Players Palace Casino (Casino Share) - Direct Connection to SPAM

[AussieDave]

I can assure you we did in-depth research when we looked for a communication platform, as database security is of the upmost importance to us.

Just so we're all on the same page

Oh and btw even c-f-1.com hosts the spam if your unable to view it in your email client:
(remove YYY)
YYYhttp://www.c-f-1.com/HTMLEmail.aspx?emailid=UE=gwM05fJbjvWuUv_wDUew_z

Received this SPAM:

From:"All In UK" <promotion@playeuphoria.com>
To:"xxxxxxx@fastmail.com.au" <xxxxxxx@fastmail.com.au>
Date:Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:52 AM (8 hours 32 mins ago)

Return-Path: <promotion@playeuphoria.com>
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From: "All In UK" <promotion@playeuphoria.com>
To: "xxxxxxx@fastmail.com.au" <xxxxxxx@fastmail.com.au>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:52:30 +0000
Subject: UK online gamblers - these casinos are paying you to play
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="_=aspNetEmail=_bd1bb3176797427dbcd457126 73fab5b"
X-Mailer: aspNetEmail ver 3.6.0.65
X-UEmailID: UE%3dgwM05fJbjvWuUv_wDUew_z
X-DispatchID: CommunicatorCorp_652402
Message-ID: <APP1-201C62J-L2619313fa4e70e4a10bce6b0d8a5594a1d@APP1-201C62J-L26>

--------

Here is an excerpt from the spam:

Bloody hell These casinos have gone Nuts

All UK residents can collect their Huge welcome bonuses - available to all of our UK members
Jean E of Weybridge, UK - An All-In member just won $360,000 with an intial investment of $100

Volume 129- Issue April 24th 2009All-In Marketing Group

A Casino Players Best Resource

Dear All-In UK Members,

My fellow online gambler. Hoping with summer right around the corner - You can get on a winning streak and to help you start .....here are some impressive welcome bonuses availble only to our readers.

All-in Newsletter (UK) is here to take the risk out of online casino. Our objective is to be able to provide the safest and securest online casino for your enjoyment. We receive emails all the time about issues with certain online casinos, late payments, no payments, no customer service.

All-in Marketing Group is working for the UK online player to provide the best options that exists. These casinos, in our best opinion are the ones you should be playing at. If you disagree about one of our top rank casinos. Let us know and we will try to help you out with your situation. We are here to make your experience fun and profitable.

---------


Cheers
T

[vinylweatherman]

Well, I have upped the ante on this. I started a thread about me sending an email to Grand Mondial, which THEIR server rejected because there was an association detected with c-f-1.com, which is on a (malware prevention) industry BLACKLIST for incessant spamming.

This shows that not much "diligent research" was done, since the result was to choose a firm who is on a blacklist, and therefore likely to be blocked by many spam filters. There is also considerable doubt as to the security of our data provided to Communicator Corporation by Playshare, and whether Communicator Corporation will extract revenue by using email addresses supplied by legitimate customers to grow spamming lists for their disreputable customers, who just want their "newsletter" spammed out to as many email addresses as possible.

This may be the "leak" we have been worried about, a lack of care in vetting third party mass mailing agents could be leading to our "high quality" email addresses making their way onto spammer's lists. Circumstantial evidence of my own points to this possibility, as I receive MUCH more spam on my PRIVATE email address given out to casinos, and then passed by them to the likes of Communicator Corporation for sending mailers, than I do on my "public" email addresses, easily available to web crawling and other nefarious extraction schemes.

[AussieDave]

After reading this and receiving the latest spam from c-f-1.com I've decided to pull all promotions of CasinoShare Group from my sites.

This may be the "leak" we have been worried about, a lack of care in vetting third party mass mailing agents could be leading to our "high quality" email addresses making their way onto spammer's lists. Circumstantial evidence of my own points to this possibility, as I receive MUCH more spam on my PRIVATE email address given out to casinos, and then passed by them to the likes of Communicator Corporation for sending mailers, than I do on my "public" email addresses, easily available to web crawling and other nefarious extraction schemes.

