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Spammers == DigitalDream.com

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DigitalDream.com == spammer

I guess this is a sign that a marketplace for services is arriving, but when I get “signs” by being smacked in the face, I’m not very happy about it. This morning, I received unsolicited email from [email protected] offering to help me solve “the problem with feeds — RSS bandwidth usage.” Yes, someone is jumping on a new opportunity… may even be a real one. I know some folks who think so, but I don’t want to tar any good companies by mentioning them in this post. Nor will I link to those who did the spamming. I’m hoping that by publicly calling them out, the negative effect will override the ‘positive’ effect of just mentioning their name and services.

The spammers at DigitalDream.com provide News Interceptor, a Windows newsreader that sits in your taskbar. OK, join the crowd. And is it spyware? That may not be a fair question, but if you spam like this, you’re calling into question your ethics in other areas.

Now, calling themselves D2Soft Technologies, they are offering RSScache.com. The spammers at Digital Dream (yes, I’m repeating myself) call this service “the bandwidth saver solution for your RSS feeds.”

In some instances, feed crawling has caused concern (too many possible links, so none), and I guess enough angst for someone to say “I can help scratch that itch.” I guess the business model is to sell the software, since they offer an enterprise installation. But with a business that includes spamming, are you really going to install something on your server from these guys? I’m know somewhere in the Slashcode is the Apache module that controls outrageous crawlers — that’s battle-tested code.

Here’s the domain registry info for RSSCache.com and DigitalDream.com, both for proof that they are connected (email wasn’t spoofed) and to help other share their thoughts with the spammers.

Domain Name: RSSCACHE.COM
Digital Dream (VVTIXPTLUD)
CP 206, Succursale Ahuntsic
Montreal, Qc H3L 3N9
CA

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Digital Dream (20605077O) [email protected]
(same address as above)
1-514-335-2132 fax: 1-514-335-2134

Record expires on 26-Sep-2006.
Record created on 26-Sep-2004.
Bulk whois optout: Y [ed., nice of him/her to opt out of spam]

Domain servers in listed order:
NS.PIXELWEB.NET 207.183.36.4
NS2.PIXELWEB.NET 207.183.36.8

Domain Name: DIGITALDREAM.COM

Same info as above, except for:
Berube, Benjamin (BB2467) [email protected] [ed. adds his handle]

Record expires on 13-Sep-2005.

Record created on 14-Sep-1996.
Bulk whois optout: Y

Here’s the spam, in its entirety (well, with my email address and details removed):

From: [email protected]
Subject: RSS bandwidth usage problem with your site?
Date: October 14, 2004 9:14:05 PM PDT
To: REMOVED
Return-Path: [email protected]
Delivered-To: REMOVED
Received: (qmail 55443 invoked by uid 13075); 15 Oct 2004 04:44:08 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO blade.d2soft.com) ([209.5.105.122]) (envelope-sender [email protected]) by REMOVED; 15 Oct 2004 04:44:08 -0000
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_003C_01C4B24B.E1F38220″
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.5510
Thread-Index: AcSybWjhmM8IOwC5S86JsXh1vlRvsA==
X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441

Hello,

We have seen that you offer a RSS feed on your site “clock — watching time, the only true currency”.æ You are probably already aware of the problem with feeds: bandwidth over usage.æ You might even be reconsidering your feed because of your bandwidth cost.æ RSScache.com is the solution to save more than 90% on your bandwidth usage.

You can start using RSScache.com in less than 10 seconds.æ It’s free and requires no installation at all.æ You just need to add “my.rsscache.com” in your feed URL, like this:

my.rsscache.com/REMOVED (since I don’t want to be associated with these folks in search engine snippets)

Simply replace your current link on your Web site with this link.æ Check out our site for information on our new technology and how it works (www.rsscache.com).

Best regards,

D2Soft Technologies Team
www.rsscache.com

I see that at least three others have noticed this spam:

Glad to see I’m not the only one to rush to publicly shame them for this effort.

Update: Had to edit the post because Radio made the links active automatically. Edited to avoid that.

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