(Without) Competent newsletter

I want to tell about the story happened to me (and not only with me) just last night.

I used to smoke cherry Richmond cigarettes, for the simple and banal reason that I liked them (Captain Obvious is delighted with this offer). Inside the packs with these cigarettes were liners with tags. For a long time I did not pay attention to them ...

Then, out of pure curiosity, I went to their website (I don’t cite a link, in order not to make too much advertising, who I need to find myself) and looked at what profits the collection of these codes could bring. Actually, I very rarely participate in such promotions because I am a pragmatic person and I understand that the chance to win something is negligible (if there is one at all), but then our unforgettable Avos came over me and I decided to take part in the action ( more than that, the cheapest prize was worth about 35,000 wooden ones). He began to collect liners and drive them on the site.
In fairness, I want to note that I decided on all this despite the very curved layout of the site and the lack of verification of the numbers from the inserts for duplication (I still wonder why this did not stop me). After making about 70 plates, I successfully “scored” this case.

So what is all the same topic?

It would seem that the story would have ended on this ... But, this plot turned out to be a pretty funny twist!
On the 27th of May at 15:16 I received a letter from the addressee rek at intrareklama.ru (the address is not only given in a non-paired format, but also changed) in which it was reported that Richmond Club had updated the design of its site. I didn’t even want to look at the site, so I simply picked up and deleted the letter.
Exactly 14 minutes later I received a letter from an addressee unknown to me with the following, I quote, text:
Fuck you all in the ass ....
At first I was surprised at this strange content. Then, after thinking over my head and looking at the title of the letter (in particular the addressee), I saw that it was addressed to the same rek at intrareklama.ru . There is no need to be seven pjaddy in the forehead, to understand that those fools .. the specialists who were engaged in this mailing, have appointed the address for the list rek at intrareklama.ru and the same address was indicated as the sender.
After some time, letters began to come in with not quite censorship content, threats and questions “What do you want from me?!” And “What have I done to you ?!”.
I tried to clarify the situation and wrote a response letter with the following content:
')
admin at richmond-tobacco.com, !
rek@intrareklama.ru - , !

The original letter is also slightly edited, in order not to “shine” the mailing address.
My letter, unfortunately, had no effect - the letters continued to crumble ...
Since I use Google Mail, for me this “event” was relatively painless - I created a filter and all the letters went immediately to the basket. But, as a curious person, I periodically looked in there.

And then what happened?

It would seem that this story should end, but still this story turned out to have another very funny and unexpected turn for most.
Somewhere after the 150th letter (counted by the number of letters in chains) some sharp-witted individuals began to show ingenuity and “business acumen”. How do you, dear habryuzer (or just a guest), you know, this situation turned out to be, simply, a gift for those who wanted to make a mailing list “for free” (for any mailing costs money). Simply put, spamming from some mailing list members has begun! Messages like “Hello, girls!”, “Putin is a shame of the nation” and advertising of all kinds of obscure products of rather doubtful origin and quality began to emerge.
Well, then the google filter (not the one I set up, but already global) understood that these letters need to be “beaten off” in spam, and even some time there were letters whose content stated that the letter could not be delivered to the destination.
Some time later, the letters stopped coming altogether. Hopefully, the rest of the mail providers also responded in time and covered up this great newsletter chat.
Another, I’ll use this word again, the funny fact was that some users, taking advantage of the opportunity, began to ask if anyone won the promotion, but such questions remained unanswered.

So why bother to write a topic at all?

Conclusion: I personally have already lost any desire to participate in any actions that are held to promote any product. Naturally, if you even thought about such an action for a moment, I advise you not to do it anyway, or at least take a more careful approach to exploring the possibilities of the companies that conduct such actions. I also had to stop when I saw the action site ...
In any case, the decision is yours, I just urge caution - take a closer look at what you are signing.
Advertisers, on the other hand, would like to advise a more thorough approach to the issue of organizing mailing lists and choosing a performer of this, not entirely ethical, in my opinion, way of product promotion.

Small note

In this particular situation, everything was fine, but if people with ingenuity took advantage of it more seriously and technically better, they would have got an excellent chance to arrange sending out sniffer links and other nastiness. In this case, information (at best, and at worst, money and reputation) would be “poked” a lot!