Dean for America is no spam-haus

Over the weekend, a spamming charge was raised against Dean for America. Since this is the third time that such a charge has been associated with DFA, I'd like to try and set the record straight. This story was culled from various sources - both internal and external - and should be considered the "nutshell" version.
In mid-August, a company called "Email Results" was contracted to send a mailing on behalf of DFA. DFA was assured by the contractor that the list was made up of people who "opted in" to receive more information about DFA. Instead, Email Results spammed one of their mailing lists "on behalf" of DFA. When complaints arose and DFA was appraised of Email Results's reputation for spamming, DFA immediately terminated the contract on August 12. ** tech details here **
Two-three days after the contract was terminated, another round of spam was sent out. DFA did not in any way direct or order the second mailing, and they are currently conducting an internal investigation to try and determine who - if anyone - at Email Results authorised it. ** tech details are here **
In looking at the evidence, it appears as though someone is attempting to harvest addresses under the guise of a DFA mailing. For the non-tech, harvesting is a common technique that spammers use to determine whether an email address is valid. If it's valid, that address is later sold to marketing companies and people who create those annoying spam-list cds you see advertised online ("We have 5 million VALID addresses!!"). There are several ways to determine validity, and some sneaky spammers embed little bots in html-formatted emails that will report whether the email was opened or not. That is what happened with this latest mailing. If you receive a mailing with the return/FROM address of "amfordeank7@netdirectpermission.com", delete it immediately. Do not open it because your address could end up on another spam list.
Dean for America has a strict no-spam policy, and had they performed a bit more due diligence on Email Results, they probably would not have contracted them. However, mistakes are going to be made (especially if you're blazing new trails) and how they are handling this matter says quite a bit about that no-spam committment. As I mentioned a moment ago, the contracts with the email outsource agencies were terminated as soon as DFA learned of the spamming. DFA has learned the hard lesson that campaign email is best handled internally, where DFA people can exert control over both the mailings and the list data. I've also been assured that DFA has no plans to outsource any email in the future, and that they'll be handling all the mailings themselves. As it stands, the only legitimate way to receive email from DFA is to opt-in via DFA's website. If you receive email from an outside source, it is not authorised by DFA and should be treated as spam.
In addition, if you believe you have been spammed by a contractor, you may email abuse@deanforamerica.com. If you have any questions or comments regarding this incident, feel free to leave a comment. Also, the two sites I've linked above have copies of the spam posted, and that might help you identify whether you've been spammed via ER's lists.

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