Does Lexington sell email addresses

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by Aharon, Jun 29, 2001.

  1. Aharon

    Aharon Member

    This in no way is a bash on Lexington's service. I recently signed up and sent my credit reports. So, I don't really have anything service wise to complain about.

    I signed up because I don't have the time, or energy to send out dispute letters to the CA's. I also don't have the time, or the money to delete daily credit SPAM to my email account.

    I make every attempt to keep my private email addresses private. Only to friends. I only rarely get spam from Network Solutions, and other spammers that search through domain owners to send their spam. I maybe get 1-2 spams per week, all of which I report to their ISP's... I have other emails addresses that I use publicly that I expect to get spammed with.

    This system has worked great, and now I know when I get an email, it's not some spamming loser.

    I made the mistake of giving Lexington my good no spam email address when I signed up... Low and behold, only days later random credit spams are hitting my good email inbox. Almost daily, sometimes several times a day, I get spams about credit, bills, and tax stuff.

    I sent an email to my Lexington advisor about this problem. Asking her if Lexington re-sells their client's emails to spam companies........ It's been 2 days, no reply... All my other messages get answered the same day though (Good service with those).

    Anyone else sign up with Lexington, and then start receiving constant credit spams?
     
  2. Mike

    Mike Well-Known Member

    Yep. Same thing happened to me. I just punch the delete key and move on.

    I'm afraid to do the typical "reply with remove" response as then they know they have a live body.

    BTW I used Lexington for the first 2 rounds and they did a good job.

    I just wished I would have given them one of my throw away e-mail addresses.

    Mike
     
  3. jason

    jason Well-Known Member

    I work with Lexington Law.

    They don't sell or otherwise use their email addresses (my brother-in-law runs their whole emailing program. Anything you get from Lex is pure, 100% Lex stuff.

    I don't know what their referral sources (websites like this one, creditnet, that collect the names of interested parties) do with your name and email. That's a good question.

    However, I do know that they don't sell, license or use the emails or information for any purposes other than theirr own.
     
  4. bbauer

    bbauer Banned

    I can tell you at least one of the ways this can happen to you. Maybe it is the way it happens, maybe it isn't. But it is one way it can happen to you.

    I have a couple of programs that can be turned loose upon the internet and tell it what I am looking for in the way of email addresses and it will go out and skim all the email addresses off of every website out there if given enough time. If I teach the program I want email addresses dealing with credit, credit bureaus, credit repair, credit anything, it will go out looking for websites that have that kind of information and once it finds such a website, it will go through that website with a fine tooth comb and come up with every email address on the website. Any subdirectories, hidden or not and harvest them all. And then it will move on until it finds another website dealing with the same information. Nothing on the site is safe from these programs. Then I can build a mailing list from that info.

    I don't use those programs for the simple reason that it generates too many spam complaints. It's not worth the time and trouble one gets into for using that type of program even if one's ISP can be hidden which is not really any problem either. It is entirely possible to make an email look like it is coming from a non-existant ISP. But the whole thing still stinks because if ANY people whose email addresses have been harvested in that manner simply won't buy from you because they are angy with having been spammed, then one has lost more than one has gained by using the program plus the problems that might arise with the spam police if they do happen to figure out what one's true ISP really is.

    That's how tons of these so called "clean" mailing lists that are sold on the internet daily are made up. They just turn a robot loose and harvest emails and sell them.

    So it makes no difference that Junum or Lex or anybody else sells or doesn't sell the email addys of their customers, there is still a grave danger that if they are stored anywhere on the internet, one or more of those harvester programs will get them sooner or later. That's because there are lots of people out there using those programs.

    Now you know.
     
  5. jason

    jason Well-Known Member

    Lex doesn't store them on the internet either. They're in a secure database that's not even online accessible.

    Keep in mind, Lexington receives thousands of requests for information each month. Any mishandling of those emails would bring down "spam police" issues that would cause the loss of all Lexington hosting and email.

    It's pretty hard to be a spammer and still have an internet presence.

    Keep guessing.
     
  6. bbauer

    bbauer Banned

    Jason:

    Thanks for your input.

    I'm sure you are well aware that I did not say that Lexington did keep customer emails on it's website, and I hope no one thinks I did say that or am even intimating that they do or ever did.

    What I did say was that those kinds of programs will harvest ANY email addys out there on any website. And that's another reason those kinds of programs are not very valuable to anyone contemplating their use. They get the webmaster, the any company contact infor right down to the janitor if indeed his email addy is on the website.

    The program does not know the difference, of course.
    In the internet marketing arena, so many new people come on line all the time looking to make a buck and come to the quick realization that email looks like a very lucrative potential market to tap into. So, until they learn better the hard way, many will actually buy all the "cleaned" email lists they can find. Then they lose their ISP for spamming and end up shooting themselves in the foot real quick.

    I'm not trying to put Lex or Junum or anyone else down here, just trying to show people here one way that emails are often "harvested" and sold to others for commercial purposes.

    There are lots of other ways people can get "spam" too without even realizing that they have opened themselves up for the junk mail they get.

    Most email programs such as Netscape and Internet Explorer have two neat little feature that lets one get rid of the spam and unwanted junk mail. One is the way in which one hits the delete key.

