Boxbe’s spam. A fatal mistake for them and me.
Every so often a company really blunders. Boxbe has done it in spades with their release over the weekend. It was obectionable the first time it sent email to everyone in my address book. And yes, I didn’t read the text closely enough to see that that was the case. I simply loaded my address book and assumed it was filtering incoming mail based on who I knew.
First it spammed my friends. Mea culpe. I should have read the directions.
This morning though, it spammed them again. My email box is jammed with people saying “can you make this thing stop”, “you gotta make this stop”, “I’m really pissed”. Twitter is burning up with Boxbe messages. And those are the people that care enough. I don’t know how many people have just added me to their spam list.
The worst part? There’s no way to opt-out of the service once you’ve signed up. I can’t tell it to stop. I can’t tell it to cancel my account. And I have no way of knowing when it will spam my friends again.
Talk about unfriendly. Talk about being held hostage. Talk about a massive, reputation damaging screw-up, both for the company and me.
I’ve got mail in to the product manager, Randy Stewart, as well as their press line. My next step is to escalate to their management team and board of directors. Email addresses were kindly provided on their web site.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Sorry again for the problems. If it’s ok, I’d like to post my email response to you as a comment.
——————
My profuse apologies to you for sending so many invitations on your behalf. We’re pretty new to using an invitation system on our site and clearly we erred on the on the side of being too aggressive.
Just to explain a bit about what’s happening to you: Currently, we send a follow up email two days after the initial invitation goes out.
During registration, we coupled adding contacts and sending invitations to streamline the process. The idea was to make registration have fewer steps overall. Even though the page says we are going to send out invitations, your note shows we probably need separate pages for adding contacts and another for sending invitations.
We are taking steps today to correct these design flaws to insure something like what happened to you does not happen to other people.
First, we’re going to add an additional confirmation page to make it clearer that you will be sending invitations to friends.
Second, we’re exploring other ways to better explain our value to people and their inboxes while making our invitation system less aggressive.
We hope that these changes will make the site experience overall for others.
Do you have suggestions that could make this process better? We’re thinking of better ways to prioritize our invitation process and we’d really appreciate any feedback you could give.
Again, we’re really sorry for any distress we may have caused.
Randy Stewart
Boxbe Product Manager
randy@boxbe-inc.com
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Hi Randy,
Thanks for coming by and posting that. I’ve been caught on other stuff.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 am
Alec,
For once being on a Mac was a benefit :-) Boxbe couldn’t scan my address list, nor does it work with the paid GMAIL hosted domain accounts. My “friends” were spared.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:56 am
Two emails from you, 6 from Pat Phelan and others from other friends. Bad.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:03 am
I’m glad I can live vicariously through you, especially with regards to technical adventures :-)
April 24th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Hi Alec,
Sorry for sending you the initial Boxbe invite that signed you up :(
I’ve also been getting the ‘2nd day’ invite please get me off this list emails from my 1300 or so Outlook contacts.
I think people are used to ignoring a ‘first email’ (though a few people did query me about ‘whats boxbe’ when i first sent them out the initial invite) but getting one 2 days later makes them think that they are on some continual spamming list.
I also have to comment that whilst Boxbe support has been fairly responsive to my initial comments when I asked how do people delete accounts…….that there has been no response.
Not that I’m ready to cancel my Boxbe account, for the moment after about 3-4 days it seems to be doing a really nice job of seperating all but self sent domain spam (eg someone purporting to be sending you an email from your own domain). Everything is is being nicely seperated out and although I’m reviewing the ‘boxbe isolation folder’ about 4 times a day I feel this will settle down to once a day soon.
Far better than the spam protection that comes with outlook/exchange.
So I’m thinking I might keep it…..though the jury’s still out, Will post more on http://www.collins.net.pr/blog once I make my final decision.
Cheers,
Dean
April 29th, 2008 at 1:31 am
[...] Saunders: “Boxbe’s spam. A fatal mistake for them and me”. My email box is jammed with people saying “can you make this thing stop”, “you gotta make [...]
June 8th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
It looks like Boxbe is notching up their spamming efforts one step higher. They are sending so called courtesy emails to everyone who happens to send an email to a boxbe ‘protected’ account telling them about their service.
Its quite ironic a service that promotes itself as a cure to spam, spamming everyone who sends an email to an email account!
I’m on a mailing list that apparently someone who is using their service happened to sign up and it spams everyone who sends an email to the mailing list. Very rude and infuriating!
June 10th, 2009 at 3:37 am
This morning our servers are clogged with boxbe spam and the administrator has placed their MX records on the blacklist. Anyone else sufferring from this time wasting nonsense can do the same by adding the following:-
208.96.33.220
208.96.33.221
June 13th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
How do I remove Boxbee from my PC? Kindly advise.
Thanks and Regards.
