Appalling business approach

[Nick@Daydot]

I thought I'd share this. I can't figure out what's to be achieved here. Is it real? Spam? AI generated?

I received an email from '*********' (edited out by mod)
==================================================================
Hello Nick,
thanks for contacting us.

If you're looking to achieve global success, why not join our exclusive mailing list "Optimizely"?

We've helped companies like:

• Adobe Target
• Crazy Egg
• Unbounce
• Sitecore
• Monetate
• Acquia
• Google Optimize
• Instapage & more…!

achieve amazing results.

If you're interested, let's chat! Just reply with your target geographic area.

Wishing you the best,

Natalie Brown | Demand Generation Specialist.

If you're not interested, just reply "Skip".
===============================================================
I ignored this on the basis that
- I didn't contact them
- they don't say who they are anyway
- comes from outlook.com
- doesn't actually say what's on offer

I got a followup

================================================================
Hey Nick,

Did you get the email below?

Kindly Let me know who your users are and where they are located.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Waiting for your positive response

Natalie
=================================================================

Needless to say I shan't be responding to this either.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I get loads of this type of crap.

Often from different organisations* with suspiciously similar escalation and wording.

* interestingly the same happens with organisations which I know to be legit. Whilst the content is rather more professional, there is similar structure and escalation, which suggests that they have bought into some 'marketing guru' package.

In any case, it goes straight to spam.

 

[Newchodge]

I love Natalie's job title: Demand Generation Specialist or, in other words, cold call marketer.

 

[japancool]

Assuming his/her name really is "Natalie Brown" and not "Sanjay Patel".

 

[Ozzy]

...and this is why my email inbox only accepts emails from pre-approved email addresses.

 

[fisicx]

Used to get loads of these until I tweaked spamassassin. Doesn't take long to train it to look for specific keywords. Mainly anything mentioning new website, SEO and Apps.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

...and this is why my email inbox only accepts emails from pre-approved email addresses.

Look at the opportunities your missing out on
You only get emails from C&A and your nan

 

[japancool]

What if Jacob Rees-Mogg suddenly wants to email you?

 

[LPB 123]

...and this is why my email inbox only accepts emails from pre-approved email addresses.

We get lots of spam like this and would be tempted by this feature but we have built a few long lasting relationships with factories who have found us and sent us a cold email which we would have missed if we used something like this.

 

[hikiwari]

...and this is why my email inbox only accepts emails from pre-approved email addresses.

Everyone gets fed up with cold approaches sometimes but this is a surprising approach especially from someone running a forum and presumably neck-deep in networking culture. I think my FOMO paranoia would get to me If I did that.

Many business relationships start with cold outreach don't they? It's the way of the world isn't it? We're not all lucky enough to have new clients come to us without any cold sales effort.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

We get loads of these through our website, "lead generation services" as well as "we'll teach you how to turn those cold leads into hot prospects".

They all get ignored - the irony of them actually failing to convert their own cold leads into hot prospects is seemingly lost on them!

 

[Chris Ashdown]

We get loads of these through our website, "lead generation services" as well as "we'll teach you how to turn those cold leads into hot prospects".

They all get ignored - the irony of them actually failing to convert their own cold leads into hot prospects is seemingly lost on them!

The point is you read them, and if they work on one in 1,000 or one in 50,000 success they may have achieved their target as long as financially done

 

[Ozzy]

this is a surprising approach especially from someone running a forum and presumably neck-deep in networking culture

Not really because networking is all about building relationships, and there are better ways to build a relationship than ... and checks most recent blocked email subject line ... 'quick question richard?' emails. I liken these emails to someone walking into a networking event, throwing all their business cards up in the air and shouting - BUY FROM MEEEE!!!!! Then running out the door.

As for the forum why would I need to have my email open to run a forum when we have a support phone line, a support email platform, a mod team, a support forum, and DM's? I'm unclear what purpose having an email account would serve.

 

[Mark T Jones]

They all get ignored - the irony of them actually failing to convert their own cold leads into hot prospects is seemingly lost on them!

Or 'Dear business owner - we provide targeted mailing lists'

 

[fisicx]

Or “Dear {firstname}” because of their poorly configured CRM.

It’s really just Raj in Mumbai trawling the internet looking for email addresses to spam. They don’t work for whoever, they just get paid a referral fee. One lead out of thousands makes it financially viable.

 

[Newchodge]

I got a new one last week. An email with a document to sign asking me to read and sign it if it was acceptable. No idea who it was from or what it was for. Binned wsithout thought.

 

[Luolou]

I had a random Docusign Document sent through for approval this morning. The reply email looked decidedly dodgy.
I did look at it it twice though as I'd actaully completed & signed a form through Docusign from our accountant so thought it could be related. Maybe i need to let the accountants know...

 

[fisicx]

These are becoming more prevalent. Even with all the warnings about doing so, people still click on links and open documents.

Criminals don’t have to be smart, they just have to be less stupid than their victims.

 

[Socio South West]

We get lots of spam like this and would be tempted by this feature but we have built a few long lasting relationships with factories who have found us and sent us a cold email which we would have missed if we used something like this.

