Fox Chapel Publishing?

[Vaughn]

Today I received an unsolicited e-mail advertisement (spam) from Fox Chapel Publishing trying to sell me books on carving and intarsia. It was addressed to the unique address I used when I became an AAW member. This address was previously only known to AAW. (I use a different address for virtually everything, and other than when I joined AAW, this address has not been used or given to others by me.) I gather that AAW sold my e-mail address to either Fox Chapel Publishing or their agent.

Now in the grand scheme if things, one more spam message isn't a big issue. I do, however, have a problem when a professional organization like AAW (to which I pay dues) farms my name and address out to others. That's not OK. And for the record, my AAW registration address is different than the one I used to sign up on this forum, so I know it was not mined from my profile here.

 

[KurtB]

Fox Chapel

Vaughn,
I am looking into this for you.
Kurt

 

[KurtB]

Fox Chapel Publishing

Vaughn,
I contacted Mary Lacer at the AAW Headquarters and I have been assured that no names or addresses have been sold by the AAW. The ongoing policy is that none will be sold. I also contacted Betty Scarpino to see if Fox Chapel was our publishing company, and she said no. To the best of my knowledge, however Fox Chapel got your email address, it wasn't through the AAW.

 

[Wipedout]

Vaughn,
I contacted Mary Lacer at the AAW Headquarters and I have been assured that no names or addresses have been sold by the AAW. The ongoing policy is that none will be sold. I also contacted Betty Scarpino to see if Fox Chapel was our publishing company, and she said no. To the best of my knowledge, however Fox Chapel got your email address, it wasn't through the AAW.

Got the same email yesterday as well as well to my work address which is what is on file with AAW - none of my other woodworking related interests use my work address - hmmmm strange

 

[Vaughn]

Thanks, Kurt. The address may not have been sold, but it was somehow acquired (mined? absconded?) by Fox Chapel. The e-mail I received was addressed to aaw@[I]my_domain_name[/I].com, which I have only used once. At least it was woodworking-related promo, and not male enlargement products or designer watches.

As I mentioned earlier, I use a similar scheme whenever I sign up for anything online. It makes for easier spam tracking. So far the worst offender has been Ticketmaster. I get piles of spam addressed to ticketmaster@[I]my_domain_name[/I].com, even though I also only used that address once.

[Edited to add...]

I just noticed the address in question is in the AAW Members Directory. That's most likely where Fox Chapel mined it from.

 

[Rick M]

. . .I just noticed the address in question is in the AAW Members Directory. That's most likely where Fox Chapel mined it from.

A similar thing happened to me recently with a different professional organization. A little investigation on my part and an email to the head of the organization later, immediately followed with some sleuthing by their staff, another member had been identified as the one skimming addresses from the member-access-only data.

Prior to then, that inbox had been spam-free for years. And now, it's "in the wild". Spam is spam, and its despicable when a spammer (member or not) abuses their access to others' information to solicit, regardless whether it's "of interest" or not.

 

[Ed Davidson]

When designing the online Membership Directory, which is accessible through the members only area, we tried to make it as difficult as possible to mine data - you're only able to see the contact info for one member at a time. But, if some current member wants to manually cut-n-paste individual email addresses from that database, one at a time, there’s not much we can do about that.

 

[Carole Valentine]

For what it's worth, I got the same email, also to the address I have registered with AAW. I use a different address for all other woodworking stuff.

 

[Joe Greiner]

I got the same one recently, but it was through my previous e-mail address (which is still active because I'm so disorganized). Curious thing is, it passed my spam filter IIRC. Normally, this would indicate a previous legitimate contact, which I don't remember at all. AAW might not be the source.

Some of the content was interesting, but not enough to generate a sale. The video on scroll-sawn bowls to mimic segmented turning reminds me of the Ringmaster. Ho-hum there too.

 

[Michael Stafford]

I received the same e-mail and wondered about it. I had visited that publisher's site in the past and thought that my e-mail address had been secured then. I hope that I don't receive a lot of junk mail from this company.

 

[hockenbery]

I too have received this e-mail.

The AAW does provide an emailing service to members. The AAW office does the e-mailing and does not give the email addresses out. two examples:
The AAW to sent an e-mail to all members in Florida announcing the AAW demonstrations at the Tampa woodworking show last March
The AAW sent an e-mail to Florida members on the the Florida Symposium
these are AAW activities.

I should point out that Fox Chapel is a major player in the woodworking and woodturning publishing. Fox chapel is under consideration to publish books for AAW. However there is no current agreement between AAW an Fox Chapel.

regards,
Al

 

[Charlie Knighton]

postcard, not email

i was very happy to receive a postcard with an invite to a regional symposium/woodworking show. i was directed to a web site where most of my questions were answered. i imagine that attendance at other symposium is how i was invited. i have not made a decesion but am quite happy to be invited...