Anyone get a "gift subscription from a friend" to REI Mag?

[Gerrard]

Got an email last night titled "NZ Real Estate Investor magazine - gift subscription from a friend for you"

Which went on to say "Congratulations, you have been nominated by a friend or associate to receive the following complimentary 1-year subscription gift valued at $49 to New Zealand's leading monthly magazine on real estate investment." without identifying who my "friend" was.

What a load of bull. All they are doing is spamming from an old (stolen perhaps?) mailing list.

Gerrard

[SuperDad]

I didn't receive this, probably on account of my lack of friends.

Paul.

[GJB68]

I got two, one for the Australian RE mag and one for the NZ one!

[Richmastery]

Gerrard

Gerrard,

We can confirm that David Hows is using a stolen Richmastery mailing list from 2 years ago and stolen KPI magazine database to spam customers in the hope he can trick some to read his "just launched" online magazine.

As you say the email says "you have been nominated by a friend or associate to receive the following complimentary 1-year subscription gift valued at $49".

I would suggest customers challenge him and ask who was the "friend" that nominated them!

Mr Hows cant sell advertising to a online magazine thats got no readers, so he is trying to trick people into being customers using stolen information. This is illegal and unethical and not something we need in our industry.

But because he has skipped the country to Australia and has virtually no assets and tons of unpaid creditors and that this is the 3rd property investor magazine he has been part of in the last 2 years with the other two going into liquidation and receivership. There just is no point in trying to pursue him.

David Hows is in breach of the Australian Spam Act 2003 and if customers on mass reported the email to this agency by clicking here Mr Hows would be in VERY serious trouble.

The natural laws of justice will ensure he reaps what he sows.

We think NZ Property Magazine who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase KPI from the Receivers recently deserve more than having all the Intellectual Property they paid for being ripped off by the previous owner and used against them. We therefore encourage all users who have received this email without subscribing to this online magazines database to report the email as spam to this agency by clicking here.

[whitt]

I have not received any emails with regards to these.

Not sure on the mailing list accusation. In the past I used to receive upto 2 of them but this time have not had any.

[Gerrard]

I had emailed back and received this reply:

"We ran a campaign asking over 35,000 readers to
nominate up to 5 friends or associates to receive a complimentary 1 year magazine subscription and had a very large response. I am sorry but the automated compilation of the responses into a single file has meant we cannot easily identify the person who nominated you. We hope you enjoy the magazine."

I must apologise for my lack of comprehension. The mail LOOKED like spam so I assumed it was. If I had read the original email properly I would have seen that was in fact being offered a free 1 year subscription - not a "special rate" as I assumed it was.

I find it odd that they cannot identify who nominated me, but as other PT members from "that old mailing list" haven't received it I have to assume this is all legit.

Apologies to David and the team at REI Mag for mis-understanding and jumping to assumptions on my part.

Gerrard

[donna]

I got it too - and I'm already on their list. I agree with RM re. the Spam Act lack of compliance. As we run a 'email bulk delivery' business - I can say with confidence that the email they sent was not compliant. At the very least it should have information like this example at the bottom of their message:

This message was sent to [email protected]
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters this link
To update your preferences this link
To report this email as SPAM: [email protected]
To view mobilizemail.com Privacy Policy: this link

So every business needs to comply with Anti-Spam legislation and all promotional or commercial emails sent to 'opt-in' (those people on a mailing list that have subscribed to receive emails) and 'opt-out' (everyone else on a mailing list that has not subscribed) need to contain information that states:

1. who the message was sent to,
2. an 'unsubscribe' link
3. a link to update your email preferences
4. a link to report the email as spam
5. and a link to view the businesses 'privacy policy'

Individuals and businesses can be fined a hefty sum of $$ for lack of compliance. You can check out the legisation of different countries by clicking this link

The NZ legislation is due to become law within the next few months - avoid a fine - use a dedicated esp (email service provider) to delivery your email campaigns.

Cheers,

Donna

[cube]

HI,

I received one a while ago.

cube

[muppet]

Yep.

Just had a look.

It is an online version of the KPI magazine without the adverts.

[Richmastery]

Mmmm

And I wonder where a company that has only just started trading "magically got 35000 customers" to email too?

[CJ]

Ignoring the spam element, have you signed up considering it is free?

I viewed their "first issue" which was just the previous months KPI magazine. It would be interesting to see what the future versions were like (since they would actually have to write them).

I guess what they are trying to do is get money from advertisers (need circulation figures) rather than subscribers. Given there are no print costs ....

[Veronica Meadows]

It is the same editor, isn't it? Who wrote the previous year's issues??? Doh!

[MJU]

It must surely be about time for the director of so many dailed publishing companies to be put on the banned director list here in NZ.

Might be a useful smoke signal to our cousins over the ditch too...

How would you do that?

[freefall]

I got one from a mystery 'friend' too, despite being already on their list. I would like to know where they got my name from...

Marion

[donna]

David's response is worth presenting here as it important to get a balance of opinions/facts etc

We can confirm that David Hows is using a stolen Richmastery mailing list from 2 years ago and stolen KPI magazine database to spam customers in the hope he can trick some to read his "just launched" online magazine.

THIS IS WRONG

As you say the email says "you have been nominated by a friend or associate to receive the following complimentary 1-year subscription gift valued at $49".

I would suggest customers challenge him and ask who was the "friend" that nominated them!

Mr Hows cant sell advertising to a online magazine thats got no readers, so he is trying to trick people into being customers using stolen information. THIS IS WRONG, WE HAVE 35,000 LEGITIMATE CLIENTS AND WEB TRAFFIC. This is illegal and unethical and not something we need in our industry.

But because he has skipped the country to Australia and has virtually no assets and tons of unpaid creditors and that this is the 3rd property investor magazine he has been part of in the last 2 years with the other two going into liquidation and receivership. There just is no point in trying to pursue him.

THIS IS WRONG - I AM ONLY AN EMPLOYEE OF THE COMPANY, IT IS NOT “MY VENTURE”

David Hows is in breach of the Australian Spam Act 2003 and if customers on mass reported the email to this agency by clicking here Mr Hows would be in VERY serious trouble.

The natural laws of justice will ensure he reaps what he sows.

We think NZ Property Magazine who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase KPI from the Receivers recently deserve more than having all the Intellectual Property they paid for being ripped off by the previous owner and used against them. We therefore encourage all users who have received this email without subscribing to this online magazines database to report the email as spam to this agency by clicking here. THIS IS WRONG
__________________

Cheers,

Donna