Brian Esposito sent this objection to the entry for aveyou.com in the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains. The message said:
A few years ago our site and domain were attacked by what our lawyers and defense team called a "Joe Job". It appeard that one of our competitors did not like our growth and wanted to do something about it. During the same time 2 other sites that were very comparable to ours were forced to shut down and are no longer in existence because of this party. Our fast acting and "do the right thing" approach allowed us to stay online and keep servicing our online shoppers around the world. I was searching about our company and beauty supply website www.aveyou.com and saw that we are on your list. What steps do I need to clear our name with your company and be removed? I am emailing you from another site as my direct email brianesposito@aveyou.com was being bounced back to me from you.
The entry in the the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains exists because of this spam. That spam is one of more than 300 samples and captured in a dccm logdir file. I have censored the target mailbox because it is a spam trap .
The spam was from about 1.5 years ago, which I think is less than "a few years ago."
At that time, someone speaking for aveyou.com asserted in news.admin.net-abuse.email that the spam was a "joe job." For various reasons I was unconvinced but believed that the spam was an unsolicited bulk advertising mailing that was regretted. I remain convinced of that assessment, although I certainly could be wrong. Never mind that others seemed to arrive independently at skeptical views of Aveyou.com's explanation. If that is right, it certainly would not be the first or the last time that a business decided too late that unsolicited bulk advertising email is often a bad idea and claimed it was all a mistake or the result of a conspiracy by unnamed others.
That I could be wrong is a compelling reason why no one besides users at rhyolite.com should reject mail from the Fingermates Inc. domain names or take any other action based only on the contents of the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains. Perhaps this explicit public admission that I could easily be wrong will satisfy Mr. Esposito.
However, that Mr. Esposito says he is in a business where some organizations use crimes such as forged unsolicited bulk email as competitive tools is a sufficient reason why no user at rhyolite.com is likely to want to receive mail from any Fingermates Inc. domain name. In any case, I would rather just be left alone by all Internet entrepreneurs unless I initiate the contact.. Why can't they just leave me alone?
Other questions are answered in the list of objections about entries in the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains.
Contact vjs@rhyolite.com but not this spam trap.
