In tonight's mail was a mailer from the Beaux Freres winery in Oregon.
It was addressed to me by name at my home address, despite the fact that
I'd never done any business with this winery (partly owned by a certain
well-known wine critic in Md). So, where did they get my name and
address? Did they get access to someone else's mailing list? (We are
on one or two from Oregon) Or did they get my name from that critic's
publication, to which I susbscribed for years? In either event, it
sounds kinda shady to me...

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Apr 15, 11:51 pm, Mark Lipton wrote:
In tonight's mail was a mailer from the Beaux Freres winery in Oregon.
It was addressed to me by name at my home address, despite the fact that
I'd never done any business with this winery (partly owned by a certain
well-known wine critic in Md). So, where did they get my name and
address? Did they get access to someone else's mailing list? (We are
on one or two from Oregon) Or did they get my name from that critic's
publication, to which I susbscribed for years? In either event, it
sounds kinda shady to me...

There is money to be made by selling mailing lists. It has been done
for decades for snail mail and more recently for email. In some cases
some company with the information sells their mailing list. The better
companies that do this often tell you, but often in fine print, that
they provide your address to "carefully selected businesses" that
might be of interest to you. The best provide a box you have to check.
Others provide the box checked, and you have to uncheck it to opt out.
However many employees are not paid very much. There are companies
that provide mailing lists for sale. They sometimes will pay a person
in a company to give them the mailing list for a payment, unknown to
the owners of the company. Also many companies use a mailing service
rather than sending out messages in house. Just be glad you only
received spam. Even bank employees have been tempted to sell
addresses, account numbers, social security numbers, etc. Then some
hackers are able to break into companies from time to time to steal
personal information. At one time I was getting up to 20 phone calls
per day around the holidays, wanting to sell me all sorts of things
from wine to penny stock. After I got on the national and state do not
call list, this helped. If a call comes in without caller ID, a
privacy service of the phone company company first calls me and gives
the options to answer, record, etc. I have 3 tones recorded on the
answering machine the same as used by the phone company for phone
numbers that are not in use. This causes many automated recorded
messages to disconnect at once, because they do not want to waste
their time on phone numbers that do not exist. By carefully filtering
email and using several addresses for different things I am able to
control email. Any address that appears in public, such as the one I
use for this group, goes to my domain mail that is set up to not
accept incoming mail after you have registered to post in a group or
whatever. Most of my spam now comes by snail mail now. This greatly
reduces the quantity, since someone has to pay postage.

Mark Lipton wrote:
In tonight's mail was a mailer from the Beaux Freres winery in Oregon.
It was addressed to me by name at my home address, despite the fact that
I'd never done any business with this winery (partly owned by a certain
well-known wine critic in Md). So, where did they get my name and
address? Did they get access to someone else's mailing list? (We are
on one or two from Oregon) Or did they get my name from that critic's
publication, to which I susbscribed for years? In either event, it
sounds kinda shady to me...

Mark Lipton

Robert Parker's brother-in-law (I believe) owns Beaux Freres. I'd guess
that if you are a TWA subscriber that's where it came from (though I
don't recall getting any junk mail myself and I am a subscriber).

On Apr 16, 12:51�am, Mark Lipton wrote:
In tonight's mail was a mailer from the Beaux Freres winery in Oregon.
It was addressed to me by name at my home address, despite the fact that
I'd never done any business with this winery (partly owned by a certain
well-known wine critic in Md). �So, where did they get my name and
address? �Did they get access to someone else's mailing list? �(We are
on one or two from Oregon) Or did they get my name from that critic's
publication, to which I susbscribed for years? �In either event, it
sounds kinda shady to me...

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: �http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

I'm a former WA subscriber and don't remember getting any Beaux Freres
mailer. They probably bought a list,which could have gotten your
address from any number of sources (retailers, wineries,
publications).

DaleW wrote:

I'm a former WA subscriber and don't remember getting any Beaux Freres
mailer. They probably bought a list,which could have gotten your
address from any number of sources (retailers, wineries,
publications).

Fair enough, but then the question becomes what mailing list they could
have purchased. I get mailers from Chehalem, Navarro, Merry Edwards and
Joseph Swan, but I'd be surprised if any of them would sell their
mailing list to a competing winery. Apart from them, it could only be a
couple of retailers like CSW and Sam's, neither of which strikes me as a
likely culprit.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

cwdjrxyz wrote:

There is money to be made by selling mailing lists. It has been done
for decades for snail mail and more recently for email.

