Why This Blog Exists

I've been criticized for questioning Mamasource's intentions and believe me if there is anything I'd love to see happen in this world, it is planting of more trees and wiping out breast cancer. Really. I can't think of more worthy causes.

That is how I got sucked into this whole ordeal in the first place. I wanted to see more trees planted. Look what happened...my friends got caught up in this because of my exuberance to plant more trees. In my defense, I Googled Mamasource before I hit "submit" because I saw all the accolades about the site. I thought they could be trusted. Everyone was raving about them. And then the emails from my friends and family came pouring back in. First I was embarrassed by own own stupidity, and then I got angry.

Who does Artie Wu think he is that he can con people like this? He builds this massive community site, builds it up in the media, aligns himself with worthy causes like Trees for the Future and The Breast Cancer Fund and then preys on his subscriber base.

This is why I created this blog. I have a busy life, and I don't really have the time for all this, but I feel strongly enough about what I've found to keep pushing on.

The only thing I can verify at this point is that he is violation of the CAN-SPAM act by not providing his subscribers a way to opt-out. THIS IS FACT. That alone should have the FTC looking at him closely and should have anyone involved with Mamasource a little nervous.

Then there is the whole "enter your email password" thing on his invites. Enough people have come forward to say that they never got the chance to select recipients from their address book, that the invite went to everyone in their address book, that you should all take notice, that you should question Artie Wu's motives. You should know that even if this is legal (I am not sure how legal it really is) it is truly unethical.

This is a post I received last night and I am posting it here to show you I am not the only one show who has questioned Mamasource:

"I've been spammed several times by my unsuspecting friends, who I am sure only wanted to plant a tree. I, like alot of people i'm sure, want to be kind to our environment. However, something bugged me about the fact that when I didn't respond right away, the email requests just kept coming. It smelled like spam; so before i clicked on the link, I decided to google mamasource first, and i ran into your site. Great job in helping me avoid a spam nightmare!! Thanks! I'll be reporting them to the site you suggested."

Posts like this keep me moving forward, and keep me on the Internet researching Artie Wu, Arthur F. Wu, Vividence, Vividence Spyware, and all the techniques Mr. Wu has created in the past that mine intelligence from websites. I firmly believe that not only is Artie Wu spamming his Mamsource subscribers, but he is building up a huge database of information for his own personal gain.

I signed up for the Mamasource site, well I thought I signed up, but only got as far as the spam page, featuring The Breast Cancer Fund's logo, telling me to "Enter your Gmail email password to look up Moms you know on Mamasource...Mamasource will not save your Gmail password." They go on to tell me "This program is limited to newly registered members, and this page will be your only opportunity to participate - both joining Mamasource and sending Mamasource Flowers are 100% free." Well, I didn't fall for this (think I am going down that road twice?) and when clicked "don't send flowers" I was directed to a page where I found out I wasn't even signed up for the site. Can someone explain this to me?

Some comments I've seen on other blogs include:

"I joined Mamasource this morning look for cakes/bakeries for my daughter's upcoming birthday. Now a couple of my friends have emailed me and thanked me for the "flower"? In my profile(on mamasource) it shows members I have invited, flowers I have sent...whoa! Hold on, I didn't send anything to anyone. What is going on?"

"What a shady way to spread your website...now everyone in my gmail address book will get a flower? Oh niiice....So not cool."

This is why this blog exists, this is why I spend my precious time doing the research on Artie Wu, Vividence, intelligence mining and mailservers. This is why I've looked into his DNS stats. Do I really want to know what PTR is? No. But I do want to know why he doesn't have mailservers that point back to his Mamasource addresses. Why they don't point to abuse@mamasource.com, why "one or more of (his) mailservers is claiming to be a host other than what it really."

I wonder why this father of two would start a site like Mamasource. After all, he sold his company Vividence, for about $22M, so I am sure he didn't start this company just to "make the job of being a mom a little bit easier."

These are questions that need to be asked...I hope someone can answer them.