Here is a recent thread I saw online:
"plant a tree" email
"I'm not sure if this is the right spot to post this - I'll try in TAO as well just in case. But I wanted to caution the mamas here about an email I received recently from a friend through mamasource. It was seemingly innocent enough - one of those "we'll plant a tree for each mama who clicks the link" things. They also offered to check your email address book if you wanted to find other friends of yours that were already members of mamasource - and they wouldn't store your password was the only other instruction there. So I did the change password, check list, change password back thing. After they checked, they asked me if I wanted to send the plant-a-tree email to anyone and they automatically selected 4 people. I said no to 3, allowed one, and thought that was it.
However, they sent out invitations to almost everyone in my email address book without my permission. I received emails from non-mamas asking what it was about, which is how I knew it happened. An invite was sent to my (deceased) mother's account, too... so I KNOW I wouldn't have sent that there. Plus, I had two people tell me that just by clicking the no strings attached plant-a-tree link, they got signed up for daily newsletters from mamasource.
Email attempts to mamasource were first totally misread and then ignored. When I sent an email through my mom's account to get them to end her subscription, they sent one back asking me to reconsider. When I explained the situation, who I was, my personal email address, I'd really like to talk to someone so that this doesn't happen to others, etc, I just received a "we closed this account" email. My other friend who wrote them got much the same response.
I have no idea if they're actually planting trees or not - I hope so for all this. But if I can spare someone else the trouble that I'm going through with them - and the complete refusal on their part to discuss it - I'd like to."
Responses:
"Wow - thanks for the heads up! How slimy of them!"
"Interesting. I somehow got on mamsource's list of people to annoy, it was related to a mama I had bought something from online. I was like Why did she give them my email? Maybe it was the same scenario as with you, they took her whole address book."
"WOW, Glad I didnt open the few links I got from friends....I just had a bad feeling about it...Thanks for posting."
Check out the MotheringDotCommune forum for yourself.
Artie Wu, when will you stop these practices?
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2 comments:
i think they may have heard you. I sent support@mamsource.com an email with unsubscribe as the subject and I got this response in about 15 minutes:
Dear Heidi,
This is Linda at Mamasource Member Support. I received your message, and have unsubscribed you from receiving Mamasource Daily Digests.
I just wanted to let you know that you can change your email preference settings on Mamasource at any time by logging in to Mamasource and going to the "My Profile" section.
If you would rather cancel your account entirely (so that you can no longer log in to Mamasource), please let me know and I will do so right away.
Warmly,
Linda
Mamasource Member Support
I received this email on Feb 3rd, when this whole thing began:
Dear Kate:
This is Cynthia at Mamasource Member Support. I received your message, and I went ahead and unsubscribed you from receiving Mamasource Daily Digests.
I also just wanted to let you know that you can change your email preference settings on Mamasource at any time by logging in to Mamasource and going to the "My Profile" section.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you need any assistance or if you have any questions. Thanks for being part of the Mamasource community!
Warmly,
Cynthia
Mamasource Member Support
------------------------------
Again, this shows that there is no working unsubscribe link in the daily emails.
This is in direct violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which states:
"It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/
buspubs/canspam.shtm
I've been asking Artie Wu to change this, but he won't.
"How Slimy!"
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