Spam in the name of Diesel
Submitted by Dabitch on Sat, 09/23/2000 - 14:13.
in
Spam is not advertising - it is the cancer of the web. We all know and agree on this - if you do not sign up to receive messages and still do, you are of course a tad mad. It is the advertising reserved for get rich quick schemes rather than the High Street brand name. What if you don't sign up for anything , and get spam SMS'sed to your mobile phone? What is that? SpaSMS! You have to get the message, press button or two read it delete it, and *beep* you get another identical one. *argh!* When signing your mobile phone contract you usually sign a clause stating that you do not want to receive unsolicited messages to it, hence, anyone spamming your phone is actually breaking a law. Some mobile phone companies sell your phone number to the highest bidder - the claus in the contract will protect you from such barbarism. Or will it? Diesels's King Frank has taken to spamming mobile phones in Holland with useless SMS messages, probably thinking it's another cool "ad virus" media in the making- and Dabitch is mad.
It all started fairly innocent. I got an SMS message on my phone. It stated: Diesel presents:" Give me your face we'll give you the look..dj's Junior Sanchez (nyc) and Laidback Luke. Powered by Motorola.....& Diesel WWW.23SEPTEMBER2000.COM (now there's a really useless link) I read it, sighed, and went back to whatever I was doing. This message was sent to me five times the 19th of september.. at the fourth repeated message on I *snapped* and called The administrative contact of this domain, as stated in the whois record:
Administrative Contact:
Bakker, Jurriaan domains@direct5.net
Rembrandtweg 214b
Amstelveen, 1180 LB
NL
+31 (20) 710 9700
My first question after Jurrian answered the dialled number was: Are you the owner of the domain 23september2000.com? He said; What? and I repeated my question, adding "you are listed as the administrative contact in the whois record is this correct? He said that yes he does own the domain. I asked him to please stop sending advertising messages to my telephone, adding that when I do not give my consent to this, it is illegal. He said "I GET it" about that - clearly annoyed with me (oh Puhlease!)- and added that he could only remove my number from the list of receiving SMS's if I gave my phonenumber to him. I had not given him my phone number in the first place so I declined to do this, suggesting that my phonenumber was probably not the only one on the list who hadn't willingly given my GSM# away to them and also suggested that he should have a look at whatever software he was using as it sends repeat messages -five times in a row- and that would surely piss off even those who said yes to this spam. He stated again that he could not remove my phonenumber. I had to cut this call short as I received another one - we do have an actual life sometimes - and thought that the spam was over with, I received no more messages that day. It's never that simple kids. 21st of september another SPAMSMS. "Have we got your face or not? Powered by Motorola www.KingFrank.com" is SMS's to my telephone. KingFrank is a Diesel Hoax-site, and interestingly enough it is registered as follows: Administrative Contact:
Shevlin, Robert (ROSH76) bobshevlin@yahoo.com
549 Richards Rd.
Columbus, OH 43214
US
(PH) 614 261 0266
Technical Contact:
Your Name Free, Support (YNFT1) support@yournamefree.com
-
-, - -
US
(PH) 1-800-828-7497 (FAX) 1-877-332-7497
Registration Date: 27-Apr-2000 13:22:17
Expiration Date: 27-Apr-2002 10:21:21
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.WINEASY.SE 195.42.198.5
NS2.WINEASY.SE 195.42.198.10
I once had an account at wineasy, so I know it is a swedish server. The billing and administrative contact are the same and I haven't called the states as I'm sure he had nothing to do with this spam, also, I actually doubt it is a real person - as the technical contact seems to be complete bogus. I know that the kingfrank domain is a hoax- media virus Ad for diesel - hell, I wrote about it and so did Wes when he discoved yet another fake dot.com. Interesting practice of a worldwide Clothes-Brand to register domains with fake contacts. 22 September, another SMS from "Frank."" King Frank says:"Give me your face we've got the look..it is totally sold out! www.KingFrank.com" Like I care.
