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“Guess who’s searching for you?” style spam is back

A few years ago, there was some spam scam outfit that would send out emails proclaiming “An individual at our website at our website is looking for information regarding: (your email address)” You’d go to the site, pay some money, and find out they really didn’t have any info about you.

I received a spam very much like that today, from EHB126.com. Links inside the scam all refer to ehb125.com. Whois lookups show that all numbers from EHB101.com to EHB136.com are registered to the same outfit: ConsumerBase LLC, 1007 Church St. 5th Floor, Evanston, IL 60201, at (847) 866-9600.

From the spam footer:

We support ethical practices. This email was sent to -address- by ConsumerBase LLC because you have not previously unsubscribed to our email solicitations. By clicking on any link in this email, except the unsubscribe one below, you are reaffirming your interest in receiving future emails. Please know that we respect your right to be taken off our email lists. Removal is automatic through our system. Please click here to start that process.

Well, let’s see how much is wrong with that statement. (1) They’ve not mailed me before. (2) They confirm they use opt-out to gather their spam lists, not opt-in. (3) Removal is automatic, yet the unsubscribe link only starts the process?

I also have never gave “Affirmative Consent” that my email address could be used by this company. In fact the address they sent their garbage to has never been used for any kind of subscription. And interestingly enough, “Affirmative Consent” is exactly 180 degrees backwards from what the footer of this messages seems to proclaim. “Affirmative Consent” sounds like confirmed opt-in, not opt-out.

Andy Sernovitz has also run across ConsumerBase before: ConsumerBase, ethics aren’t a game.

I have proactively blocked email from all domains in the range of EHB101.com through EHB136.com from abusing my server. IP addresses include: 69.30.254.114 to .125; and 69.30.202.18 to .44 (but not some in the .30 range)
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.120
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.118
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.114
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.119
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.116
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.117
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.115
ehb101.com has address 69.30.254.121
ehb101.com mail is handled by 10 ehb101.com.
ehb102.com has address 69.30.254.115
ehb102.com mail is handled by 10 ehb102.com.
ehb103.com has address 69.30.254.116
ehb103.com mail is handled by 10 ehb103.com.
ehb104.com has address 69.30.254.117
ehb104.com mail is handled by 10 ehb104.com.
ehb105.com has address 69.30.254.118
ehb105.com mail is handled by 10 ehb105.com.
ehb106.com has address 69.30.254.119
ehb106.com mail is handled by 10 ehb106.com.
ehb107.com has address 69.30.254.120
ehb107.com mail is handled by 10 ehb107.com.
ehb108.com has address 69.30.254.121
ehb108.com mail is handled by 10 ehb108.com.
ehb109.com has address 69.30.254.122
ehb109.com mail is handled by 10 ehb109.com.
ehb110.com has address 69.30.254.123
ehb110.com mail is handled by 10 ehb110.com.
ehb111.com has address 69.30.254.124
ehb111.com mail is handled by 10 ehb111.com.
ehb112.com has address 69.30.254.125
ehb112.com mail is handled by 10 ehb112.com.
ehb113.com has address 69.30.202.43
ehb113.com mail is handled by 10 ehb113.com.
ehb114.com has address 69.30.202.18
ehb114.com mail is handled by 10 ehb114.com.
ehb115.com has address 69.30.202.19
ehb115.com mail is handled by 10 ehb115.com.
ehb116.com has address 69.30.202.20
ehb116.com mail is handled by 10 ehb116.com.
ehb117.com has address 69.30.202.21
ehb117.com mail is handled by 10 ehb117.com.
ehb118.com has address 69.30.202.22
ehb118.com mail is handled by 10 ehb118.com.
ehb119.com has address 69.30.202.23
ehb119.com mail is handled by 10 ehb119.com.
ehb120.com has address 69.30.202.24
ehb120.com mail is handled by 10 ehb120.com.
ehb121.com has address 69.30.202.25
ehb121.com mail is handled by 10 ehb121.com.
ehb122.com has address 69.30.202.26
ehb122.com mail is handled by 10 ehb122.com.
ehb123.com has address 69.30.202.27
ehb123.com mail is handled by 10 ehb123.com.
ehb124.com has address 69.30.202.28
ehb124.com mail is handled by 10 ehb124.com.
ehb125.com has address 69.30.202.29
ehb125.com mail is handled by 10 ehb125.com.
ehb126.com has address 69.30.202.30
ehb126.com mail is handled by 10 ehb126.com.
ehb127.com has address 69.30.202.44
ehb127.com mail is handled by 10 ehb127.com.
ehb128.com has address 69.30.202.34
ehb128.com mail is handled by 10 ehb128.com.
ehb129.com has address 69.30.202.35
ehb129.com mail is handled by 10 ehb129.com.
ehb130.com has address 69.30.202.36
ehb130.com mail is handled by 10 ehb130.com.
ehb131.com has address 69.30.202.37
ehb131.com mail is handled by 10 ehb131.com.
ehb132.com has address 69.30.202.38
ehb132.com mail is handled by 10 ehb132.com.
ehb133.com has address 69.30.202.39
ehb133.com mail is handled by 10 ehb133.com.
ehb134.com has address 69.30.202.40
ehb134.com mail is handled by 10 ehb134.com.
ehb135.com has address 69.30.202.41
ehb135.com mail is handled by 10 ehb135.com.
ehb136.com has address 69.30.202.42
ehb136.com mail is handled by 10 ehb136.com.

The IP addresses are all assigned to Wholesaleinternet.com. Abuse report filed with them.

4 Comments

  1. Rostyslav says:

    It is really amazing what spam artists will do and still get away with. These emails are so annoying, I am glad to see that you have filed appropriate abuse complaints.

  2. Christine says:

    I found your site while doing some research on a spam email pretending to be from Barack Obama’s campaign. It came from “barackobama@ehb128.com”.

    The site that the links go to looks a lot like the real Obama site. No doubt that they are doing the same scam with the John McCain site.

    Thanks for your post, I am linking to it to warn people not to donate to either campaign via these emails.

  3. […] and domain here…it didn’t take much to see what a scam this is.   I quickly found this blog post, which is proof that this is a […]

  4. David Burnham says:

    I really can’t stand those type of spam ads because they actually get your attention. My poor wife has succumbed to this little trick more than once and it ended up making me do a full reformat the last time.