Spammed by the Arizona Republican Party

I don't know how they got my email address--I've never been (and never will be) a registered Republican.

From: "Chairman Matt Salmon"
To: [my email address]
Subject: Arizona Republican Party Roundup - March 15, 2006
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:53:37 -0600

Attention Republican Clubs and Organizations - Submit your events to
events@azgop.org

In This Issue:
Chairman Salmon on the Death of State Senator Marilyn Jarrett
Capitol Update
Kyl Immigration Provisions Moving Forward

...

Paid for by the Arizona Republican Party

(602) 957-7770

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.


----------------------------------------

This email was sent by:
Republican Party of Arizona
3501 N 24th Street
Phoenix, AZ, 85016, USA

The actual email came from ExactTarget.com, whose anti-spam policy says:

Anti-SPAM at ExactTarget

ExactTarget believes, practices, and requires its clients to practice only permission-based e-mail marketing. Our clients certify that they will use our software only to send e-mails to customers and prospects that have directly consented (opted-in) to receive their e-mail. They are forbidden to transmit unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) via our system.

Members Agreement

Our clients agree not to use our system to send unsolicited e-mail. For any opt-in list of e-mail addresses used in ExactTarget's system, clients agree to provide us with the source of the e-mail addresses, the method used to capture the data, and verification of the consent to receive e-mails from such client. We also encourage our members to respect their customers' time and attention by controlling the frequency of mailings to individual e-mail addresses.

Our clients certify that they will not use rented or purchased lists, e-mail append lists, or any other list that contains e-mail addresses captured in any other method than opt-in. The use of opt-out lists is prohibited in our system. ExactTarget retains the right to review client lists and e-mails to verify that clients are abiding by the privacy and permission policies set forth herein. However, our clients are ultimately responsible for compliance with our policies.

I don't think there's any way my email address would have ended up on their list except by email appending.

I've complained to them and to ExactTarget's abuse address, asking both for an explanation and what they're going to do to rectify the situation. My guess is that they will continue to spam for the Republicans--in which case they deserve to be added to anti-spam blocking lists.

BTW, for anti-spammers, the originating MTA was mta.emailgop.com (207.67.38.104), on Time Warner Telecom's network. The IP block is SWIP'd to TW Telecom, and TW Telecom's rwhois shows it assigned to Exact Target. The company has had a few previous incidents with spamming, but the blog of Chip House, their VP of Privacy and Deliverability, endorses decent principles.

UPDATE: "Nate Romance" of Exact Target responded to my complaint, stating that:

At ExactTarget we take these complaints very seriously and we work hard to ensure that our clients send mail only to people who have asked to receive mail. Clients who do not adhere to our policies face an escalating series of penalties, including but not limited to: chargeback fees, mailing restrictions, and termination. Our Privacy Policy located here:

http://website.exacttarget.com/exacttarget_company_privacypolicy.asp

and our Anti-SPAM policy located here:

http://website.exacttarget.com/exacttarget_company_antispam.asp

will provide you with additional information and should answer any questions you might have.

Additionally, we will investigate this issue with our client, and determine what we can do to ensure that it does not persist. In the meantime, I have added your email address ([address deleted]) to our "Master Unsubscribe List" which will ensure that you do not receive email from the Arizona Republican Party or any other client of ExactTarget.

Thanks for bringing this matter to our attention and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Please let me know if there are additional items I can assist you with.