Providing your email address to merchants Mar01 '07

# (1 of 4): Jennifer Grucza » jennifergrucza.com

6 hours, 32 minutes after the fact. (Thu 01 Mar 2007, 12:28 PM CST)

I don't really consider these merchant newsletters to be spam, since you can easily unsubscribe to the mailings.

# (2 of 4): Matthom

6 hours, 44 minutes after the fact. (Thu 01 Mar 2007, 12:40 PM CST)

Yeah I agree. I'm just peeved that she lied to me.

# (3 of 4): Ethan O.

1 month, 2 weeks after the fact. (Wed 18 Apr 2007, 7:20 PM CST)

Uhm, I don't see how it is that easy - the unsubscribe link sends me to a login page that requires me to enter my rewards card number and email address. Problem: I've misplaced my rewards card number.

https://www.bordersrewards.com/EmailPreferences.aspx

Any one else have this problem??

# (4 of 4): Pissed Off Borders Customer

5 months after the fact. (Fri 03 Aug 2007, 11:45 PM CST)

I've been a Borders email newsletter subscriber since they first offered it; the new book announcements are relatively useless, but the 30% off coupons rock. I've gotten a good deal from the Borders Rewards program, too -- one of the very few such cards I'm willing to carry.

Now, however, Borders has gone too far. I set up a separate email address for every company I do business with. It's easy enough if you own a domain name and decent hosting -- just alias them all to one main address. This allows me to track who sells me out to the spammers. Until this past Tuesday, that has been two companies: iBill (particularly graphic porn spam) and the Southern California BBB (handed the email address I gave them over to one of their members who I had complained about for spamming). Well, on Tuesday, the Borders address started getting hit. Mostly trojans, by the way.

Looks like Borders decided to make a quick buck selling their email list. And they sold it to scumbags.

That's the only one of my many company-specific addresses that's getting hit, so nothing has been compromised on my end or they'd all be getting spammed. The only place that email address has ever been used was at a Border's store, twice -- once several years ago, when I signed up for the newsletter, and once a year+ ago when they started the Borders Rewards program.

The motherless sons sold us out. Borders. The company I always thought was the "good guy" in comparison to Barnes & Noble's constant harassment of customers to buy their $25 "membership" cards. Well, I guess it proves my longtime suspicions right: stores have to make money off those "loyalty" programs somehow, and the way they do it is selling our data.