OT -- odd email from VASST

cbrillow wrote on 3/17/2011, 6:30 AM
Receive an email from VASST with the subject line: Save Big at NAB 2011
As this is a message in which I'd have an interest, I opened it to have a look. Unfortunately, the email client that I use to receive messages from VASST does not properly display messages with HTML content, so I had to click on the embedded link to display the message in my browser. To my surprise, the supplied link took me to the Harbor Freight tools website!

Puzzled, I copied the link and inserted it directly in my web browser, and had the same result. Next, I opened the message in "raw view" that lets me see the entire email in ascii format, and verified that the link is the same as what appears in the browser url bar.

Here's a slightly modified version of the link that appears, with carets changed to brackets to prevent the forum software from considering it to be a link, and with the domain name omitted from my email address:

[a href=3D"/Tools/BulkEmailer/tabid/106/ctl/EmailTracking/mid/433/Default.aspx?linkID=3D560&email=3Dcbrillow@xxxxx.com"]

I tried forwarding it to my Gmail address, because Gmail will properly display the HTML, but the message never makes it there. I suspect it's being trapped as spam at my domain's mail server.

Weird...

Comments

gpsmikey wrote on 3/17/2011, 11:40 AM
Does seem very odd - if you use Lookout Express ... I mean Outlook Express, you can right click the message, view properties and see the complete header details. Might be interesting to see just what the path was. Certainly doesn't sound like something VASST (or Harbor Freight for that matter) would send out. I periodically get email from both of them (because I subscribed) but this one seems as you put it - just a bit odd.

mikey
richard-amirault wrote on 3/17/2011, 12:35 PM
I just checked .. and I got the same e-Mail .. but since I get a lot of e-Mail .. and I have my client (Outlook Express) set to display messages in plain text .. I ignored that message after glancing quickly thru it. No clickable link shown in the plain text version and no plain text saying what this was all about .. BYE. (IMHO this was a badly formatted e-Mail that did not take into account plain text readers)

Going back to it .. I clicked on DISPLAY IN HTML in the VIEW menu on Outlook Express .. and it came up normal (not Harbor Freight) in my OE window.

PS: the big savings is on NAB registration .. not a physical product.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/17/2011, 1:01 PM
Due to the actions of spammers who have ruined everything that was easy about email and the Internet, domains like vasst.com cannot send out mass emails to their customer because ISP's, will black-list the site as a spammer. This forces us to use 3rd parties for doing mailing lists and it looks the the 3rd party may have gotten their links crossed. I've made our support aware of this. Thanks,

I wonder if Harbor Freight tools sells "Wave Hammers" (because they seem to sell "compressors") lol... ;-)

~jr

John Rofrano
VASST / Sundance Media Group
gpsmikey wrote on 3/17/2011, 3:55 PM
Well, they do have "dead blow hammers", "ball pein hammers", "sledge hammers" and "roto-hammers" at Harbor Freight but I haven't seen "wave hammers" there :-)

mikey (looking through their latest flier on my desk here)
cbrillow wrote on 3/17/2011, 7:15 PM
No -- I avoid Outlook and Outlook Express like the plague. The mail client in question is Pegasus Mail - an oldie, but goodie.

When viewing in 'raw mode', the whole message, including headers is displayed as simple ascii characters. It's without question a legitimate VASST email, but there is one thing a bit weird about the html: the code "3D", which is the ascii code for the = sign, appears after every = sign in the entire message. You can see that from the link portion I quoted in the first message.

Thanks for the comments, gentlemen. I was curious to see if anyone else had the same experience. Guess not...