gr3kgr33n's Journal: Unsubscribe from Amazon.com newsletter , the Grayhat Way

Recently I bought some products from Amazon.com as many others have done. While filling out my new account information, I opted out of their promotional mailings.

Shortly after receiving my order without any problems or delays, I started receiving their promotional emails. I followed the instructions in the spam to unsubscribe under the assumption Amazon.com would honnor my requests.

The account changes were applied, an email was generated telling me about my account changes and I thought I would be rid of these promotional mailings. Nope, they showed up again.

So what is a person to do when recieving spam mail that bypasses Gmail's spam filters? Yep, set up a filter.

Step 1. Make a filter that fowards any emails comming from all the *[e-mail] addresses recorded thus far to [e-mail]
Step 2. Recieve no responce from [e-mail]
Step 3. Keep recieving spam messages.
Step 4. Get annoyed with Amazon and modify your filters. Bounce all .*@((.*)[.]*)Amazon.com emails to a large number of email addresses to get someone attention. ([e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; CC: [e-mail] BCC: [e-mail])
Step 5. Brace for Mailer Daemons to Mail bomb me. (Remember, if the Mailer Daemon emails me to say the address does not exist, it will forward that email to the list)
Step 6. Watch the response. To date: (~)Failed to deliver/Unknown address, (5)You account Has been Updated (1)Executive Staff Responce

All in all, Amazon.com responded fairly and quickly to my unorthodox request. My account was updated an unknown about of times.

I mentioned the Executive Staff responce and I would like to share this with you. Please keep in mind, it wasn't my intention, nor expected that [e-mail] would actually be available/watched.

[Headers Yanked]
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:02:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Executive Customer Relations <[e-mail]>
To: "######@gmail.com" <######@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Your Email to Jeff Bezos
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Bounces-to: [e-mail]
X-AMAZON-RTE-VERSION: 2.0
X-AMAZON-CLIENT-SENDTIME: Wed Oct 10 18:02:14 PDT 2007
X-AMAZON-CLIENT-HOST: cs-bsf-5101.iad5.amazon.com
X-AMAZON-MAIL-RELAY-TYPE: notification

Dear ######,

My name is Eric Layne of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations.
Jeff Bezos received your e-mail and asked that I respond on his
behalf. I'm sorry for the time it's taken to do so.

I would also like to apologize for the frustration you have
experienced while trying to unsubscribe from our promotional mailings.

I have unsubscribed ######@gmail.com from all of our mailings. You
may have already received a notification e-mail that this has
occurred. When such actions are taken on your account, our system
automatically sends you a confirmation e-mail for your records.

Please note that it may take several business days to process such=20
requests, and you may receive one or two additional e-mails before
the unsubscribe process has been completed. We apologize for the
inconvenience.=20

As a rule, we send e-mail announcements only to Amazon.com customers
and subscribers who have given us their e-mail addresses of their own
accord by placing orders, subscribing to one of our notification
services, sending e-Cards, or entering one of our contests. We have
never purchased e-mail addresses or obtained e-mail addresses from
newsgroups or other web sites, except in cases where people have
specifically asked to be notified about Internet promotions. Each
promotional e-mail we send includes instructions on how to unsubscribe.

For future reference, you may also unsubscribe from any of our
notification services or customer mailings online at this URL:

http://www.amazon.com/unsubscribe

Note that there are usually two e-mail messages that we send after=20
you place an order--the order confirmation mail and the shipment
confirmation mail. This e-mail is sent automatically, and there is
no way to opt out of these important mailings.

I hope that this information is helpful. Please feel free to contact
me directly at [e-mail] if I may be of further assistance.

