Messiah Stream Television

[tastewar]

I received an email early this morning advertising the above. I received it at the email address that I've only ever used for this forum. It's the first time I've received unwanted communication at that address, so I'm guessing someone harvested email addresses from here somehow. This caused me to go look carefully at my forum options, and where there's usually an obvious option to hide your email address, I didn't see it right away. Apparently, the option of interest is "allow vCard download" which was checked in my profile. So either that was the default, or I was feeling unusually trusting given that this was obviously a group of Christians interested in spreading the gospel. And one could argue that sending an ad about such a service is just that: spreading the gospel. And yet still, it's advertising, and I can't help but feel a little annoyed. I would have thought (without the careful reading that I undoubtedly should do) that the user agreement would prohibit harvesting email addresses and using them for advertising.

Has anyone else gotten this email? Am I the only one who was annoyed by it? Just curious. If it becomes a pattern (i.e. if M.S.T. puts me on a mailing list, or just as likely given their shady use already -- if they sell my address), I will just change my email address here.

[dmot]

I had the "allow vCard download" checked and I have been on this site since 2004 and have never had any problems like this.

[[Admin] osborn4]

I got one this morning in a different account that I only use for church business. So I'm not sure where they are harvesting.

But I did not get one with the email attached here, or my other email address that I call my "spam-bait" account that I usually use for signing up places that I'm not familiar with.

[tpichler]

I received this advertisement as well. This is also the first unwanted advertising email I have seen through CMN. I am not upset or anything I just want to help provide more details so you can act as you see fit.

I provide unique emails to every site I subscribe to. So I am certain that the leak came from here. I also noticed that the "allow vcard download" option was checked on my account. I turned that off just in case that may be related.

One more piece of info. I noticed in my personal info that my recent visitors list contains "MessiahTV" which is the same name as on the advertisement.

[petereit]

I got it. It didn't disturb me. If I'm going to get unsolicited advertisements from this site, this would be the kind I would want.

Their offerings didn't interest me, and I let them know it. (No support for iOS devices?!?? Feh!)

[[Admin] osborn4]

I just realized that the email account that I did get this on, is tied to a different CMN account. I checked and sure enough, MessiahTV was the last visitor on that other account.

I have sent this on to the "real" admins. But in the mean time, turning off vCard download is probably not a bad idea.

[KeckCreative]

Got the same e-mail. But actually I was more suspect of the Church Designers League I recently signed up at than here.

[tastewar]

Originally Posted by KeckCreative

Got the same e-mail. But actually I was more suspect of the Church Designers League I recently signed up at than here.

For me, this is the only church-related forum I've registered with, and the only place I used that email address.

[tastewar]

Well, now I've received two emails, which means that this person didn't just send a single message to people, but rather he added harvested email addresses to a mailing list. Note that the emails are ads for a pay service. A service so expensive that the email is offering a $300/month *discount.* If this isn't the definition of UCE, I don't know what is. OK, that other stuff you're thinking of is, too.

What's the best way to contact the CMN admins about this abuse?

[petereit]

SPAM filter. Easier. More effective.

[northerntech]

I've had a few e-mails from these folk... wondered where they sourced the addresses from. Anyway, finally found the "unsubscribe" link and that seems to have stopped the flow. I guess unscrupulous business practices aren't limited to the secular world.

[tastewar]

Originally Posted by petereit

SPAM filter. Easier. More effective.

I can solve the problem for *me* -- that's not the issue. In fact, I found the second message in my SPAM filter. I'd just like to discourage people like this from doing what they're doing.