Webmaster forum - click&buy (Not Spam)

Author

click&buy (Not Spam)

William Tasso

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

Greetings

Just had what I can only describe as a blonde moment.

My personal mailbox gets a fair amount of business and personal traffic -
maybe 50 legitimate mails a day. Of course there's a shed-load of
nonsense that get's the right-click/delete treatment without a moments
pause.

In amongst that lot I've been getting mail from an outfit called "click &
buy" - an obvious spammers name if ever I saw one.

Message today caught my attention. Turns out "click & buy" is a trading
name of a german outfit called "firstgate.de" which is contracted to
collect payments on behalf of "Freie Universität Berlin ZEDAT" which is
more usually known round these parts as "news.individual.net" - nntp news
provider to the great unwashed.

I've just spoken to a charming, helpful german lady with (contrary to
popular myth) a splendid sense of humour. I now have an invoice which
identifies the service bought and an address to which I can send payment.

Remember boys and girls, all that glitters is (Not Spam).
--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Swampy Bogtrotter

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

William Tasso wrote:
> Greetings
>
> Just had what I can only describe as a blonde moment.
>
> My personal mailbox gets a fair amount of business and personal
> traffic - maybe 50 legitimate mails a day. Of course there's a
> shed-load of nonsense that get's the right-click/delete treatment
> without a moments pause.
>
> In amongst that lot I've been getting mail from an outfit called
> "click & buy" - an obvious spammers name if ever I saw one.
>
> Message today caught my attention. Turns out "click & buy" is a
> trading name of a german outfit called "firstgate.de" which is
> contracted to collect payments on behalf of "Freie Universität Berlin
> ZEDAT" which is more usually known round these parts as
> "news.individual.net" - nntp news provider to the great unwashed.
>
> I've just spoken to a charming, helpful german lady with (contrary to
> popular myth) a splendid sense of humour. I now have an invoice which
> identifies the service bought and an address to which I can send
> payment.
>
> Remember boys and girls, all that glitters is (Not Spam).

They also work closely with BT, so you can use their services to buy stuff,
and pay for it through your BT phone bill....Very handy if you ask me....

Matt Probert

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:27:10 +0100, "William Tasso"
<SpamBlocked@tbdata.com> wrote:

>Greetings
>
>Just had what I can only describe as a blonde moment.
>
>My personal mailbox gets a fair amount of business and personal traffic -
>maybe 50 legitimate mails a day. Of course there's a shed-load of
>nonsense that get's the right-click/delete treatment without a moments
>pause.

So *THAT'S* why you never answer my emails!

>
>In amongst that lot I've been getting mail from an outfit called "click &
>buy" - an obvious spammers name if ever I saw one.

You've been reading Viper's posts for too long.

>
>Message today caught my attention. Turns out "click & buy" is a trading
>name of a german outfit called "firstgate.de" which is contracted to
>collect payments on behalf of "Freie Universität Berlin ZEDAT" which is
>more usually known round these parts as "news.individual.net" - nntp news
>provider to the great unwashed.
>
>I've just spoken to a charming, helpful german lady with (contrary to
>popular myth) a splendid sense of humour. I now have an invoice which
>identifies the service bought and an address to which I can send payment.

Not all Germans are arse-holes.....More people in the UK have very
strong German connections than you know. Ahem.

>
>Remember boys and girls, all that glitters is (Not Spam).

But what if it smells like pork? <bg>

Matt

--
Veritas Vincti
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com

TechnoHippie

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

"William Tasso" <SpamBlocked@tbdata.com> wrote in
news:op.s8p2fkdpm9g4qz-wnt@tbdata.com:

> Greetings
>
> Just had what I can only describe as a blonde moment.
>
> My personal mailbox gets a fair amount of business and personal
> traffic - maybe 50 legitimate mails a day. Of course there's a
> shed-load of nonsense that get's the right-click/delete treatment
> without a moments pause.
>
> In amongst that lot I've been getting mail from an outfit called
> "click & buy" - an obvious spammers name if ever I saw one.
>
> Message today caught my attention. Turns out "click & buy" is a
> trading name of a german outfit called "firstgate.de" which is
> contracted to collect payments on behalf of "Freie Universität Berlin
> ZEDAT" which is more usually known round these parts as
> "news.individual.net" - nntp news provider to the great unwashed.
>
> I've just spoken to a charming, helpful german lady with (contrary to
> popular myth) a splendid sense of humour. I now have an invoice which
> identifies the service bought and an address to which I can send
> payment.
>
> Remember boys and girls, all that glitters is (Not Spam).

