Recumbent spam?



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Joao De Souza

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Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?
 
rorschandt wrote:
>
>
> I did too. If you follow the links you will eventually connect directly to the real culprit, Rans.
> I don't even like Rans, and now I'm getting SPAM from them. Ugh.

Not quite. There are some links to Sun Cycles as well. It looks like the store doing the spamming
doesn't have a website of their own, so they used the links to the bikes' descriptions straight from
the manufacturers' sites.
 
You got it! That's what this store is doing. I wish all this spam would go away. I spend lots of
time deleting garbage, even with a spam blocker.

"Joao de Souza" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> rorschandt wrote:
> >
> >
> > I did too. If you follow the links you will eventually connect directly
to
> > the real culprit, Rans. I don't even like Rans, and now I'm getting SPAM from them. Ugh.
>
> Not quite. There are some links to Sun Cycles as well. It looks like the store doing the spamming
> doesn't have a website of their own, so they used the links to the bikes' descriptions straight
> from the manufacturers' sites.
 
John Riley <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Joao De Souza wrote:
> > Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?
>
>
>
> Yes

I didn't....BUT I know where in Arkansas it probably came from. I suspect I would have gotten the
email too but I think I'm in his filter/kill file for poking fun at one of his posts several
years ago.
 
Joao de Souza wrote:

> Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?
>

Yes.

I'm on the board of my cycle club and the address is published, and I seem to be getting more
cycling-related SPAM. This one probably harvested addresses straight off UseNet. If it looks like a
legit business I'll do the unsubscribe once, otherwise it gets submitted to the anti-SPAM service.
I'd never heard of these guys before and the 'to' was fiddled with, so it got the full SPAM
treatment. I hope they waste a lot of time getting un-blacklisted...
 
In article <[email protected]>, John Foltz <[email protected]> wrote:

> Joao de Souza wrote:
>
> > Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?
> >
>
> Yes.
>
> I'm on the board of my cycle club and the address is published, and I seem to be getting more
> cycling-related SPAM. This one probably harvested addresses straight off UseNet. If it looks like
> a legit business I'll do the unsubscribe once, otherwise it gets submitted to the anti-SPAM
> service. I'd never heard of these guys before and the 'to' was fiddled with, so it got the full
> SPAM treatment. I hope they waste a lot of time getting un-blacklisted...

My usual approach to somebody like this is to report them to the vendor. I've had more than a few
vendors issue "cease & desist" orders to resellers this way. Resellers clean up fast when their
major suppliers threaten to pull the plug.

-Carl
 
Joao de Souza <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?

Yes I got that email too. I will send them a "polite" reply to please not repeat it.

Edward Wong Orlando, FL
 
rorschandt wrote:
>
> I did too. If you follow the links you will eventually connect directly to the real culprit, Rans.
> I don't even like Rans, and now I'm getting SPAM from them. Ugh.

How do you feel about RANS?

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side)
 
Tom Sherman <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> rorschandt wrote:
> >
> > I did too. If you follow the links you will eventually connect directly to the real culprit,
> > Rans. I don't even like Rans, and now I'm getting SPAM from them. Ugh.
>
> How do you feel about RANS?
>
> Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side)

Please note that RANS Bikes is in no way associated with the SPAM you are referring to.

Barry RANS Bike Manager
 
Originally posted by Rans Bikes
Please note that RANS Bikes is in no way associated with the SPAM you are referring to.

Barry RANS Bike Manager

True enough. It is from an outfit in Springdale, Arkansas.
 
Joao de Souza <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?

Upfront and foremost, a most-sincerely apologize if we offended anyone. If you were offended please
accept my personal apology. The recumbent bicycle email ad referred to in this thread was from my
shop, Springdale Bicycle in NW Arkansas.

If you don't want on our email list, just email us and we will remove you, conversely, if you do
want on the list let us know that too. RecumbentBill, how could I have missed you ;>)? By-the-way
Bill I do not recall you poking at me but I do enjoy your inventiveness and pictures and hope to
stop in some day and visit with you. Our shop email address is [email protected]. Our return email
address was clearly available on the original email thus anyone could have used it to voice his or
her opinion or choice.

a lot of email we receive, our email return address does work. We did not curse, make obscene
jesters or call your Sister names. We did not knowingly do anything illegal. Guys/Gals it was a
clean recumbent bicycles ad! To my knowledge everyone that received our email ad has an acute
interest in recumbent bicycles and in-fact, most were previous or current customers. We did not
think that you could be offended by us offering a great product at a good price! Guess some folks
can be offended by most anything however. That email went out to 3-400 folks, if they tell me they
do not want it again they will not get it again, simple. So far, however, this has not been the case
with minor exceptions, most noticeably in this thread.

Our recumbent only shop is new

http://www.ransbikes.com/Bikedealers/Dealers_Ar.htm

and we want folks to know where we are. We are struggling with recognition and even though we had
a great early season we were simply trying to shore up sales late in the season when sales seem
to fall off.

Thanks, Kelly [email protected]
 
In article <[email protected]>, Kelly
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Joao de Souza <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > Anyone else received a piece of spam advertizing a recumbent shop in AR?
>
> If you don't want on our email list, just email us and we will remove you,

Opt out is offensive and usually unreliable. It's more often used to confirm a live address for
further resale to other spammers.

> Our return email address was clearly available on the original email thus anyone could have used
> it to voice his or her opinion or choice.

Thos addresses are frequently forged (especially with SoBig.F spreading like mad this week), plus
see above on actually replying to spam.

So? Spam is intrusive, regardless of topic.

> Guess some folks can be offended by most anything however.

Epecially spam.

> That email went out to 3-400 folks, if they tell me they do not want it again they will not get it
> again, simple. So far, however, this has not been the case with minor exceptions, most noticeably
> in this thread.

Then ask your customers to opt-in, not out.

Carl
 
Originally posted by Kelly
If you don't want on our email list, just email us and we will remove you, conversely, if you do want on the list let us know that too. RecumbentBill, how could I have missed you ;>)? By-the-way Bill I do not recall you poking at me but I do enjoy your inventiveness and pictures and hope to stop in some day and visit with you. Our shop email address is [email protected]. Our return email address was clearly available on the original email thus anyone could have used it to voice his or her opinion or choice.

The e-mail did not bother me.
 
Kelly wrote:
>
> If you don't want on our email list, just email us and we will remove you

This is normally called "opt-out". If you look at the bottom of every single spam email, they say
something like "if you don't want to receive our emails, you can unsubscribe here", and it is
usually a very bad idea to try to unsubscribe. By clicking on the link you are verifying that that
email address is indeed alive and messages are read. Anyone familiar with the internet knows that
you should never have to unsubscribe to a "service" you never subscribed to in the first place.

It doesn't matter. Yes, those messages are far more offensive, but I also receive tons of messages
advertising just about everything. Lots of bicycle related ones, lots of art related ones (since my
name is in a few martial arts websites, the email collection programs sees the word _art_, and
subscribe me automatically), local events not necessarily local to me, etc. Hundreds of them per
day. I cannot speak for the others here, but I never chose to receive those messages, nor yours.

> and we want folks to know where we are. We are struggling with recognition and even though we had
> a great early season we were simply trying to shore up sales late in the season when sales seem to
> fall off.

You could have posted a little ad on a number of different recumbent discussion groups and
publications, and local bicycle clubs' newsletters, letting people know about your shop, and
inviting them to subscribe to your special deals email list. Instead you chose send it to recumbent
riders all over the world. No matter your intentions or the content of the message, it is
"Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE)",
a.k.a. SPAM.
 
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