EMMAUS, Pennsylvania (18 March 2001) -- Next time you go diving and sign a waiver release, BEWARE. You may actually be signing a marketing scam agreement between Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine and the dive operator to harvest your email address and target you with spam, not only from Rodale, but companies they reportedly sell email lists to. Rodale Inc, the US-based scuba magazine with the Orwellian slogan, "the magazine divers trust (sic)," launched the scam in mid-February with a letter to dive operators worldwide entitled, "ARE YOUR DIVE WAIVERS COLLECTING DUST? PUT THEM TO WORK FOR YOU." To participate in the scam, unscrupulous dive operators must agree to collude with Rodale by sending them previously signed customer waivers. They must also begin using a two-page waiver that Rodale has designed specifically to harvest email addresses. "When divers board your boats, they must sign a liability waiver and if you're like most businesses, you file these waivers away in the broom closet, never to be seen again," Rodale's Scuba Diving explained. "Unfortunately, these waivers contain valuable marketing data, including mailing addresses and e-mail addresses. You're missing an invaluable marketing opportunity! The RSD Dive Waiver Program allows both of us to benefit from these high-quality contacts." In return for colluding with Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine to spam you, the dive operator gets free advertising at Rodale's web site in a feature called Scuba 360 Virtual Tours. To further entice dive operators to sign on, Rodale offers to bounce back a floppy disk containing the email addresses of the dive operator's customers. How the scam works Rodale has designed a 2-part waiver that participating (and less than scrupulous) dive operators must use to get free ads. | | The "magazine divers trust" wants to sell your email address to spammers. When you sign the waiver, the dive operator keeps one page and sends the other to Rodale where the information is harvested for spam lists. Then Rodale (RSD) spams the dive operator's customers with their monthly newsletter that promotes advertisers and subscriptions to Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine. "RSD sends your divers a special, personalized "thank you" note for diving with you," says Rodale's. "RSD also sends them a complimentary issue of Depth-Finder -- the e-mail newsletter..." Selling spam lists? Whether Rodale also intends to sell the lists to businesses that target divers with unsolicited commercial spam remains somewhat unclear. But according to their vague and contradictory privacy policy, the door is wide open. "From time to time, we make our customer e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers available to other reputable business associates whose products or services might be of value to you." (from Rodale's privacy policy statement) © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