Oh, yes. I had no doubts about that, only what the likely source of
this information was. My father inadvertently performed a classic
experiment in this vein. His writing was nearly illegible, so when he
subscribed to Psychology Today, they misread his name as "Walter C.
Thompson" (they at least got his first name right). For the next
several years, we could monitor the propagation of "Walter C. Thompson"
through various mailing lists... it was truly enlightening to see who
was selling to whom ;-)

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Mark, I got the same one I think.


"Mark Lipton" wrote in message
...
In tonight's mail was a mailer from the Beaux Freres winery in Oregon.
It was addressed to me by name at my home address, despite the fact that
I'd never done any business with this winery (partly owned by a certain
well-known wine critic in Md). So, where did they get my name and
address? Did they get access to someone else's mailing list? (We are
on one or two from Oregon) Or did they get my name from that critic's
publication, to which I susbscribed for years? In either event, it
sounds kinda shady to me...

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Apr 16, 11:58�am, Mark Lipton wrote:
cwdjrxyz wrote:
There is money to be made by selling mailing lists. It has been done
for decades for snail mail and more recently for email.

Oh, yes. �I had no doubts about that, only what the likely source of
this information was. �My father inadvertently performed a classic
experiment in this vein. �His writing was nearly illegible, so when he
subscribed to Psychology Today, they misread his name as "Walter C.
Thompson" (they at least got his first name right). �For the next
several years, we could monitor the propagation of "Walter C. Thompson"
through various mailing lists... it was truly enlightening to see who
was selling to whom ;-)

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: �http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Well, my writing is truly awful, and I've seen similar patterns. Yes,
Dalew Illiamns was on some lists, as was Dave Villiam. I got some
mailings for Dar Williams, but I'm not nearly as talented. One that
irritated me for a long time (though never sold) was a charity that
had me listed as Ms. Dale Williams. I realize I have a unisex name,
but if not sure why put down anything?

The worst is when a mispelled mailing (or one that reverses my legal
first name and middle name- Dale is actually my middle) comes with a
preapproved credit card app with a $20,000 limit. Didn't take the
credit meltdown for me to see something was wrong in Lendingville.

DaleW wrote:

Well, my writing is truly awful, and I've seen similar patterns. Yes,
Dalew Illiamns was on some lists, as was Dave Villiam. I got some
mailings for Dar Williams, but I'm not nearly as talented. One that
irritated me for a long time (though never sold) was a charity that
had me listed as Ms. Dale Williams. I realize I have a unisex name,
but if not sure why put down anything?

My mother's housemate had the opposite experience, equally annoying.
Her name is Sidney Williams and at one point she started getting phone
calls for the "Reverend Sidney Williams," who happened to be a man
living in the same city. At first it was amusing hearing the long pause
when she would respond "speaking," but after the tenth call from a
creditor it became mighty old.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

A few years ago, I was contracted to the animal health division of Wellcome
NZ (the kiwi arm of the UK pharmaceutical company).

Owing to a faux pas in the office, I was included under Dr. Andrew Bourke
in their internal database.

Initially, I only received their internal correspondence, but gradually
(obviously, either the Company or someone within the group shared the
database) I started to receive mail from other pharmaceutical manufacturers
and suppliers.

It kept getting *worse* - I was literally bombarded with mail (this was
pre-internet/email etc) and started getting things like free dairies; pens;
then other sorts of inducements; I was offered free nights in hotels to
attend product launches. (I confess to using this invitation a couple of
times - without attending!)

About this time, I terminated the lease on my PO Box (I was in Australia) -
and ordered that all inward mail be returned to sender - this the *problem*
fixed itself.

--

st.helier

st.helier wrote:

It kept getting *worse* - I was literally bombarded with mail (this was
pre-internet/email etc) and started getting things like free dairies...

Well, at least you got some fresh milk out of the whole oredeal :P

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

"Mark Lipton" wrote ......


It kept getting *worse* - I was literally bombarded with mail (this was
pre-internet/email etc) and started getting things like free dairies...

Well, at least you got some fresh milk out of the whole oredeal :P

^^^^^^^^



lol - come to think of it - have you dairied your trip to Lyon?

st.h

Mike Tommasi wrote:



Mark is coming to Lyon? Bring a white Musar...

Yep, details to follow by email. You're closer to the source, Mike, so
why don't you procure some?

Mark Lipton



--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com