honeyfund (contacted, looking in to Mailchimp)
- YourPitchSucks (unknown)
- Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach.com - probably still using a weber, and appears to recommend aweber
- box.net (now box.com) After joining box.net, my email address is getting spammed
Other:
- vmware forum misconfiguration
I intend to keep this list updated as I discover more.
Disclaimer: yes, I’m embarrassed to have ever been associated with some of these companies.