LashBack, LLC., the first and only global email compliance service, launches DataSource Validator in response to recent attacks on multiple opt-in based, online marketing websites in a combined abuse of consumer email addresses stolen from opt-out lists or suppression files and submitted to an array of websites with other fraudulent consumer data. Publishers Clearing House (PCH), a leading multi-channel direct marketer of value-based consumer products and magazines, is now implementing LashBack’s DataSource Validator, beginning a collaborative effort to increase protection of consumer data and protect the brand reputation of its advertising partners by working to identify the sources of online fraud to mitigate and ultimately stop their impact.
The unknown source of this current attack appears to be distributed in nature, such as in a peer-to-peer system or bot-net. The attackers currently under investigation use consumer email addresses harvested from suppression files, or opt-out lists maintained by email marketers as mandated by federal law, and re-opt-in the opted-out email addresses combined with fraudulent consumer profile information. This misuse of consumer email and data is causing a rise in consumer email complaints, which hurts the email reputation and deliverability of marketers unknowingly using the fraudulent data. This issue impacts the entire industry, and LashBack clients like PCH now have a powerful tool to protect customers and work together to address this growing problem. DataSource Validator identifies and distributes known IP addresses of forged lead sources to allow legitimate email marketers to effectively monitor the quality of their lists, protecting consumers and advertisers alike.
“PCH is eternally vigilant of our brand, our consumer and our advertising customer’s experience with us. When this recent problem surfaced we knew we had to act fast. Our advertising partners and internal marketers expect quality. We knew this threat was real based on an alert from LashBack,” stated Sal Tripi, Director of Operations at PCH. “Over the years PCH has engaged the services of key strategic vendors to help us protect our reputation in this very collaborative industry. LashBack’s quick response is yet another testament to the extraordinary efforts being made to stay at the forefront of the "best practices" wave and, in this case, to take a proactive stance to uncover and block fraudulent practices.”
“The key to identifying the source of the opt-in fraud and building the service to detect it was discovering that LashBack probe emails were being harvested from suppression files and opted in fraudulently at specific IP addresses," stated LashBack CTO Eric Castelli. “DataSource Validator uses MD5 Hash technology to enable clients to safely discover data to help identify the source of two unique violations of federal law: use of fraudulent and stolen consumer data and suppression list abuse.”
The beta version of DataSource Validator is now available exclusively to LashBack clients. An updated whitepaper is available for further instruction on the new service. As PCH and other responsible marketers are able to report fraudulent data sources through the use of DataSource Validator, all marketers in the LashBack network will be able to better protect consumers and advertising partners from the fraudulent opt-in of suppressed email addresses and the abuse of consumer data in a true collaborative compliance environment.
LashBack,LLC. is the first and only CAN-SPAM and global email compliance service monitoring over 35,000,000 Sending IP's and over 1,000,000 unsubscribe mechanisms, processing over 2,000,000 commercial emails daily. LashBack provides actionable compliance information and unsubscribe reputation scores for a diversity of email marketing clients and leading email reputation providers.
Publishers Clearing House is the world’s most well known Sweepstakes provider. In addition to selling merchandise and magazines, it also offers cost-efficient marketing partnerships that generate substantial numbers of qualified leads for consumer marketing companies. PCH is committed to maintaining a quality reputation in the online marketing industry and delivering quality leads to advertisers and various marketing groups.
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