    If one just hits the delete key, the junk mail goes into the "trash" folder and must later be cleaned out by pulling down the "file" menu and clicking on "empty trash" which is an extra step and does take a bit of time. Many folks don't realize that just hitting the delete key isn't enough unless you first depress and hold the shift key down then hit the delete key. That's the 2nd neat feature. That permenantly sends the unwanted trash to the bit bucket never to be seen or heard from again.

    The other method is to click on "Edit" then "message filters" and set up a filter and set it for delete to delete unwanted emails from one's system. That is the best way to deal with spam. The reason is that it takes only a few moments to set up the filters and one never sees any email from the spammer again. This is obviously much better than going through all the hassle of reporting the idiot to the spam police. Reporting to the spam police takes up one's time and if the spammer is stubborn and resourceful enough, he will very quickly learn how to get around the spam cops so they never bother him again no matter what he does.
    But people keep on wasting their time with the "spam cops" when they could just cure the problem easier and much faster by setting up a message filter.

    There is also another danger in going to the spam cops most people don't know about or stop to think about. In the event that the spammer can come up with a solid bit of evidence that the reporter of the spam was wrong, the spammer can cross-file and get the spam cops to go after the reporter for filing false complaints. If the spammer is resourceful enough, he can get the penalties reversed back onto the person who reported him. The spam cops don't like getting false reports of spamming any more than they do spammers.
    So it can be a two way street.

    All in all, however, spamming is something one wants to keep away from at all costs, and "spamming" the credit bureaus with incessant demands for re-investigation of the same report isn't all that bright either. It's much better to go to the source of the problem and put a hitch in their git-along than it is to keep spamming the credit bureaus.

    And on top of that, it makes a lot more sense. And one of the side benefits of doing it that way is that once it's gone, it's gone into the bit bucket forever, and it won't keep coming back to haunt you later.
     
  7. Laray

    Laray Well-Known Member

    Lexington has been handling my disputes for the past three months. I have never had an email problem with them at at all. Like Jason said, all of the email i get from them is 100 percent lexington stuff
     
  8. Aharon

    Aharon Member

    Thanks for not turning this into a bash Lexington thread :)

    Ok, let me explain a little more detail. You wont actually get the spam from Lexington. There apparently is a Spam Reseller list going around for people who want to repair there credit. Categorized spam listings like these go for big $$$$ on the spam market.

    Here is a webpage I found. To the average reader who has not yet found lexington's webpage, this looks completly valid. A brief lexington description of services, but no actual link to Lexington's website. You have to give them your email address before they willl send you the link to lexingtons site.

    I tested this link with one of my throw away email accounts... The email recieved is from the "YourCreditMatters.com" domain. Which is owned by lexington. Lexington has thus stored your email, and sent you a piece of mail... It doesnt matter what the originating domain of the webpage is, it matters who initiated the email response to you.

    If they were so concerned about getting you to there webpage, they would have just posted a quick link on how to get there.. BUT, they want to get your EMAIL before giving you the URL. WHY?!?! Why on earth would they want your email addy?? Ahh.. spam reselling :) Seriously, if you post your email on an online form, and get a response.. 9x's out of 10, you have just allowed someone to sell your email to the lists.

    Check out this link.. I am sure there are many more like these out there:

    http://www.johnsonlane.com/legalservice/Lexingtonlaw.asp?Tag=012909&Agent=19


    Lexington is probably a great company. But, as a Network Administrator, I am on a lifelong battle against spam.. If they are doing it, atleast we could show our disaproval about it.
     
  9. jason

    jason Well-Known Member

    Aharon,

    While your suspicion of email lists is probably valid, Lexington DOES NOT sell its email list (I'm sitting here swearing on a stack of Bibles.)

    Lexington collects an email rather than simply send someone to a page because:

    1. It's cheaper to buy an email from the referral source (such as johnsonlane) because asking for a name and email doesn't take the visitor off the original site. Lex can tell the referral source, "The client will just leave and name and email and continue shopping on your site." There are some lead sources that do just pop people over to a website, but most prefer to collect the names and emails. They've never really tried to pitch the referral sources on a direct link.

    2. Lexington does send a series of its own emails, addressing all kinds of different credit repair concerns, to those who input their names. This is an internal mailing that complies with all anti-spam rules.

    Lexington gets offers all the time to buy their list, but THEY HAVE NEVER ALLOWED THEIR LIST TO BE SOLD OR USED BY ANYONE OTHER THAN LEXINGTON PROPER. Hard to believe, but absolutely true.

    It's not so much that Lexington has a bullet-proof privacy policy, rather, Lexington likes to preserve the integrity of its list for its own offers. If Lex sold the list to someone offering debt consolidation, for example, fewer people would respond to the Lexington offer in the future.

    Lexington doesn't do much, however, to police its lead sources. Its agreement with most lead sources requires that they NOT resell or otherwise use the Lexington leads, but this is no guarantee that it's not happening.
     
  10. nursie

    nursie Well-Known Member

    I think Bill's right on this one. I've been getting slammed with spam ever since I started coming to this site. I haven't signed up for anything credit related but this site. Unless creditnet is selling our addies, it must be the seek & find thing. It's really been annoying me, also. Now I'm wishing credit net would find a way to prevent this.
     
  11. bbauer

    bbauer Banned

    I could always turn out to be wrong, but I very seriously doubt that creditnet is selling our emal addys.
     

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