Regards,

Eric Layne
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com =20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D

From: ##### ##### [mailto:######@#########.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:56 PM
To: Abuse; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; Bezos, Jeff; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]
Subject: Fwd: Save 26% at Amazon.com on "Casshern" on DVD

Since your unsubscribe functionality does not work in my situation, I
will continue to forward any unsolicited newsletters.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>
<[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>
Date: Oct 9, 2007 3:05 PM
Subject: Save 26% at Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com> on "Casshern" on DVD
To: "######@gmail.com<mailto:######@gmail.com>"
<######@gmail.com<mailto:######@gmail.com>>

<http://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?R=3D1ELQ4OOHGTZDQ&C=3DALHP589X6O6Q&H=3DZ64=
nQBeoEn65PR5rm4PCDuGBlnQA&T=3DC&U=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fhome=
page.html%2Fref%3Dpe_5150_7153470_pe_snp_BFK>

Dear Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com> Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated ##### ###### ####### ######
have also purchased Casshern on DVD. For this reason, you might like
to know that Casshern will be released on October 16, 2007. You can
pre-order yours at a savings of $7.00 by following the link below.

<http://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?R=3D1ELQ4OOHGTZDQ&C=3DALHP589X6O6Q&H=3DRIQ=
UqiA6LxjWdeuHaAaMcGMjgBQA&T=3DC&U=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fprod=
uct%2FB000UAEBFK%2Fref%3Dpe_5150_7153470_pe_snp_BFK>
=20
Casshern<http://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?R=3D1ELQ4OOHGTZDQ&C=3DALHP589X6O6Q=
&H=3DRIQUqiA6LxjWdeuHaAaMcGMjgBQA&T=3DC&U=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fg=
p%2Fproduct%2FB000UAEBFK%2Fref%3Dpe_5150_7153470_pe_snp_BFK>
Yusuke Iseya
List Price: $26.99
Price: $19.99
You Save: $7.00 (26%)

Release Date: October 16, 2007

[Partial Content of Spam Removed]

Sincerely,

Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>
http://amazon.com<http://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?R=3D1ELQ4OOHGTZDQ&C=3DALH=
P589X6O6Q&H=3DZ64nQBeoEn65PR5rm4PCDuGBlnQA&T=3DC&U=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazo=
n.com%2Fgp%2Fhomepage.html%2Fref%3Dpe_5150_7153470_pe_snp_BFK>

________________________________
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?R=3D1ELQ4OOHGTZDQ&C=3DALHP589X6O6Q&H=3Ddos=
dFG3L3HFSDuUl62iqx4SKd3gA&T=3DC&U=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Ffeat=
ure.html%2F%2Fref%3Dpe_5150_7153470%3FdocId%3D1000140741>
________________________________

We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you'd rather
not receive future e-mails of this sort from
Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>, please visit the opt-out link here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/gss/o/1EZ8a9UUcf158xtUhaiqEtgfDl1h7Q1UaEfI4ih9oqlw=
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?R=3D1ELQ4OOHGTZDQ&C=3DALHP589X6O6Q&H=3De32=
xXZQDx678fZLAJlAiksEOXa0A&T=3DX&U=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fgss%=
2Fo%2F1EZ8a9UUcf158xtUhaiqEtgfDl1h7Q1UaEfI4ih9oqlw>

Please note that product prices and availability are subject to
change. Prices and availability were accurate at the time this
newsletter was sent; however, they may differ from those you see when
you visit Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>.

(c) 2007 Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>, Inc. or its affiliates. All
rights reserved. Amazon, Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com> and the
Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com> logo are registered trademarks of
Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>, Inc. or its affiliates.

Amazon.com<http://Amazon.com>, 1200 12th Ave. S., Suite 1200, Seattle,
WA 98144-2734.

Reference 7153470

Please note that this message was sent to the following e-mail
address: ######@gmail.com<mailto:######@gmail.com>

Regards,

Eric Layne
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com =20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D

I would like to say, Amazon.com did make the first and second mistake by Sending me unsolicited emails and continuing to send them after a customer re-opted out of the mailings; however, I am pleased the staff has resolved this situation in a timely, courteous and professional manner. I have since disabled the filter based on the good will of this latest email and will continue to do business with amazon.com