Ranjan Khastgir
June 14th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Ranjan, I emailed them and had them cancel the account.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:21 am
The person who was using the boxbe service which caused our mailing list to be spammed repeatedly apparently is using their tool with a Yahoo mail account.
Anyone who is affected by this should complain to Yahoo (or whatever ISP the sender is using) to get some leverage to get them to stop this practice. I think this probably violates some Yahoo policy on 3rd party applications being used to spam.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I tried sending an email to someone with a boxbe filter. boxbe forced me to register with them to get my email sent through. fine. now it requires me to have access to may yahoo account. not fine. creepy that it requires you to have access to your email account just so you can send an email to someone you have contact with. see below…
===
There is a problem with your registration.
You are receiving this email because it seems that you forgot to finish registering for Boxbe for Yahoo! Mail. That’s okay, it’s easy to complete.
Click here to login to Boxbe and complete your account registration
Your Boxbe username is: ____.
Once you’re done, you’ll say goodbye to spam in your Yahoo! Mail inbox. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.
Cheers,
The Boxbe Team
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 am
Thanks for the warning Alec. I two of those annoying “____ wants you to join Boxbe” emails over the past week, but since I had no idea what Boxbe was and didn’t recognize ____’s name, I just sent it to the spam folder. Then I was attempting to send an email out and I gt one of those “we can’t send your email because you aren’t on this person’s Boxbe contact list” messages. I was on the verge of registering with Boxbe in order for the email to go through when I decided to do a google search for info on who Boxbe is. Your blog popped up and I’m so glad I hesitated before signing up with another sham of a “social network” that is designed to annoy everyboy on my mailing list.
I don’t know who decided that tricking people into signing up for stuff that is going to piss everyone they know off is a good business model, but it isn’t. Even if I actually liked their service (whatever it is), I would never join it just because I don’t want them spamming everyone in my address book.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
What a bunch of rectal orifices. Somebody I don’t know personaly has my Forums email address and has allowed them to add me to their spam list.
If I was a net noob and registered with boxbe and allowed them access to my yahoo emal account addresses I’d have about 3700 people very upset with me.
I strongly suspect that once someone gives them permission to ’steal’ the email addresses that it is a blanket permission to keep raiding people’s email address lists so they can update their spam list.
To stop future email from them I have to unsubscribe from something that I never subscribed to… *ssholes
———————————————————————————————-
Click the link below if you would prefer not to
receive any further invitations from Boxbe members:
https://www.boxbe.com/unsubscribe?email=&tc=213551269_
Boxbe integrates with Yahoo!, Gmail, and AOL email addresses. Get Boxbe today!
Boxbe, Inc. | 2390 Chestnut Street #201 | San Francisco, CA 94123
July 25th, 2009 at 11:31 am
The damn opt-out form in the link above, when I enter my valid email address, says this:
“Error: The address you provided was not well-formed. If you wish to opt out, please input a standard email address of the form “user@example.com” below.”
Boxbe is a piece of shit spam outfit. Their damn opt-out system doesn’t even work.
July 28th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Boxbe is a really amoral organization dedicated to making money while blitheley inconveniencing hundreds of thousands. As long as these Ivy League punks get to go public they couldn’t care less about all the relationships they damage.
Make sure to tell people, do not sign up or respond to a Boxbe mail.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:03 am
This is the message I got when I tried the Opt-out link and filled out the ‘Unsubscribe’ form. It will not accept my email address as legitimate, although they had no problem accepting it when they wanted to hijack my contact list!
———————————————
“Error: The address you provided was not well-formed. If you wish to opt out, please input a standard email address of the form “user@example.com” below.
To opt out of receiving Guest List Sharing invitations from Boxbe users, use this form.
To add your email address to Boxbe’s opt-out list, enter it below and click “Unsubscribe me”.”
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I received one of Boxbe’s spams and found this list when I went investigating since the e-mail came from someone unfamiliar to me. It smelled like “spam”, so thank you for posting info that kept my curiosity from even clicking on the link in the e-mail.
My frustration is that my webhost will now be blacklisted for these e-mails coming through their IP address, and I’ll lose client e-mails until they get it straightened out. I’m not for Big Brother messing with certain things, but if they want to prosecute Mr. Stewart et al for their unethical business practices, I’d applaud them. Mr. Stewart, you can hide behind your apology for being “too aggressive” in your marketing, but you’re still a spammer. Tsk, tsk. Now grow up.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I received another Boxbe spam message today. I don’t buy the “we did this automatic opt-in to streamline the process for our users” BS that Randy spooned out. “Streamlining out” a required permissions step is never acceptable. Please stop, it’s really annoying, and the messages I’m getting are from people who aren’t contacts, and don’t know.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
seems like a smokescreen from their PR guy at the top of the list. luckily spamhaus is onto them. love that “reject” tag
Aug 16 21:44:39 mail postfix/smtpd[23480]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 123-2-13-128.static.dsl.dodo.com.au[123.2.13.128]: 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [123.2.13.128] blocked using sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org; http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=123.2.13.128; from= to= proto=ESMTP helo=
August 20th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
From what I’ve seen it seems to me that this “service” is violating the federal “canned spam” regulations. I strongly suggest that folks who are getting spammed file a formal complaint so it can be followed through on. I got here by following up on boxbe spam that came into a private Apple OSX server list – it’s getting in everywhere.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:10 am
Please do not send spam messages which are very annoying and interrupts my work.
