Fraud detected on Aweber (NOT)

by alikabli Banned
5 replies
Well, really surprised to find out that Aweber was artificially inflating my lists with fake emails in order to charge me more.
How can I tell?
Well, since I hire the service I detected that my list suddenly growth everyday with accounts @hotmail.com.mx, that is not an existing domain.

Probably the scam automatically detects the place where you are currently setting your list an add a local termination to fake emails to make you believe that your list is growing and is legit.

Aweber unmasked! I truly recommend you guys to check your lists.
#aweber #detected #fraud
  • Profile picture of the author dmarc
    I'm not saying your wrong... but it's hard to imagine Aweber would risk their reputation for a few extra bux. They've got more than a large enough client base to make this unnecessary and unlikely.

    It could be a competitor of yours, or some other malicious individual doing this, but I seriously doubt a reputable company like Aweber would do this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    Are you running that list as confirmed opt-in?

    I'll bet I can tell you what's going on, and it isn't fraud.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      I'm not going to wait for this person to reply before explaining.

      First off, hotmail.com.mx is a real, existing domain, with real, existing, and deliverable email addresses. It belongs to Microsoft. If you doubt this, type the domain into a browser and watch it redirect to live.com, which is where MS has centralized most of their webmail operations.

      If you type hotmail.com into a browser, you'll note that it also redirects to live.com.

      Now, if you're running a confirmed opt-in list, you will probably notice that the bogus addresses never confirm these subscriptions. They will drop off in the usual time frame. Or, if this is a big deal for you, you can add hotmail.com.mx to your blocked domains list and keep them from ever getting into your database.

      How does this happen? Compromised computers and address scrapers. They find the list address in the headers of mail from Aweber lists and treat it the same way they treat any address they find. They send spam to it.

      Aweber treats mail to a list address as a subscription attempt, as I understand it.

      That's it. You're getting spammed, and that's what's inflating your count. I'd bet on it. Unless someone with a large clientele in Mexico promoted you recently...

      I have one list that gets pounded this way all the time. The fake addresses just fall off, as I require confirmation for all public subscriptions.

      Unless you can show more than this easily explained phenomenon to support your claim that Aweber is doing something hinky, I will expect you to post an apology to them for the unfounded public allegation.


      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author alikabli
        Banned
        No apologies. I caught them in the spot, inflating artificially my list and that really pisses me off.
        There are no @hotmail.com.mx available or in existence and of course my lists are opt-ins and all are confirmed. Is funny how with other mailers that never happened to me before.

        Aweber is supposed to detect those false emails automatically, but guess what? They didn´t, they seem that they don't care. Bigger the list, mo'money I guess.

        To be honest, I'm not surprised. Many companies like aweber loose the floor and turn ambitious.
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        • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
          Goodbye. Don't come back.

          We have enough reckless creatures running around yelling "FRAUD!" with no basis other than their own ignorance of how things work. We don't need any more, thankyouverymuch.
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