Gossip

Von Magazine incites spamming? Surely not!

A weird email from VON Magazine, telling me how they couldn't manage without their loyal subscribers, and offering me a free Dictionary. All I have to do, is send them my Outlook address book.

"If you believe VON Magazine is worthwhile, why not let your colleagues in on it?" it starts out. And then comes the offer: flog your email directory for "a FREE copy of our Dictionary of IP Communications: 328 pages packed with 3,500+ definitions. To get your FREE Dictionary (and we'll even pay the postage, worldwide) all you do is send us the names and postal addresses of 25 of your colleagues in the IP Communications industry whom you think would like to receive VON Magazine."

In case you aren't quite sure what this entails, it gives instructions.

"Scan your address book or output your Outlook. Save it in either CSV or XLS format only. Then simply reply and attach it to this email. (Don't forget to include your name and address so we can ship your FREE Dictionary to you.) All replies and address data will be kept strictly confidential. We promise to never reveal you as our source!"

And it adds: "We will mail them a copy of VON Magazine and hope they subscribe, as you did." Which is interesting, because I'm certainly not a subscriber ...

My friends can relax. My Outlook files are confidential.