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Milestones in the Annals of Junkmail

Posted by timothy on from the your-royal-highness-you-are-getting-a-dell dept.

fdc writes: "Web pages are a great source of postal addresses for direct mailers. Judging by some of the addresses we've seen recently, it's evident that the data is harvested not by humans, but by computer programs that scan web pages for names and addresses. Several weeks ago we (the Kermit Project at Columbia University) announced a new release of our Kermit 95 communication software for Windows -- SSH, secure FTP, etc; cousin of C-Kermit for Unix (search Freshmeat). Since this was a major release, we chose a new icon for it: the Columbia crown. A web page explained that this is the emblem of Columbia University: the crown of King George the II of England (1727-1760), who founded Columbia in 1754. JUST ONE WEEK LATER guess who received a postcard from Dell."

6 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Dude... by InterruptDescriptorT · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thou art getting a Dell!

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  2. Looks like a prank by someone at Dell by Gorobei · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are no clear King George + address on the web-page. This just looks like a prank database addition by someone at Dell on a slow day (probably a Kermit user, tho.)

    1. Re:Looks like a prank by someone at Dell by banky · · Score: 5, Informative

      actually the address is on
      http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html
      most of the way down, under the "buy now" stuff

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    2. Re:Looks like a prank by someone at Dell by Mike+Schiraldi · · Score: 5, Informative

      In fact, on that page, King George is not refered to as King George, but rather as "George, King of England."

      Actually, it said, "George II, King of England". The harvester program ignored the "of England" part, and decided that "George II, King" looked a lot like "Smith, John". Just like it turns that into "John Smith", it got "King George II"

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  3. Ask Dell about it... by FurryFeet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Really, contact Dell and ask for an explanation. I think we'd all love to hear what kind of lame excuse they try to come up with in order to avoid admitting that they harvest spammable addreses from the net :)

  4. Re:Dell doesn't harvest addresses by jelle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Companies like Dell don't harvest addressess. They deal with direct marketing companies"

    Hiring a marketing company to do some work in your name makes you liable for whatever they do in your name.

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