I have about 50 domains and all but a few use the same email address in my whois info. Apart from getting a few bits and pieces of spam (which is filtered by my mail server anyway), it is nothing compared to the truck loads of crap I receive on a daily basis from the email I use for casino registration.

Some days I'm getting hit with up to 500 spams, all casino related.

Anyway...I'm not about to point fingers at an accredited casino group here on CM if I hold any doubts. This is just another example of how some casinos place the $ before their own customers privacy.

I Thought I'd check out the T&C's to find out about CS's Privacy Policies.
http://casinoshare.com/TermsAndConditions.aspx

Bottom of page:
Privacy Policy
1. All customer data will be treated as confidential and will never be sold.

No mention of being leased or given to a 3'rd party though.

Whilst on the topic of T&C's, found this alarming T&C.

Your casino account
1. If no wagering activity takes place in either your casino or loyalty account for a period of 180 days, then the player understands that any balance in their account will be forfeited to the casino.

You have to be sh#tting me

And these people are accredited??


Cheers
T

[Antonia1953]

Hi All,

First of all, regarding the post from Trezz, I would like to assure you from the outset there is absolutely no relationship between PlayShare (CasinoShare) and the Casino Spam that you have received. If you ever believe that we are doing something wrong please contact us first, especially an accusation as large as us spamming our database to other casinos, as it may be a simple misunderstand as is the case here.


Regards
Mario

Give me a break! Casinoshare has been spamming me repeatedly and daily for months. I've made multiple requests to the affiliate network and the casino to stop. They don't reply and they don't stop. At this point in time, I'm going to get up close and personal. Any casino that participates in SPAM is a trash operation, whether they do it directly or indirectly. The best way to handle these carnival operators is to not do business with them and let them know why. The most effective way is illegal.

[vinylweatherman]

After reading this and receiving the latest spam from c-f-1.com I've decided to pull all promotions of CasinoShare Group from my sites.



I have about 50 domains and all but a few use the same email address in my whois info. Apart from getting a few bits and pieces of spam (which is filtered by my mail server anyway), it is nothing compared to the truck loads of crap I receive on a daily basis from the email I use for casino registration.

Some days I'm getting hit with up to 500 spams, all casino related.

Anyway...I'm not about to point fingers at an accredited casino group here on CM if I hold any doubts. This is just another example of how some casinos place the $ before their own customers privacy.

I Thought I'd check out the T&C's to find out about CS's Privacy Policies.
http://casinoshare.com/TermsAndConditions.aspx

Bottom of page:
Privacy Policy
1. All customer data will be treated as confidential and will never be sold.

No mention of being leased or given to a 3'rd party though.

Whilst on the topic of T&C's, found this alarming T&C.

Your casino account
1. If no wagering activity takes place in either your casino or loyalty account for a period of 180 days, then the player understands that any balance in their account will be forfeited to the casino.

You have to be sh#tting me

And these people are accredited??


Cheers
T

The problem is identifying where the leak is. Because of the strict rules surrounding transactions using Neteller, I have through necessity had to use the same email address for all casinos AND Neteller. I have been using my three email addresses for some while now. The one I use with Neteller and casinos, as well as my other PRIVATE business relationships, such as notifications from online managed accounts, and also some other types of online entertainment sites (such as quizzes, surveys, reading ads for reward, etc) now receives 100, sometimes 200, messages PER DAY. The other email address I use for "vinylweatherman" activities, easily available in my profile, and usable to anyone here to contact me, and for anyone to harvest, receives LESS in the way of spam, FAR LESS. The one on my website also receives this much lower level of spam.
To me, this looks like the activity of entities to which I have given my email address to is leading to MUCH MORE spam than that generated by background activities of such things as bots spamming to randomly generated email addresses, or even the harvesting of my "vinyl" email addresses from places I have made it available.

