Test of E-mail File Halted Amid Append Service Concerns
VentureDirect Worldwide, NY, has halted the test of a file appended with e-mail addresses, citing industry concerns about the use of append services.
The appending of the addresses to the DAK Industries Inc. file had been conducted to “examine and test” a particular append service, said Henry DiSciullo, vice president of list services at VentureDirect. The result was the 55,378-name DAK Industries Inc. Opt-in E-mail file
The test was to be confined to one or two invited direct marketers, but news of the test had mistakenly been sent to MIN, DiSciullo said. MIN announced the file in an e-mail sent Aug. 22 to a select group listed on its data card dispatch database, and the list was also posted on MIN’s electronic service. The announcement named Xactmail.com, a division of VentureDirect, as the contact for the file.
DiSciullo said the file is not managed by Xactmail.com, but rather owned by VentureDirect employee David Brill, who agreed to use the file for the test.
“Xactmail in no way represents or is involved with lists that are not fully opted-in and they are not appended e-mail lists,” DiSciullo said.
E-mail append services have been under scrutiny by industry watchdog groups such as Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC (MAPS), Redwood City, CA. Following pressure from MAPS this summer Walter Karl, Pearl River, NY, discontinued operating its e-mail append service.
MAPS considers such services “spam support.”
The DAK catalog buyers file has confused people before with its multiple versions and when it reappeared in Tuesday’s announcement, confusion arose again. (See “DAK Catalog Buyers Make Another Appearance,” DIRECT Newsline Aug. 23.)
The original DAK Industries Inc., catalog file of millions was owned by Drew Kaplan, president of the new startup DAK.com, an electronic and information site. The file was sold to Brill during DAK Industries bankruptcy proceedings.
