|
Roman Palace or Gambling Software Systems sells your email address to spammers
Introduction We use a unique email address for each website we do business with online, so we can tell if they give our address to spammers. That's what happened when we signed up with Roman Palace casino in December 2000: we used a special, secret address, and then the spam started coming in to that address. But it might not have been Roman Palace itself that sold us out to spammers, it could have been Gambling Software Systems (GSS), the company that makes the games that Roman Palace uses, since the companies share information with each other. In any event, neither company has even attempted to offer any explanation for what has happened. We therefore recommend that you avoid Roman Palace, as well as any other casino that uses GSS software. (Here's a list of GSS casinos from WinnerOnline.) Incidentally, the Online Players Association has called for a boycott of GSS casinos anyway, over a dispute in which players lost money when a GSS-powered casino went out of business. Below is our correspondence with Roman Palace and Gambling Software.
Subject: Stop selling me to spammers! Date: 12/21/00 From: Michael Bluejay To: manager@romanpalacecasino.com support@romanpalacecasino.com When I tried to sign up with Roman Palace, I used a special email address so that I'd be able to tell if you gave my address to spammers. (By the way, my credit card issuer wouldn't approve the card charge because they won't allow online gaming transactions, [so I never activated my account], but that's neither here nor there.) Now I get the email below, blank except for the header information, from "cyberpromotion@winning.com", addressed to that secret email address I set up. I went to your Live Support online, and asked the support rep (Christine) how to get you to stop giving my name to spammers, and she replied, "You will need to contact your ISP." !!! I protested that my ISP has nothing to do with ROMAN PALACE selling me out to spammers, and then she suggested that I forward the email to your support address. Which is what I'm doing; it's pasted below. (Since my email client doesn't handle HTML mail, all I can see is the header.) Please advise. By the way, if I get spammed even one more time because of Roman Palace, I'm going to get Roman Palace on every online casino Blacklist that I can find. (I know of three so far.) -MBJ- [Headers listed here in original] [Note: Roman Palace did not reply to this email.]
Subject: Who gave my address away? Date: July 23, 2001 From: Michael Bluejay, VegasReference.com To: Gambling Software Systems When I signed up with Roman Palace in December, I used a unique email address, and then started getting spam to that email address. So my question is, did Roman Palace give my address to spammers, or did you?
Subject: Spam received Date: 7/23/01 2:00 PM From: Operations, operations@gamblingsoftware.com To: Michael Bluejay Mr. Bluejay, I am investigating your complaint on spam received. If possible could you please forward to me the mail that you received violating the no Spamming Affiliate Rule which GS and all of its Licensees enforce. I have already discussed with the Manager at Roman Palace this matter and he will be back in touch this afternoon. He is currently checking with his marketing team. I await your response and the sample of the spam that you have been receiving to your unique e-mail address. Sincerely, Cecil Dunn
Subject: Re: Spam received Date: 7/23/01 5:36 PM To: Operations, operations@gamblingsoftware.com Thanks for getting back to me. I'm not sure you understood my question/complaint as I stated it to you. I did not receive spam from Roman Palace. Instead, I signed up with Roman Palace, and they gave my email address to other companies which are now spamming me (and have been doing so since I signed up with Roman Palace in December). Here are the headers from one of the spams I received to the unique email address I used when I signed up with Roman Palace: ... This is by no means the only spam I've received to this address. My email software doesn't render HTML mail, but rather includes HTML mail as an attachment; I'm forwarding that attachment I received with the email cited above to you now. Incidentally, this issue goes beyond the fact that Roman Palace sold me out to spammers; what's worse is how unhelpful they were when I contacted them about it. I went to their online support chat, and asked why they gave out my email address, and they insisted that they didn't. I explained that they absolutely did, since I had the spam to prove it, and that I hadn't given that address to anyone else, and they told me, get this: THAT I WOULD HAVE TO CONTACT MY ISP TO RESOLVE THE MATTER! Hello? I then wrote separately to Roman Palace about this issue, and they asked me to send copies of spam I'd received, and I did so, but of course I never heard back from them. Since email lists are sold and resold, I expect that I will likely receive spam to that address forever. Since the address is hidden in an Internet header, my email software can't automatically filter it out. I hope you are able to get your licensee to stop selling out its customers to spammers. I would appreciate hearing about any progress you make in that regard. Michael Bluejay
