Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
1–10 of 67 posts
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#2the actual base64 email itself is an HTML document, with a bunch of filler text about metal magnets!
> Hi there, A magnetic domain is a region within a magnetic material in which the magnetization is in a uniform direction. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction [...]
they sign off the email with a zero-width space set to "font-size: 0" for some reason
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#3the actual base64 email itself is an HTML document, with a bunch of filler text about metal magnets! > Hi there, A magnetic domain is a region within a magnetic material in which the magnetization is in a uniform direction. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction [...] they sign off the email with a zero-width space set to "font-si…
Also, the magnet text is not visible:
style="position: absolute; left: -9999px; top:-9999px;display: none"
maybe they try to warm up those emails to use them for other "campaigns" later on...
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#4the actual base64 email itself is an HTML document, with a bunch of filler text about metal magnets! > Hi there, A magnetic domain is a region within a magnetic material in which the magnetization is in a uniform direction. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction [...] they sign off the email with a zero-width space set to "font-si…
The text is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_domain that uses a CC BY-SA 4.0. I hope they remembered to add the atribution as requested :)
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#5Strange to see this in an apparent real product. And also I don't see how this does much to 'validate' it... It could be a valid email that belongs to a random stranger, like, tcook@apple.com for instance.
Part of me wonders if someone has added something nefarious into their backend which just collects and exfiltrates new emails as people sign up.
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#6The idea that they really send spam to validate an email address sounds to insane to be believable.
Is it possible that they are somehow leaking the address to actual spammers?
For example, they (or the hypothetical email validation SaaS) use an infected email validation library that ex-fills every email supplied to it, or something like this.
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#7Can it be that Pangram doesn't send any spam itself but instead (intentionally or not) leaks your email address to some spammer who then does the sending?
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#8Magnetic domain
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#9I just did a signup on a brand new email address and was not able to recreate. No random spam emails reported. Just a normal verification email.
It's likely that the email the author received is pure coincidence. Especially if they are using a client that downloads emails in batches.
FWIW it looks like their validation email is sent by Customer.IO via Mailgun. Both have squeaky clean service agreements so it's unlikely they are shooting off the data to spammers.
Edit: No way! I did end up getting a random empty email. From a "Adventure-Meter Department" at bugbusterbrigade.com. The topic of the email was "Scents and Memory".
This is a really weird email. It's not a spam email, it's some sort of attempt at inbox testing. Perhaps it's an attempt to sniff out AI agents signing up for their service?
Re: Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them
#10looks like a response to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445834