Ammado, how about not spamming bloggers?
I’ve been spammed by Ammado today and I’m very angry about it. I’m not the only one, there’s whole circle of people that were spammed with this mail - Donncha, Justin, Michele and Damien.
Edit: Oh and there’s Suzy, Grandad, Squid from Limerick Blogger and Tom. I’m sure there’s many more.
I did not ask to be contacted by Ammado and I resent the fact that my contact details are being mined in a cynical way to drum up interest for a cause. Charity or no charity, spamming is never excusable. This case demeans both my right to privacy and the charity in question, the UNHCR.
The best part is that the email is titled ‘UNHCR asks the blogosphere for help’ and the opening line reads:
UNHCR and ammado, http://www.ammado.com are reaching out to the blogosphere in an effort to spread the word for this year’s World Refugee Day on June 20th and raise awareness of the situation of refugees all over the world!
Really? Are the UNHCR asking for help? Were they complicit in this mailing? What do they think about their name and reputation being appended to an unsolicited mail-out to a large number of people?
I was spammed by iFoods (read Donncha’s post on it) just recently and I am getting sick of being used as mere spam currency. My mailbox does not court unsolicited emails generic unsolicited mails anymore. I will be looking into taking this further.
Edit 2: A representative from ammado emailed to apologise for the spamming this evening. Has anyone else received an apology?
May 26th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
So you should. Unless they’re offering something of value, something to interest YOUR readers, the people who come to read what YOU have to say and have requested your help in creating awareness, I’d say you’re right in reacting how you do.
Was your name even at the start of the email?
May 26th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
No. And that annoyed me even more. I do get unsolicited mails from time to time, but they make the effort to try and personalise the mail. Not in this case. Ammado made no effort to personalise their mail. I suppose they believed that the subject title would be enough.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
As I said on my own blog, the only reason I didn’t submit a formal complaint was because I have an account with them, however that was before I realised how many people they had spammed or how they were going to respond (there’s a reply on Justin’s blog)
The funny thing is that they were nominated for a marketing award!!
May 27th, 2008 at 12:17 am
[...] Blogging, Irish Blog Awards, More Money than sense, Social Media Oh I’m one of the special ones to get spammed. I got an email today targeted at bloggers from ammado about themselves and World [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 12:19 am
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I wonder who’s going to spam us in 2 weeks time? Someone should start taking bets on this.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:16 am
[...] add Tom, Suzy, Alexia, squid at Limerick Blogger, and Grandad at Head Rambles to that list, [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Oh come on people….Did Ammado hurt you when they sent those e-mails or what????
They made a huge mistake - they sent those e-mails to you as they thought you interested in their appeal….. but it seems you only want to make Ammado’s work harder….
May 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Oh come on people….Did Ammado hurt you when they sent those e-mails or what????
They made a huge mistake - they sent those e-mails to you as they thought you would be interested in their appeal….. but it seems you only want to make Ammado’s work harder….
May 27th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
@Natalia: That’s an interesting IP address you have. So, as you work in an organisation that specialises in “direct mail solutions” you believe that unsolicited mail is okay? Does your organisation conduct business like that? Actually, is your organisation in any way connected to ammado?
May 27th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Think of all the people they offended by not spamming them… you ungrateful A-Lister you! grrr! *shakes fist*
May 27th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
@Natalia
They made a huge mistake - they sent those e-mails to you as they thought you interested in their appeal
No they didn’t. They sent a mass mail to a load of people - that’s why I asked Alexia if it had been personalised, and it hadn’t.
It was nothing to do with the interest of the bloggers receiving the email, just the interest of the company mailing.
Do you think they would not benefit in any way from the links they were sending out?
Interestingly enough I can’t find where they spoke about this campaign on their own blog… funny, eh?
May 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
We should trade IP numbers Alexia cos I’m getting interesting comments. Surely they couldn’t be that stupid?
May 27th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
@Suzy: Yup, you have mail.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
@Natalia: ammado has contacted me to confirm that they do their marketing inhouse, so I accept that it is unlikely that you are connected to them. However, I’m intrigued by your views on spam.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
@Natalia Who pointed you to this blog post and what is their relationship to Ammado?
June 9th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
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