E-mails to this newsletter just keep getting curiouser and curiouser, and they’re raising serious questions about data sellers EmailAppenders.
An article that appeared in this newsletter recently detailing a dispute in which Javelin Marketing claimed it spent $14,000 on a garbage list of e-mail names from EmailAppenders prompted two e-mails from an apparent representative of EmailAppenders requesting the piece be taken down.
Or at least that’s what it seems he or she is asking. Here are portions of the e-mails reproduced verbatim.
“Please check the above article promoted in your website. Here one of our competitor posting negative comments on our company. Which is damaging our online reputation,” said the first request, referring to a link to the article included in the message.
“The person who promoted this press release is already black listed and cheated many people. Who is damaging our reputation in the industry,” the message continued, apparently referring to a negative press release Javelin Marketing published during its dispute with EmailAppenders. “We are the people who are in the market from 13 years,” the message added.
“Please don't allow such kind of people to post in your reputed portal which may create negative impact on your visitors.”
The message was e-mailed from Devin.Juan@gmail.com and signed “Devin.”
The next day a second request to remove the article arrived, also from Devin.Juan@gmail.com, but signed Prakash Kotian.
“As per my previous mail once again i am informing you about the articles which published in your site,” the message said. “Please try to remove the article which will damage our online reputation in the market.”
Interestingly, around the time the requests to take the EmailAppenders piece down arrived, e-mails began arriving from someone claiming to be a disgruntled former customer of EmailAppenders, alleging that EmailAppenders has no physical offices in the U.S—that it operates virtually out of India.
Bob Richards, the marketing director of Javelin Marketing, said he never dealt with an EmailAppenders representative in person, just by e-mail and phone. He also said last week he has yet to see any of the refund he is demanding from EmailAppenders.
According to anti-spam outfit Spamhaus’s ROKSO list, or Register of Known Spam Operations, a company called “Data Champions/Sloan Marketing” operates EmailAppenders.com and EmailAppenders.net. They are among at least 51 domains it operates, or has operated, according to Spamhaus. The Web sites listed on Spamhaus as operated by Data Champions—those that still work—are for the most part strikingly similar.
Data Champions is a “long-running spamhaus based in India,” according to Spamhaus.
EmailAppenders.com lists its U.S. operations at 2753 Broadway, suite 178, in New York City.
EmailAppendersWeb.com and EmailAppendersOnline.com—both identical to EmailAppenders.com except for the minor name changes—also list their U.S. address at 2753 Broadway in New York.
A Google Maps check of the New York address shows a street-level photo of a local law office, a “SMOKE” shop and a UPS store. A search of UPS’s online store locator lists one at 2753 Broadway in New York. Reached by telephone, a UPS employee at the store verified the address and said there are no offices above the location, just apartments.
The employee said the UPS store does rent out mailboxes, however, so EmailAppenders’ U.S. operations could be a rented UPS mailbox.
Also, 2753 Broadway is between 105th and 106th Streets, an extremely odd location for an international Internet business. It is in a residential neighborhood. Internet marketing related businesses in New York City are generally located below 23rd Street.
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Moreover, according to Spamhaus, the same people who operate EmailAppenders operate OptInBuilders.com and SixChannels.com. Both sites list their U.S. operations at 5715 Will Clayton, Humble, TX.
A Google Maps search of that address returns a street-level photo of an empty lot.
Also according to Spamhaus, the same people who operate EmailAppenders operate ListGalaxy.com, which lists its U.S. operations as being at Dept. # 511292, 16420 Valley View Ave., La Mirada, CA.
A Google Maps search of this address reveals it is unlikely it exists. It returns a photo of some railroad tracks and the lower part of a billboard.
Some of the Web sites the people who operate EmailAppenders also operate, according to Spamhaus, list U.S. addresses that look like they probably house businesses, but still seem odd choices for international data-selling firms.
For example, according to Spamhaus, the same people who operate EmailAppenders also operate SalesBrowser.com, which lists its U.S. operations as located at 14781 Memorial Drive, Houston, TX.
A Google Maps search for that address brings back a photo of a four-lane road lined with a strip mall and other local businesses.
Also, according to Spamhaus, the same people who operate EmailAppenders operate EventGain.com and OptInMailOnline.com, both of which list their U.S. operations at 2370 Market Street in San Francisco.
A Google Maps search of that address brings up a photo of a quaint business district with local shops.
Other Web sites operated by the people who operate EmailAppenders, according Spamhaus, offer no physical address information, but are strikingly similar to those that do. And many of those that do offer physical address information list their Asian headquarters at various addresses in Bangalore India.
Two e-mails to “Devin” and one to Ian Cooper, president of new business development for EmailAppenders, asking for comment on the firm’s Spamhaus listing and seemingly non-existent U.S. addresses were unanswered at deadline.
