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Spam Through Aweber? Is It Possible?

by John Motson
5 replies
Hi guys,

I haven't posted here in a while but this was something I thought warrior members might be able to help me out with.

A couple of my subscribers have sent me emails complaining that they have been receiving spam emails to email addresses they used only when subscribing to my newsletter. The spam emails related to Viagra products in particular.

My newsletter is run through Aweber.

A bunch of people used the plus notation (as in john.doe+dnxpert@gmail.com) to subscribe to the Aweber list while others used an address like dnxpert@theirdomainname.com to do the same.

I have not shared the email addresses with anyone (nor would I ever think of it) so I can only assume Aweber has been hacked in some way by spammers that are able to spam my subscribers and in doing so tarnish my reputation and the reputation of Aweber.

Anyone experienced something similar?

John
#aweber #spam
  • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
    Yep, it's possible. And yep, it happened. Read more here:

    How We’ve Addressed The Recent Data Compromise


    Cheers,
    Becky
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    • Profile picture of the author ozduc
      I called aweber a couple of months ago because I was getting a lot of viagra sign ups on one of my lists. It was really annoying as they list count was going up significantly. They were not confirmed opt ins and the support at aweber said it is nothing to worry about it is probably just a bot phishing for email addresses. There were several others on the forum that had the same problem. Well perhaps they should have been a bit more careful and taken customer complaints about viagra signups more seriously.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Motson
    Aha! Thanks guys, I can now inform my subscribers because I have been quite embarassed by this.

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author jimmynickel
    This is such a huge compromise and went mostly unnoticed. The trust of subscribers is so important. I was personally on 5 lists from people who used aweber with five different addresses. They are now all trashed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trent Brownrigg
    It's also very possible that they did post their email address somewhere else or use it for something else and just don't remember, so now they are getting spam. Plus, spammers tend to find a way to get your email address even when you don't think it's possible. I get spam to some emails of mine that I have never used for anything.
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