Spam from "GSN" to e-mail address registered on Play.com

rocklobster_2

I also got one to an address that is my initials and name @ company name - so it's not a dictionary attack or a play@everythingtheycanthinkof attack...

Interestingly, looks like netcraft aren't getting much joy from them either

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2011/03/21/play-com-customer-emails-leaked.html

Former_MSE_Archna

Hi all,

Play has seen the thread and has asked us to post the following message:


Email Security Message[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

We are emailing all our customers to let you know that a company that handle part of our marketing communications has had a security breach. Unfortunately this has meant that some customer names and email addresses may have been compromised.

We take privacy and security very seriously and ensure all sensitive customer data is protected. Please be assured this issue has occurred outside of Play.com and no other personal customer information has been involved.

Please be assured we have taken every step to ensure this doesn’t happen again and accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused some of you.

Customer Advice

Please do be vigilant with your email and personal information when using the internet. At Play.com we will never ask you for information such as passwords, bank account details or credit card numbers. If you receive anything suspicious in your email, please do not click on any links and forward the email on to [EMAIL="privacy@play.com"]privacy@play.com[/EMAIL] for us to investigate.

Thank you for continuing to shop at Play.com and we look forward to serving you in the future.

The Play.com Customer Service Team

No1

"Please be assured this issue has occurred outside of Play"

Well....that's all right then.

I too have received this email today to a unique address used for Play.com

DonnyDave

No1 wrote: »

"Please be assured this issue has occurred outside of Play"

Well....that's all right then.

I think that it's important to quote the sentence in full, so as not to take this comment in red out of context:

Please be assured this issue has occurred outside of Play.com and no other personal customer information has been involved.

The assurance is of the fact that no other personal information is involved, something which I think is the issue of greatest concern to Play.com customers.

This in no way mitigates what has happened, as no one would wish their e-mail address to fall into a spammer's hands. But it does confirm that no other information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, have been compromised.

dragonmeat

Play.com wrote: »

Please be assured this issue has occurred outside of Play.com and no other personal customer information has been involved.

Phew - I was worried for a moment that my personal details had been lost, whereas in reality all that's happened is that my personal details have been lost.

Internet_Pawn

MSE_Archna wrote: »

Hi all,

Play has seen the thread and has asked us to post the following message:


Email Security Message

We are emailing all our customers to let you know that a company that handle part of our marketing communications has had a security breach. Unfortunately this has meant that some customer names and email addresses may have been compromised. <snip>

This is from play.com's privacy policy:

"We have business and technical partners whom we share data with to handle orders, process credit and debit card payments and provide a range of services, including for fraud protection purposes. They are bound by Data Protection covenants and must process the personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the Data Protection Laws of Luxembourg."

I'm not sure a court would agree that passing data to a marketing agency comes within the definition of 'a range of services, including for fraud protection purposes.' Marketing has nothing whatsoever to do with any of the activities listed and their policy can't be interpreted as giving play.com the right to share our data with all and sundry . Far from resolving the issue, all their statement does is confirm their complicity in passing on our email addresses to third parties.

Oh yeah, and what's with the 'may have been compromised' comment. Do they not yet accept that our data has leaked?

Miss_Qwerty

MSE_Archna wrote: »

Customer Advice

Please do be vigilant with your email and personal information when using the internet.

Bah ha ha, would that involve never using your website again?

Shuttle

Hopefully Play.com will name the "company that handle part of our marketing communications" so that we (and hopefully Play) can avoid them in the future

I await their apology.

mb

jgxenite

Silverpop handles play.com's email campaigns (Google silverpop play.com). However, GSN's email campaigns are run by ExactTarget. As far as I'm aware, these two companies aren't one in the same so you have to ask, how did a play.com customer email get from Silverpop to ExactTarget?

GustyGardenGalaxy

Well, if it's only our names and email addresses then I can handle that - I get enough spam as it is, a bit more is unlikely to be noticed. However, that's just me - this is going to be decidedly inconvenient for some who rarely get any spam.

It's lucky for play.com that credit/debit card details weren't compromised.

On the back of this I think I'll take my business elsewhere.