Flaming Mountainside

For some years now, UPS has been sending me unsolicited bulk e-mail and ignoring my complaints. Today (May 31 2005) I've finally hit the wall and so I'm going to put this where some search engines can find it. If someone from UPS would like to discuss this, I am available.

As with most prior examples, today's spam from UPS was misdirected to me due to a typographic error in a domain name. Since I and O are adjacent to eachother on the QWERTY keyboard, a lot of the millions of COX.NET users end up mistyping their address as CIX.NET when they ask for online confirmations or subscriptions. UPS does not do any kind of address verification, they just spew at whatever address they're given:

From: "QuantumView" 
To: TAUTEN@CIX.NET
Reply-To: auto-notify@ups.com
Subject: UPS Ship Notification, Tracking Number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 11:36:47 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <3293336.1117553807391.JavaMail.pkginfo@galileo2>

Note that they appear to be asking for replies to a special address auto-notify@ups.com, but I know from experience that this address is not a good place to send complaints about misdelivered e-mail. Nor is their "whois" address (internet@ups.com, nor is the origination address on their spew (which is either pkginfo@ups.com or QuantumViewNotify@ups.com, from the above.

Let's see what else they've got for us today:

***Do not reply to this e-mail.  UPS and Expedia Cruise will not receive
your reply.

This message was sent to you at the request of Expedia Cruise to notify you
that the package information below has been transmitted to UPS. The package(s)
may not have actually been placed with UPS for shipment. To verify when and if
the shipment is tendered to UPS and its actual transit status, please track,
via UPS.com, the Tracking Number below to view the status of your request.

Not very helpful, is it? But wait, there's more:

Important Delivery Information

Scheduled Delivery: 02-June-2005

Shipment Detail

Ship To:

JANE DOE
123 MAIN ST
ANYTOWN
XX
99999
US

Number of Packages:   1
UPS Service:   2ND DAY AIR
Shipment Type:   Letter

Tracking Number:   XXXXXXXX
Reference Number 1:   YYYYYYYYY
Reference Number 2:   ZZZZZZ

You can track your shipment by visiting
http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processRequest
	?HTMLVersion=5.0&Requester=NES&AgreeToTermsAndConditions=yes
	&loc=en_US&tracknum=XXXXXXX on the Internet.

That's right, UPS just sent me somebody's name, home address, and tracking number. I removed these personal details from the above text, since I place some value on the privacy of UPS's customers, and I wouldn't want to share personal contact information with total strangers. But wait, there's more:

This e-mail contains proprietary information and may be confidential.  If you
are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that
any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly
prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please delete it
immediately.

I think UPS needs to hire a better lawyer. They have no agreement with me nor any way to enforce my nondisclosure or require me to delete anything. As it happens, I'm going to delete it, but only because I have no use for UPS's information. But only a lawyer whose degree came out of a cerial box could possibly believe that the above text has any weight at all.

The crowning blow, though, is in the final paragraph:

This e-mail was automatically generated by UPS e-mail services at the
shipper's request.  Any reply to this e-mail will not be received by UPS or
the shipper.  Please contact the shipper directly if you have questions
regarding the referenced shipment or you wish to discontinue this notification
service.

All 100% true, and 100% useless to me. How on earth am I to know how to contact the shipper?

There has been a growing trend since the commercialization of the Internet first gathered momentum in the early 1990's, for companies like UPS to drive down their operating costs by shifting those costs to other parties. On the internet, the cost of sending e-mail to someone who doesn't want it is very close to zero, from the sender's point of view. UPS could spend a little bit of additional money verifying these addresses, but they have no incentive to do this. It's cheaper and ultimately more profitable for them to just spew out their e-mail, leak personal information to third parties, not reach the customers who actually expect the shipments, and annoy folks like myself. There's apparently not even enough incentive to operate any kind of bounce-catcher or complaint service.

For what it's worth, I use FedEx, even when it costs more, and this is why. (FedEx also sends mail without permission, but they accept complaints and act upon them. One out of two ain't bad. Especially compared to UPS.) Business executives, especially those working at US-based companies, are trained to be cost- and profit-conscious, even if at the expense of quality, privacy, or the environment. UPS's e-mail follows the "chemical polluter" business model, and I don't do business with chemical polluters. (This is the 100th or so misdirected e-mail I've received from UPS in two years.)



