I just got an e-mail from an organization that calls itself SPAMIS (Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam). The message consisted of an article that was apparently written by Graham Lea of The Register, complaining that Microsoft is abusing some of its mailing lists and sending out unwelcome, unsolicited e-mail.
Ironically, the mailing from SPAMIS …
- was unsolicited;
- was addressed to an e-mail alias that I have never used at any Web site and that never receives any e-mail except from my domain registrar;
- didn’t include any identifying information about the sender;
- didn’t include any mechanism for removal from the list.
In short, this group sent me spam complaining about someone else’s spam.
Even more ironically, the domain from which the mailing was sent has apparently been suspended by its hosting company.
Funny, isn’t it?
Ed Bott 
Received the same mail , actually , I received a couple , also on an email address that isn’t public , in fact , it is an email address that I barely use and was from my previous ISP lol .
I have traced the IP and checked the domains related to those mails , they led me to Maxonline.com (
MaxOnline creates innovative email advertising solutions by providing a one-stop-shop of services, including both email brokerage and list management. MaxOnline is a business of Ask Jeeves, Inc. )
The originating IP is from Singapore , and is blacklisted for spamming ( IP Location: Singapore Singapore – Singapore – Singapore – Starhub Cable Vision Ltd )
All the info I found is here.
I wonder why these people bother 8) …
lol… hey Ed, is there any way we can respond to these mails (based on action-reaction law in physics)… 🙂
I also got similar mail and searched from both msn and google and got your post.
cheers,
I think I’ve figured out these emails. They come from Robert Soloway and I think they are a method of getting away from his usual crap to validate his 29.5mil email address list.
I haven’t seen the email myself (blocked for a number of spammy reasons – didn’t even make it to SpamAssassin) but from what I’ve googled, it seem to contain a unique URL for each email address. If you’re silly enough to click on that link – BOOM – your email address has been confirmed, welcome to 20million extra emails a day 🙂
Very nice detective work!
nice to see you have a blog, Ed! It’s your old friend, Gina.
Email me sometime.
gs