Today in the mail I received three identical computer catalogs from Hewlett-Packard (Holliston, MA office). The interesting thing was the people they were addressed to:
* Ms. Roxanne Waldner, Executive Director
* Mr. Bill Bitzer, Executive Director
* Ms. Beth A. Milardo, Manager
So? Well, I don’t have any employees, first of all. But those names are familiar. They are clients whose names appear under their testimonial quotes on my professional website. Totally bogus. Either there is a software robot scanning the web for names and addresses to add to direct mail lists, or someone deliberately (and fraudulently) is beefing up the size of their list by intentionally adding whatever names they can find attached to any addresses available.
The worst thing is that these names are now in circulation in the list industry, and will be rented and sold over and over again. More bad data in the infosphere.
The vertically stacked coding numbers on the label were: 0120 — 0046 — [ 012/013/014] — 4294, in case anyone cares where this data came from.
August 4, 2006