United Parcel Service (UPS) Bad Internet Citizenship 02-Jun-2005 (Thu) 04:37 UTC · permalink For some years now, UPS has been sending me unsolicited bulk e-mail and ignoring my complaints. Today (May 31 2005) I've finally hit the wall and so I'm going to put this where some search engines can find it. If someone from UPS would like to discuss this, I am available. As with most prior examples, today's spam from UPS was misdirected to me due to a typographic error in a domain name. Since I and O are adjacent to eachother on the QWERTY keyboard, a lot of the millions of COX.NET users end up mistyping their address as CIX.NET when they ask for online confirmations or subscriptions. UPS does not do any kind of address verification, they just spew at whatever address they're given: Return-Path: X-Original-To: tauten@cix.net Delivered-To: vixie@sa.vix.com X-Greylist: domain auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.4.2 Received: from ups.com (magma5.ups.com [153.2.232.55]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "Domain-Confidentiality-authority", Issuer "Domain-Confidentiality-authority" (not verified)) by sa.vix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA4F814D64 for ; Tue, 31 May 2005 15:36:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from pkginfo@ups.com) Received: from ([153.2.2.219]) by magma5.ups.com with ESMTP id KP-VXL51.71371651; Tue, 31 May 2005 11:36:47 -0400 From: "QuantumView" To: TAUTEN@CIX.NET Reply-To: auto-notify@ups.com Subject: UPS Ship Notification, Tracking Number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 11:36:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <3293336.1117553807391.JavaMail.pkginfo@galileo2> Note that they appear to be asking for replies to a special address auto-notify@ups.com, but I know from experience that this address is not a good place to send complaints about misdelivered e-mail. Nor is their "whois" address (internet@ups.com, nor is the origination address on their spew (which is either pkginfo@ups.com or QuantumViewNotify@ups.com, from the above. Let's see what else they've got for us today: ***Do not reply to this e-mail. UPS and Expedia Cruise will not receive your reply. This message was sent to you at the request of Expedia Cruise to notify you that the package information below has been transmitted to UPS. The package(s) may not have actually been placed with UPS for shipment. To verify when and if the shipment is tendered to UPS and its actual transit status, please track, via UPS.com, the Tracking Number below to view the status of your request. Not very helpful, is it? But wait, there's more: Important Delivery Information Scheduled Delivery: 02-June-2005 Shipment Detail Ship To: JANE DOE 123 MAIN ST ANYTOWN XX 99999 US Number of Packages: 1 UPS Service: 2ND DAY AIR Shipment Type: Letter Tracking Number: XXXXXXXX Reference Number 1: YYYYYYYYY Reference Number 2: ZZZZZZ You can track your shipment by visiting http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processRequest ?HTMLVersion=5.0&Requester=NES&AgreeToTermsAndConditions=yes &loc=en_US&tracknum=XXXXXXX on the Internet. That's right, UPS just sent me somebody's name, home address, and tracking number. I removed these personal details from the above text, since I place some value on the privacy of UPS's customers, and I wouldn't want to share personal contact information with total strangers. But wait, there's more: This e-mail contains proprietary information and may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, please delete it immediately. I think UPS needs to hire a better lawyer. They have no agreement with me nor any way to enforce my nondisclosure or require me to delete anything. As it happens, I'm going to delete it, but only because I have no use for UPS's information. But only a lawyer whose degree came out of a cerial box could possibly believe that the above text has any weight at all. The crowning blow, though, is in the final paragraph: This e-mail was automatically generated by UPS e-mail services at the shipper's request. Any reply to this e-mail will not be received by UPS or the shipper. Please contact the shipper directly if you have questions regarding the referenced shipment or you wish to discontinue this notification service. All 100% true, and 100% useless to me. How on earth am I to know how to contact the shipper? There has been a growing trend since the commercialization of the Internet first gathered momentum in the early 1990's, for companies like UPS to drive down their operating costs by shifting those costs to other parties. On the internet, the cost of sending e-mail to someone who doesn't want it is very close to zero, from the sender's point of view. UPS could spend a little bit of additional money verifying these addresses, but they have no incentive to do this. It's cheaper and ultimately more profitable for them to just spew out their e-mail, leak personal information to third parties, not reach the customers who actually expect the shipments, and annoy folks like myself. There's apparently not even enough incentive to operate any kind of bounce-catcher or complaint service. For what it's worth, I use FedEx, even when it costs more, and this is why. (FedEx also sends mail without permission, but they accept complaints and act upon them. One out of two ain't bad. Especially compared to UPS.) Business executives, especially those working at US-based companies, are trained to be cost- and profit-conscious, even if at the expense of quality, privacy, or the environment. UPS's e-mail follows the "chemical polluter" business model, and I don't do business with chemical polluters. (This is the 100th or so misdirected e-mail I've received from UPS in two years.)		Illegitimibus non carborundum · · · Active Categories: internet (6) · governance (3) · manners (1) · security (1) · technology (1) terra (3) · climate (1) · food (1) · rights (1)