Subject: RE: Spam received Date: 7/23/01 From: Operations, operations@gamblingsoftware.com To: Michael Bluejay Mr. BlueJay, As you can imagine, I am most disturbed by this information. I am coordinating with the Manager of Roman Palace - Gary Robinson to get to the bottom on this as we do not condone this type of action. I thank you for your cooperation. He will be in touch shortly as he wishes to discuss with you the customer service which you have received. I will keep you informed as to how this progresses. Sincerely, Cecil Dunn
Michael, Firstly, I would like to extend to you my apologies regarding the terrible service you have received and the spam which you are now receiving. Roman Palace Casino and the Staff of Gambling Software and looking into the matter to have it resolved as soon as possible. Would it be possible for you to provide me the mail in which the CS agent said you should inform you ISP? This is astounding and I will definitely be taking this matter up with CS. Also, should you desire to come back to the casino I would like to give you $25 to come play the games of your choice. Please let me know if you would like to take me up on the offer that I may inform Accounting Department and have them credit your account. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours Truly, Gary Robinson
Subject: Re: My Apologies Date: 7/23/01 To: Gary Robinson, manager@romanpalace.com CC: operations@gamblingsoftware.com Mr. Robinson, Thank you for your prompt reply. To clarify, the directive that I should contact my ISP about your giving out my email address came from your support rep Christine, during a live support chat, not via email. After I pressed the issue, she eventually understood (I think) and asked me to forward copies of spams I received to Roman Palace. I did, but I never heard from anyone at Roman Palace. I'll be frank with you: I'm skeptical of the concern you show now, because Roman Palace completely blew off my complaint at the time that I made it, by not sending me even a form-letter reply when I sent in the spams I'd received. Roman Palace didn't express any concern until I took my complaint to GamblingSoftware. That gives me pause. The other thing that concerns me is, how did this happen in the first place? Obviously, someone at Roman Palace made the decision to sell my address to spammers, and if so, certainly it was the pattern and practice to sell other customers' addresses also. This would have to have been a deliberate action; I cannot see how it could have been accidental. I appreciate your offer of $25 credit, but I will decline it. I would happily trade that offer for the ability to not receive any more spam [to the address I gave you] were that possible, but we both know that it is not. Sincerely, Michael Bluejay [Note: Roman Palace did not reply to this email.]
Subject: Follow-up on spam via Roman Palace Date: 8/2/01 11:53 PM To: Gary Robinson, manager@romanpalace.com operations@gamblingsoftware.com In my email of 7/23 I mentioned my suspicions that your selling customers' addresses to spammers is actually a pattern and practice and not just accidental. The fact that you have made no effort to convince me otherwise certainly leads me to believe that this is actually the case. In the meantime, I looked around the net and found a reference alleging that Roman Palace is in fact owned and/or operated by Gambling Software. Given the mountain of other complaints against GSS I uncovered, I wonder if it were actually GSS that gave my address to spammers? Also in the meantime, I continue to receive more spam to the unique address I used when I joined Roman Palace. Here's the header of a recent example, for Golden7Casino (golden7.net): Received: by smaug (mbox bluejay) (with Cubic Circle's cucipop (v1.31 1998/05/13)
Mon Jul 30 19:17:21 2001)
X-From_: vipspecial@addcom.de Mon Jul 30 19:14:49 2001
Return-Path: <vipspecial@addcom.de>
Received: from pille.addcom.de (pille.addcom.de [62.96.128.34])
by smaug.dreamhost.com (8.12.0.Beta7/8.12.0.Beta7/Debian 8.12.0.Beta7-1)
with SMTP id f6V2Em13000996
for <rp@michaelbluejay.com>; Mon, 30 Jul 2001 19:14:48 -0700
Message-Id: <200107310214.f6V2Em13000996@smaug.dreamhost.com>
Received: (qmail 4239 invoked by uid 502); 31 Jul 2001 00:53:13 -0000
Received: from n-dialin-1487.addcom.de (HELO lothar) (62.246.9.47)
by pille.addcom.de with SMTP; 31 Jul 2001 00:53:13 -0000
From: "Manager" <vipspecial@addcom.de>
To: <rrabbit56@netscape.net>
Subject: 100 % Matchplay
Sender: "Manager" <vipspecial@addcom.de>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 02:53:42 +0200
Also, I was able to dig up the original email I sent to Roman Palace, to which I never received a response: [12/21/00, reproduced above]
Update, Feb. 2003. I'm now receiving spam to the unique address I used to send my complaint to Gambling Software Systems! Given the obvious contempt that GSS has for its customers' privacy, I suggest you not play at any of their casinos. Update, Dec. 2005. CasinoMeister has a page about fighting casino spam. |
|
|||
|