The Diesel Party is tonight. I am invited, I even have some stupid VIP pass. Until the party has passed I will continue to receive spam to my cellphone in the name of Diesel and Motorola. At 16:10 today (saturday 23) i received from Frank: Be early (open at 21.30) and if you're hungry don't worry "Stereo Sushi" is here! www.KingFrank.com. No mention of Diesel and Motorola this time. Do they even know that their brands are being sullied by these Spam tactics? I'm not the only one in Holland receiving these SMS-spams. Friends on other cellular networks such as Ben and Libertel are receiving them as well. Not one single one of us gave our phone number to Diesel checking any box stating "yes I would like to receive updates/information on my mobile phone". All of us are terribly annoyed.
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Paradiset - who creates the Diesel campaign - would not alloow this I'm sure.
They do great ads and campaigns for both Diesel and other brands. Does Diesel even know that this spam is going on?
Diesel must be aware of it - the URL mention in the SMS belongs to them after all. Unless this Jurrian charachter is some shady fly by night guy (and he acts like one) who is simply borrowing the Brand Names of Diesel and Motorola, in which case even more laws have been broken.
Call it SPASMS.. ;)) And guts to actually calling the guy up asking him to stop! He should have stopped then as you requested that regardless if you gave him your phonenumber or not.
Most people would not even know how to find a whois record - and thus would have nobody to complain to -as you show us there is no information available at the first domain (it is totally useless!).
SPAMSMS is a sort of abuse. It is trespassing. It is worse than the paper-ads you receive in the mailbox. Them you can stop, and it does not cost anything to receive them. Yes they cause pollution. So does SPAMSMS!!!!
I cannot beleive Diesel is contributing to this!
If it's legal or not is one discussion - I'd like to know if this sort of SPASMS is ethical?
This is from the same guys who gave us the Succesful Living gems? Regardless of who is in charge of making each ad - Germany for the perfumes, Stockholm for the TV, and so on, the Ad Buyer is still the same genious who launched Diesel as an international Jeans brand.
When did they loose touch with reality? Media-virus on the net is bad enough (I personally - hate the earlier cited examples here), Spamming SMS's on the phone is as you say more for the Get Rich Quick schemers than a High Street Fashion Brand who at one point actually won awards for being the best advertising client. Shame on Diesel. Shame shame shame.
JonJon
As demonstrated by Dabitch''s experience and others, this advertising tactic ironically generates ill-will along with the products it promotes. It is the antithesis of brand building, deconstructing the media image advertising. All for the sake of getting the name out.
Or How to create Badwill 101. ;)
Though I do understand Jurrian's dilemma of not being able to delete a phonenumber from a list if he doesn't have it - he couldn't guess what your was. He should have realised that if you got these SPASMS (great word!) without signing any agreement to receive them it was very likely that several more phonenumbers on his list belonged to people who never signed any agreement to receive them either - and he should have taken the time to *stop* the system and look for any phonenumbers in doubt and *not* SPASMS them! You did suggest to him that more phonenumbers on that list were like yours - he can not pledge ignorance now.
HAs anyone at Diesel been in touch with you regarding this? Have the SPASMS stopped? Was all this hype for a party?
Someone at Diesels interactive department in the us has replied to my mails and forwarded my mails to the head of marketing in the Netherlands.
I have received no word from him/her yet. (monday lunchtime - mails sent on Saturday morning)
probably a new term was invented in this post. :))
I like spam on my mobile phone. I have no friends and when I hear the distinctive beep on the mobile and I'm in the middle of a supermarket, it sounds like I have pals. Real pals. Thank you Diesel and Motorola - you make me glad to be alive - you're my buddies.
You are so ironic. I bet you could get a job writing ads for Diesel.
oooooh now wait *that* was irony - i happen to know that the ironic poster is currently writing Diesel ads. What a twist! (now that Diesel has left Paradiste and gone to Kesselskramer that is).