Ticketmaster spam

Gunther_Gloop

I bought tickets online with ticketmaster a few days ago for the first time. I ticked/unticked everything necessary to ensure I did not receive further notifications from them or anyone else. I used an email address that had never been used before or since.

Within 2 days I received spam from hottickets@ccLive.co.uk with no mention whatsoever of ticketmaster, but when I checked of course it was sent to the never-used address I had used with ticketmaster.

Not content with abusing their monopoly position in many other ways (in my opinion), this is a new underhanded technique that I haven't seen or heard of before by Ticketmaster.

They're up there with Eircom as most-despicable Irish company in my book.

Gunther_Gloop

Despite unsubscribing from that hottickets spam (which I never do normally so as not to 'let them know' I do exist) I received a second spam from them today to the same address.

It's quite plain to me that the company that has a monopoly on sales on many (most?) live events in Ireland is abusing their position by

a) Either
...passing on customer details to third party/parties
or
...using customer details themselves under a thinly-disguised sister company.

and

b) Ignoring all attempts to
...not be included in the first place
and
...be removed from these lists once they get there.

-Kevin.

Ste.phen

you could always try an address such as "allunsolicitedmailchargedat500europeritem@mydomain.com"

then send them the bill
probably got a 0 chance of success, but they might at least leave you alone.

dahamsta

If you're absolutely certain that you opted out you should complain to the Data Protection Commissioner.

http://www.dataprivacy.ie/

adam

eth0_

Strange, I order from ticketmaster regularly and i've never had an ounce of spam from them!

Gunther_Gloop

The spam isn't coming from ticketmaster. Its coming from the one I mentioned above. The email address I used has only ever been used once -and that's when I ordered from ticketmaster.

It is not possible for the source to be any other place.

-Kevin.

eth0_

Originally posted by Gunther_Gloop

It is not possible for the source to be any other place.

-Kevin.

Yes it is. Unless your email address is something like

234235788john28497mick123235934578934687@eircom.net, it's very easy to get spam, spammers often just guess at email addresses, they aren't always working off a list.

Gunther_Gloop

Originally posted by eth0_
Yes it is. Unless your email address is something like

234235788john28497mick123235934578934687@eircom.net, it's very easy to get spam, spammers often just guess at email addresses, they aren't always working off a list.

No it's not. I've contacted the Data Protection agency on this and they agree with me & are following it up. The word "Ticketmaster" forms part of the address I used when signing up. No spammer would use that -certainly not within 2 days of my signup.

Neither would I have any cause to use that address other than in ordering from ticketmaster.

-Kevin.

eth0_

Originally posted by Gunther_Gloop
No it's not.

Believe me, it is. Sign up for a hotmail address if you don't believe me, and make sure you untick any boxes offering to sign you up to "newsletters". I guarantee you within a very short time you'll get spam to this address which nobody knows anything about except you.

Gunther_Gloop

Originally posted by eth0_
Believe me, it is. Sign up for a hotmail address if you don't believe me, and make sure you untick any boxes offering to sign you up to "newsletters". I guarantee you within a very short time you'll get spam to this address which nobody knows anything about except you.

...and Hotmail. Believe *me*, this spam came from my signup with ticketmaster and I have proof. And the Data Protection agency agree with me.

-Kevin.

dahamsta

I had 'darealhamsta' at Hotmail for a full year without a single spam message. Granted, 'ticketmaster' would be more susceptible to a dictionary attack, but only because it's Hotmail. If it was simply ticketmaster@ a major ISP, possibly, but most spammers target only the commonly-used dictionary words like info@ and help@.

adam

eth0_

Originally posted by Gunther_Gloop
...and Hotmail. Believe *me*, this spam came from my signup with ticketmaster and I have proof. And the Data Protection agency agree with me.

-Kevin.

What's your proof, i'm intrigued.

Gunther_Gloop

Originally posted by eth0_
What's your proof, i'm intrigued.

Well nothing too dramatic -just that I don't view html documents by default and ticketmaster was NOT mentioned in the text body of the email I saw (before posting here).
However they were mentioned in small print as being a 'partner' of hottickets in the html document that was attached. It also stated I was being sent the email because I recently did business with their partner (again -despite me chosing NOT to get this type of thing and despite me 'unsubscribing' following the original spam).

Because hottickets is a uk company and the spam came from the uk, the Data Protection agency told me they can't deal directly with that but have passed on the details to their uk counterpart. They are following up the fact that ticketmaster passed on my details themselves.

-Kevin.

Fearo

Yes I recieved that email also after buying tickets last week from Ticketmaster, It was also a fairly new email account. I now get 2 emails a week from them.