Truly Stupid Email from Companies! Show Us Yours...

[J-Mac]

OK, granted this email from ACD Systems, the developer of ACDSee photo organization software, is old - from 2006 - but it is still a classic in my book! Apparently they either really thought that the Yahoo Toolbar was all that, or they are incurably stupid enough to have thought that they could convince their customers that it is...

Jim

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[mwb1100]

Today I got this email, supposedly from the "Intel AppUp Center":

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

I had never heard of the AppUp Center, and all of the URLs in the email were either from the www.ifcba.com or intel.ymc0.net domains.  I don't know about you, but this thing smelled like some sort of phishing attempt (or an attempt to get you to download something containing malware, if that's different than phishing).

Anyway, it turns out that the AppUp Center is a half-ass attempt by Intel to have a netbook/MeeGo marketplace or something.  I guess they contracted out their spam campaign to ifcba.com.  I don't know who ymc0.net is; my curiosity about this has dwindled to nothing...

I guess it was successful at letting me know there is an Intel AppUp Center.  Not that I'll ever get anything from it.

[housetier]

J-Mac: I think Yahoo paid them money and so they included the search bar, whether or not it makes sense for the user. I have seen this pattern at my former workplace several times.


mwb1100: I would have called it a phishing attempt also. There is no technical need for the data to go to a non-intel domain, even if the hardware is not intel's: DNS can take of that, but only intel controls intel.com domain space. So if they aren't using intel's domain they might not be doing proper business for intel...

I am very quick to distrust emails...

[lanux128]

J-Mac: I think Yahoo paid them money and so they included the search bar, whether or not it makes sense for the user. I have seen this pattern at my former workplace several times.

-housetier (March 02, 2011, 12:38 AM)

it's possible that sales were not that good and the devs decided to go this 'toolbar' way.

[J-Mac]

OH, I have no doubt that Yahoo paid them, as they do for all developers who stick that toolbar in their installers. I just have not seen any other developer notify their users and try to sell the darn thing as a benefit like this!

Jim

[app103]

I don't have a copy of the email any more...wish I did...

Back when my daughter was in middle school, I signed up for a service run by a major news radio station where they would contact you by email if the schools in your town were closed or delayed because of snow. I figured this would be a lot faster and easier than tuning in to the station and waiting for them to announce it.

One warm sunny Sunday in late spring, my daughter and I decided to go to the park for a picnic. I was checking my email before we left and received a school closing notification from this mailing list, announcing that my daughter's school would be closed that day because of snow.

Yeah, right...snow on this beautiful warm sunny day.

And the school was closed because of that and not the fact that school is always closed on Sundays?  

[housetier]

I bet from a marketing perspective it is perfectly normal and desirable!

But those marketing folks are different anyway...

[J-Mac]

I don't have a copy of the email any more...wish I did...

Back when my daughter was in middle school, I signed up for a service run by a major news radio station where they would contact you by email if the schools in your town were closed or delayed because of snow. I figured this would be a lot faster and easier than tuning in to the station and waiting for them to announce it.

One warm sunny Sunday in late spring, my daughter and I decided to go to the park for a picnic. I was checking my email before we left and received a school closing notification from this mailing list, announcing that my daughter's school would be closed that day because of snow.

Yeah, right...snow on this beautiful warm sunny day.

And the school was closed because of that and not the fact that school is always closed on Sundays?  

-app103 (March 02, 2011, 01:07 AM)

Wow! Was it an accidental sending? Or a "stuck" Outbox? Outlook used to do that back a ways.

Jim

[app103]

Wow! Was it an accidental sending? Or a "stuck" Outbox? Outlook used to do that back a ways.

-J-Mac (March 02, 2011, 01:09 AM)

It had to be an accidental sending, since I was using AOL at the time and back then they had a habit of automatically deleting anything unread in your inbox that was 30+ days old and all read mail after 7 days (had to stick it in your file cabinet if you wanted to keep it longer), and we hadn't had any snow for months.

Except for that one glitch, the mailing list service was pretty reliable...just had to remember to resubscribe every year.