The level of spam is now so great that I am mistakenly deleting legitimate emails due to lapsing into "autopilot", and just skimming subject lines when faced with a notification like I had today, "323 new messages" or thereabouts.

email is no longer fit for purpose because of the spammers who drown out the small number of legitimate, and perhaps important beyond the mere offer of another bonus, email messages.

The backlash is growing, and there are going to be "witchhunts" against businessess that even APPEAR to be leaving our information vulnerable.

There is no actual PROOF that Communicator Corporation are actually misusing addresses given to them by company "a" in order to bulk out the database for spammer "b"; but there is a pretty good MOTIVE (more money), and a company that is happy to take a contract from a spammer is not likely to rigorously apply both the letter and the SPIRIT of anti-spam legislation if doing so leads them to making less money by not being able to offer such large databases of recipients.

There is another thing puzzling me, and that is why there are SO MANY "rogue affiliates" subcontracting to the likes of Communicator Corporation rather than doing the spamming themselves. I would have thought it would have to be an affiliate with deep pockets to be able to even afford this level of subcontracting, and have a big enough mailing list to make it necessary. I had always thought of "rogue affiliates" as being some "kid" with a PC, and a dangerous level of knowledge unmatched by a maturity of ethics, seeing a way to make a quick buck by joining a program, spamming like crazy, maybe getting caught (but keeping the money so far), and moving on.

[Antonia1953]

CasinoShare is involving themselves, directly and indirectly in massive volumes of spam. Due to the extreme amounts of spam hitting my network from them and their refusal to stop through ordinary means of communication, I initiated an investigation. In the last four days, 500 new DSL accounts have been created with a total of 1200 email accounts. Four hundred of these addresses were used in registered accounts with CasinoShare and Players Palace, three hours later four hundred were distributed in the Fortune Lounge group accounts and four hundred were distributed in various RTG accounts. Within 24 hours of establishing accounts with CasinoShare and Players Palace massive volumes of indirect spamming for a multitude of unregistered casinos, began hitting the addresses. In the next 48 hours all of the addresses unsubscribed from the various casinos. There were only two casinos that continued to spam; CasinoShare and Players Palace. They are abusing their players and undermining the integrity of the industry as a whole. Anyone that promotes them is doing the same…whether it be by playing, affiliation or being complacent with the behavior.

[AussieDave]

I had always thought of "rogue affiliates" as being some "kid" with a PC, and a dangerous level of knowledge unmatched by a maturity of ethics, seeing a way to make a quick buck by joining a program, spamming like crazy, maybe getting caught (but keeping the money so far), and moving on.

Don't let casinos or aff programs piss in your pocket about spamming not working. I'm sick of hearing this line myself.

Fact is it very profitable. Information collection agencies offer lists of decent emails @ 0.10 - 0.25 cents, much less for bulk order of 250,000 +.

If your making $100K a month from spamming you can afford to pay.

Some casinos are desperate for players and WILL turn a blind eye if it means keeping their head above water!


cheers
T

[RobWin]

CasinoShare is involving themselves, directly and indirectly in massive volumes of spam. Due to the extreme amounts of spam hitting my network from them and their refusal to stop through ordinary means of communication, I initiated an investigation. In the last four days, 500 new DSL accounts have been created with a total of 1200 email accounts. Four hundred of these addresses were used in registered accounts with CasinoShare and Players Palace, three hours later four hundred were distributed in the Fortune Lounge group accounts and four hundred were distributed in various RTG accounts. Within 24 hours of establishing accounts with CasinoShare and Players Palace massive volumes of indirect spamming for a multitude of unregistered casinos, began hitting the addresses. In the next 48 hours all of the addresses unsubscribed from the various casinos. There were only two casinos that continued to spam; CasinoShare and Players Palace. They are abusing their players and undermining the integrity of the industry as a whole. Anyone that promotes them is doing the same…whether it be by playing, affiliation or being complacent with the behavior.

Awesome post Antonia and I would have also "Nominated" it too but the "Nominate" button has not been included here. That was some very very good information gathering there on your part...thanks for taking the time to put this info together.