I recently had a similar experience with teranews. Something about
verifying my account ... yeah, I've heard THAT one a few times. After
about two weeks without usenet access, I tripped over the email notice in
my bulk bin ... still waiting for me to verify my account.

Well, here I am so I learned to scan my bulk and spam bins before purging
them.

Judy
--
Trippy Triangle: http://www.technohippie.com
Bring Them Back: http://www.bringthembackfromiraq.com/btb/
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

Blinky the Shark

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

William Tasso wrote:

> Greetings
>
> Just had what I can only describe as a blonde moment.
>
> My personal mailbox gets a fair amount of business and personal traffic -
> maybe 50 legitimate mails a day. Of course there's a shed-load of
> nonsense that get's the right-click/delete treatment without a moments
> pause.
>
> In amongst that lot I've been getting mail from an outfit called "click &
> buy" - an obvious spammers name if ever I saw one.

Unless you know who you've been doing legitimage business with. ;)

--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients

Charles Sweeney

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

William Tasso wrote

> Greetings
>
> Just had what I can only describe as a blonde moment.
>
> My personal mailbox gets a fair amount of business and personal
> traffic - maybe 50 legitimate mails a day. Of course there's a
> shed-load of nonsense that get's the right-click/delete treatment
> without a moments pause.
>
> In amongst that lot I've been getting mail from an outfit called
> "click & buy" - an obvious spammers name if ever I saw one.
>
> Message today caught my attention. Turns out "click & buy" is a
> trading name of a german outfit called "firstgate.de" which is
> contracted to collect payments on behalf of "Freie Universität Berlin
> ZEDAT" which is more usually known round these parts as
> "news.individual.net" - nntp news provider to the great unwashed.
>
> I've just spoken to a charming, helpful german lady with (contrary to
> popular myth) a splendid sense of humour. I now have an invoice which
> identifies the service bought and an address to which I can send
> payment.
>
> Remember boys and girls, all that glitters is (Not Spam).

Hoot!

I must have done the same. My usenet subscription expired a week or so
ago. I went to renew it, but discovered they didn't have my latest
credit card info.

A little bit of hassle, and maybe a day or so without usenet, I got it
fixed.

It did occur to me. They might have sent me an email about the renewal,
but seeing "click and buy" or the like, there's a very good chance I
would have deleted it.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Charles Sweeney

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

Swampy Bogtrotter wrote

[click and buy]

> They also work closely with BT

Aye. What with firstgate, click and buy, BT, and news.individual.net is it
any bleedin' wonder that the poor punter gets confused!

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Blinky the Shark

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

Charles Sweeney wrote:

> It did occur to me. They might have sent me an email about the renewal,
> but seeing "click and buy" or the like, there's a very good chance I
> would have deleted it.

The day before my subscription was up, I got one confirming my automatic
resubscription:

"Your subscription NetNews Annual Subscription Following Subscription
Periods (self-renewing) at Freie Universität Berlin ZEDAT has been
renewed at 04/01/06 02:01:04 AM EST."

A week later they sent the funding detail:

"The current balance on your account as of 04/08/06 is: $ 12.46.
According to your account configuration we will charge your credit card
with the invoice amount of $ 12.46 within the next few days. ...
Invoice is attached with this email."

Can't get much more clear and responsible than that. :)

--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients

Charles Sweeney

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

Blinky the Shark wrote

> Charles Sweeney wrote:
>
>
> The day before my subscription was up, I got one confirming my
> automatic resubscription:
>
> "Your subscription NetNews Annual Subscription Following Subscription
> Periods (self-renewing) at Freie Universität Berlin ZEDAT has been
> renewed at 04/01/06 02:01:04 AM EST."
>
> A week later they sent the funding detail:
>
> "The current balance on your account as of 04/08/06 is: $ 12.46.
> According to your account configuration we will charge your credit
> card with the invoice amount of $ 12.46 within the next few days. ...
> Invoice is attached with this email."
>
> Can't get much more clear and responsible than that. :)

I'm sure now, I would have deleted them. (I never read the content of
mails I regard as spam)

This is the trouble with someting you only use once a year, the name
meant nothing to me when I saw it again.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

William Tasso

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the No thank you jungle
Charles Sweeney <me@charlessweeney.com> stumbled into
news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> William Tasso wrote
>
> A little bit of hassle, and maybe a day or so without usenet ...

That's another odd thing - no interruption of service at all.

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Blinky the Shark

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

William Tasso wrote:

> Fleeing from the madness of the No thank you jungle
> Charles Sweeney <me@charlessweeney.com> stumbled into
> news:alt.www.webmaster
> and said:
>
>
> That's another odd thing - no interruption of service at all.

Is your use of "odd" a sign of the acceptance of bad service as the norm?

--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients