First published: 28th February 2007
Outsourcing mass–mailings, or trading in address lists has risks.
Reports at The Register have traced spam sent on behalf of a large, well–known company. They found that, although the company, T-Mobile, officially had a policy of only using opt–in systems, they had outsourced the mailings to Quantum Media. Quantum Media subcontracted to Mailtrack Media, who used E-Mail Movers to send the messages, and provide the supposedly opt–in lists. E-Mail Movers got part of their list from Century Communications, which had bought the list of 200 million opted–in email addresses on eBay for £20. The seller assured them that the list was legitimate.