[bernynhel]

This really sucks. I'm not being spammed by CasinoShare, just getting some email. Probably cuz I play there a little pretty regularly. However, I'm down with PLAYERS so:

CASINOSHARE, KNOCK IT THE F**K OFF AND NOT ANOTHER DIME FROM ME UNTIL YOU DO!

I finally got FL to quit but I'm not sure how. They never replied or addressed this whole thread.

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...tml#post258040

I never went back there and I deposited at every one of their sites.

CasinoShare just emailed me with a 75% match promo and elevated me to VIP status. I'm gonna reply to that email with a link to this thread and tell them where they can stick it.

Edit: The email correspondence:

From: vip@sharegroupmail1.eu
To: (bernynhel's real name deleted by bernynhel)
Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 09:27:40 +0000
Subject: With big play come big rewards – claim your exclusive VIP offer!

If you cannot see this email properly, follow this link: HTML Version


Dear William, (bernynhel's casino account number deleted by bernynhel)

You’re now a VIP – Now allow us to treat you like one!

75% Match Bonus up to 100 in purchases!

Your loyalty to CasinoShare has not gone unnoticed, which is why you’re being rewarded with a limited-time weekend Purchase Match offer – exclusive to our most valued VIP players!

Rewards fit for a VIP!
To qualify for your elite offer, simply make a purchase of 20 or more between Friday, 8th May 2009 and Sunday, 10th May 2009 (GMT+2) and you'll get a 75% Match Bonus up to 100 in purchases!
Your bonus will be credited instantly!
You’ve earned the VIP title - now cash in on it!

Claim your one-time-only VIP offer before it expires!

Remember to keep an eye on the VIP Mega Celebrations for even more reasons to celebrate.

Best Regards

Nicolette B.
Casino Host

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RE: With big play come big rewards – claim your exclusive VIP offer! YOUR SPAMMING PRACTICES ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE!! Player: (bernynhel's casino account number deleted by bernynhel)
From: bernynhel's - (bernynhel's secret identity deleted by bernynhel)
Sent: Wed 5/13/09 12:44 AM
To: vip@sharegroupmail1.eu; affiliates@casinoshare.com; marketing@casinoshare.com; suggestions@casinoshare.com; customerservice@casinoshare.com
Cc: complaints@casinshare.com; promotions@casinoshare.com

To whom it may concern:

This following link is to my posted reply in a thread which has recently been brought to my attention:

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...tml#post298426

I intend for this email to be my next post to that thread.

Until such a time that CasinoShare has ceased from spamming, I'm not depositing or gaming at your sites. In the meantime, you may take my VIP status and STICK IT WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE!

(bernynhel who, disguised as Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter deleted by bernynhel)
Los Angeles

[vinylweatherman]

Don't let casinos or aff programs piss in your pocket about spamming not working. I'm sick of hearing this line myself.

Fact is it very profitable. Information collection agencies offer lists of decent emails @ 0.10 - 0.25 cents, much less for bulk order of 250,000 +.

If your making $100K a month from spamming you can afford to pay.

Some casinos are desperate for players and WILL turn a blind eye if it means keeping their head above water!


cheers
T

Oh, I know that

I have even heard this from an insider.

It seems that what we get when we expose an individual affiliate, and PROOF of spam, is that a rep from the casino and/or the program gives the offending affiliate a "good taking to", and then comes back to say the issue has been addressed.

Given how hard it can be to pin spam down to a particular individual, all a spammy affiliate risks is "a good talking to". Even if they end up getting their affy account shut down, it seems they just open another one, and all is fine. Just try this as a PLAYER, and see how "fine" that is

Now, for interest, has anyone considered posing as a business, casino, or marketing agency, and approaching Communicator Corporation to see what they are prepared to do for you. I would be thinking of approaching them to see if they would be willing to send YOUR mailer to THEIR "confidential" lists that other clients have supplied to them, or worse still, even be prepared to sell the lists directly.