Please stop this nonsense.
Thanks/
September 6th, 2009 at 3:07 am
@ lakshmi Ganapathy
who SPAM you? is it Boxbe?
September 16th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
[...] Boxbe’s spam. A fatal mistake for them and me. [...]
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:39 am
Thank you for the post, you saved me from this fate at least….
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Boxbe is like a parasite i am unable to unsubscribe my list has been hijacked people are getting offers i did not send now my list has started blocking my mails. has any one been able to get rid of this parasite help help help
December 13th, 2009 at 5:28 am
http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/22/boxbes-spam-a-fatal-mistake-for-them-and-me/ Boxbe’s spam
January 8th, 2010 at 11:01 am
people are complaining about boxbe
I thought boxbe would help with spams boxbe has not helped but has been hurting me
blocking important emails dealing with ministry business the orphanages messages or web page responses on book or play
http://www.godspropertyformindspiritsoul.com
ldt4092@yahoo.com
warriorsonthebattlefield@yahoo.com
battlefieldwarriorspub@yahoo.com
I regret ever signing up please remove now
the emails being blocked may be the only way to communicate about kids involved with kids human trafficing and we are trying to stop it
we cant if boxbe keeps blocking emails
January 12th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I have received the “This is the only email you will receive about Boxbe from me” 5 times from the same person. There is no link to remove your email address from their website. even the opt-out link posted above return a well-formed email error, even for the example they gave.
When they say you won’t get spam when you sign up with them, they mean their spam offers.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I can’t believe it, I am still receiving the same email from the same person. Boxbe has a blog where all posts are closed for comments.
January 14th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I decided to try Boxbe. I signed upbut di not select a server. received an email from them asking me to confirm. I was not ready so I closed my email. Now my email is blocked. HELP!
January 14th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
whaaaaat?
January 16th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I can’t believe it, I just received on from my neighbor across the hall on January 16th 2010.
I did not sign-up for it and I immediately unsubscribed from it, hopefully that took care of it.
I also Googled Boxbe and found the negative remarks about this piece of junk company.
If I have to, I’ll pay for GMail.
Boxbe’s tactics remind me of the same tactics Classmates used and spammed everyone.
Shame on both of them!
January 18th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Below is an email I sent this Rany guy show at the top of this:
___________________________________________________________
Randy,
I got your email from one of many blogs complaining about Boxbe. I was searching/looking for help as to how to get this “PROBLEM” to stop.
I got an email from a trusted contact Jan 14, 2010 (it looked like it was from them). I responded, clicked to join, so I could get emails from this trusted contact and then…the rest is history!
I did not select any of my contacts from my address book (apparently I should be thankful for that) but any one that sends me an email now gets this email that LOOKS like it’s a personal email from me. They think that they their email did not get through to me & they become frustrated that they continue to get these emails every time they email me.
This is my business email (I own the company) and these are my suppliers and customers emailing me. This has become a negative issue, is starting to greatly up-set those sending me emails and is now costing me business: money!
It seems from to two postings you put up, on two different sites, that this is not your intent. If that is truly the case then I look to receive an email back from you soon on how to remove this. Since last Thursday I have sent more than 70 emails to the following email address looking for help with no reply:
’support@boxbe.com’; ‘info@boxbe.com’; ‘bizdev@boxbe.com’; ‘press@boxbe.com’; ’service@boxbe.com’; ’support@boxbe.com’; ‘bizdev@boxbe.com’
I have Disabled all options on the account, I changed passwords & I closed the account. Still, this issue continues!
I called the phone number listed as your company number in San Francisco, CA 415-692-0155 and it appears to not exist.
I’m coping both our IT admin as well as our corp attorney so they can stay current as to my situation with you and your company.
I look forward to hearing from you shortly.
January 26th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Time to get a Class Action Lawsuit going against their company, they have done enough damage to people and their relationships with their clients. You can’t get rid of this thing once you have signed up. They won’t let me log in, and I never get my password when I request it from them.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I am trying very hard to gain representation for scriptwriting. If this happens to me my career is over. Do you realize that? There was a software that did this before, it attached itself to everyones contacts in the client side email list and thus spread everywere. It was AOL’s first virus. I am absolutely OUTRAGED at the moment. BOXBE could very well be THE reason I do not sell this specific work.
-Ben Racicot