Well, that's a clear violation of the CAN-SPAM U.S. Federal Law if there ever was one. The penalty for sending spam like that is $16,000 USD per violation with no limits enforceable by the FTC (i.e. if they send a mere 1,000 such messages, that's punishable for $16 million USD). And the Federal government sure could use the cash right now.
But it seems like you could do some exciting things with that form. Fill it in with: 'abuse@ theirwebhostingprovider.com' (whoever their provider is) in an Incognito window from a different WiFi network than yours and see what happens. If their system sends an automated email about breast pumps to their own hosting provider's abuse department, that will be quite difficult to explain away! "Um, we sent that message...because...um...we'll have to get back to you on that..."
On the other hand they could be in range of law where they have the right to keep these things and send such emails. Some sites have Terms & Conditions which makes them avoid these kind of things. I don't think this can go directly under CAN-SPAM. You actually went to the site filled in email yourself willingly giving away the address. Now it might be in T&C on their site that you accept such thing if you proceed.
Problem for them might be that you didn't press "I accept / agree / Allow ..." and they just have the info somewhere hidden which I'm unsure how much would it make an issue for them.
It doesn't read to me as of they read the email address out of the form. What I think was going on is that he had freely given his email address to another customer of AddShoppers and AddShoppers passed it on to Aeroflow. So the problem is either browser fingerprinting or third party cookies. My bet is on the cookies.
Very true, Im sure they are not allowed to sell their platform to Canadian companies, I wish we had the same protection in the US but unfortunately we do not. I used to work for a couple of popular email marketing platforms and honestly the people who are buying this companies services/platform are idiots. This is a terrible way to target new customers. No one responds to spam mail well, the amount of click thru's and actual ROI you would see from a platform like this has to be very very low. You make a great point also that half of the data that they do acquire is most likely dirty data that isn't even useful! This is essentially a very legal scam.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
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Well, that's a clear violation of the CAN-SPAM U.S. Federal Law if there ever was one. The penalty for sending spam like that is $16,000 USD per violation with no limits enforceable by the FTC (i.e. if they send a mere 1,000 such messages, that's punishable for $16 million USD). And the Federal government sure could use the cash right now.
But it seems like you could do some exciting things with that form. Fill it in with: 'abuse@ theirwebhostingprovider.com' (whoever their provider is) in an Incognito window from a different WiFi network than yours and see what happens. If their system sends an automated email about breast pumps to their own hosting provider's abuse department, that will be quite difficult to explain away! "Um, we sent that message...because...um...we'll have to get back to you on that..."
They use liquidweb.com for those wondering!
Super funny, love it, it's basically trolling.
On the other hand they could be in range of law where they have the right to keep these things and send such emails. Some sites have Terms & Conditions which makes them avoid these kind of things. I don't think this can go directly under CAN-SPAM. You actually went to the site filled in email yourself willingly giving away the address. Now it might be in T&C on their site that you accept such thing if you proceed.
Problem for them might be that you didn't press "I accept / agree / Allow ..." and they just have the info somewhere hidden which I'm unsure how much would it make an issue for them.
It doesn't read to me as of they read the email address out of the form. What I think was going on is that he had freely given his email address to another customer of AddShoppers and AddShoppers passed it on to Aeroflow. So the problem is either browser fingerprinting or third party cookies. My bet is on the cookies.
Very true, Im sure they are not allowed to sell their platform to Canadian companies, I wish we had the same protection in the US but unfortunately we do not. I used to work for a couple of popular email marketing platforms and honestly the people who are buying this companies services/platform are idiots. This is a terrible way to target new customers. No one responds to spam mail well, the amount of click thru's and actual ROI you would see from a platform like this has to be very very low. You make a great point also that half of the data that they do acquire is most likely dirty data that isn't even useful! This is essentially a very legal scam.