.... Which is where Mailwasher outguns a server based spam filter. You can preview messages on the server before downloading them to your local client or binning them from the server.
One of my favourite and longest standing business tools.

 

[DontAsk]

I had a phone call form "Talktalk customer support". He started arguing with me when I said I was not with Talktalk, telling me that I was. I think the stress of scamming people was finally getting to him.

 

[fisicx]

Just had an email from 'Roundcube' sayting they have upgraded my account. I need to click on the link to activate. The link points to:

nutritious-frosted-empress.glitch.me

The email was sent from:

ss527h @ bma.biglobe.ne.jp

It's as if they aren't even trying!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Just had an email from 'Roundcube' sayting they have upgraded my account. I need to click on the link to activate. The link points to:

nutritious-frosted-empress.glitch.me

The email was sent from:

ss527h @ bma.biglobe.ne.jp

It's as if they aren't even trying!

Had one recently from Lloyds Bank. Idly scrolling through, they changed their name mid-point to Santander.

This is an important point with fraud - online or otherwise - it is targeted at people who don't look & who don't ask questions.

When it involves people, I always ask questions - they usually can't get away quickly enough. (used to be the same with women in bars, mind).

 

[Ozzy]

This is an important point with fraud - online or otherwise - it is targeted at people who don't look & who don't ask questions.

I was at a cyber security seminar a short while ago, and the police presentation highlighted that fraudsters intentionally make their scam emails slightly off as their target audience needs to be a little gullible and easy to manipulate. So it's a sort of easy way to filter out those who are tough to defraud and be left with those who are more susceptible.

 

[NickGrogan]

Very true, when you're sending out a million emails, the last thing you want is a high response rate. You want a few gullible and/or greedy idiots.

If the response rate is too high, they make the email worse.

 

[DontAsk]

I was at a cyber security seminar a short while ago, and the police presentation highlighted that fraudsters intentionally make their scam emails slightly off as their target audience needs to be a little gullible and easy to manipulate. So it's a sort of easy way to filter out those who are tough to defraud and be left with those who are more susceptible.

I've heard similar but some are so "off" that they can only be incompetent scammers.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I replied to my apparently Nigerian 5th Cousin about the $4 million in the bank, but have not heard back yet, do you think its a scam

 

[SillyBill]

My spam filter catches 95%+ of this garbage but still 5% or so I'd estimate gets through and its getting worse, I assume AI might be helping the spammers hone their craft.

I shouldn't be that bothered but I hate the ones where they use my name as if they know me, it riles me each time, it does feel like a minor violation of ones privacy/self, yet in the electronic world, which is increasingly a bigger part of our world, we're just accustomed to accept it because that is the way it is. E-mail is so low time/cost investment we can just spam the hell out of people in the hope one sticks seems to be the modus operandi.

If I could change one thing in this space, it'd be to make e-mails chargeable at something like a penny per e-mail. Could be a fraction of a penny, whatever, just some cost. Ofc it'd never gain legs but I like to argue for it. For most of us this would have very little impact on our operations, given 90% of all e-mail is supposedly spam this may deter a huge chunk of the spammers though.

Marketing persons/departments could still cold e-mail but like in the days of direct marketing, or indeed getting in ones car and knocking on a door, there'd now be more of a cost to justify the spend. ROI? Might make them think twice before clicking send on loosely targetted, poorly written sales copy, sent to 50k inboxes, 99.99% of whom aren't interested. £500 wasted in that case. If sending out highly informed content, professionally written, offering a great value service/product, to highly researched and targeted customers then don't see why there'd be a problem in paying a few £ to get the message out. And they'd have less competiton for attention as the low value e-mailers wouldn't survive in such a market so our inboxes would be less cluttered with the trash content.

 

[Newchodge]

My spam filter catches 95%+ of this garbage but still 5% or so I'd estimate gets through and its getting worse, I assume AI might be helping the spammers hone their craft.

I shouldn't be that bothered but I hate the ones where they use my name as if they know me, it riles me each time, it does feel like a minor violation of ones privacy/self, yet in the electronic world, which is increasingly a bigger part of our world, we're just accustomed to accept it because that is the way it is. E-mail is so low time/cost investment we can just spam the hell out of people in the hope one sticks seems to be the modus operandi.

If I could change one thing in this space, it'd be to make e-mails chargeable at something like a penny per e-mail. Could be a fraction of a penny, whatever, just some cost. Ofc it'd never gain legs but I like to argue for it. For most of us this would have very little impact on our operations, given 90% of all e-mail is supposedly spam this may deter a huge chunk of the spammers though.

Marketing persons/departments could still cold e-mail but like in the days of direct marketing, or indeed getting in ones car and knocking on a door, there'd now be more of a cost to justify the spend. ROI? Might make them think twice before clicking send on loosely targetted, poorly written sales copy, sent to 50k inboxes, 99.99% of whom aren't interested. £500 wasted in that case. If sending out highly informed content, professionally written, offering a great value service/product, to highly researched and targeted customers then don't see why there'd be a problem in paying a few £ to get the message out. And they'd have less competiton for attention as the low value e-mailers wouldn't survive in such a market so our inboxes would be less cluttered with the trash content.

Why not? people who send letters through the mail have to pay a small fortune. 0.01p per email should not be an issue.