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Evidence Eliminator and Spam

Since at least 2000, Evidence Eliminator has been heavily hyped by spam. EE's two employees rarely send out spam themselves. Instead, their affiliates spam the USENET, ICQ, and other forums heavily pushing the software. They are now listed in the SPEWS database of known/proven spammers with record S639.

Here's some sample spam sent by RHS's agents:
Apr 14-15, 2001 Apr 20, 2001
May 11, 2001 Sept 3, 2001
July 20, 2003
Here's some sample spam sent by EE employees directly:
May 15, 2001 May 15, 2001 (#2)
Some people have unique responses to the spam, or simply decry it:
Tolkien fans respond! The NPR show Back of the Book disses EE (scroll down)

A quick check at Google Groups on March 17, 2002 confirms that the spam campaign continues -- Evidence Eliminator spam clogs the porn groups, and occasionally spills over into more reputable groups.

The response of Andy Churchill when confronted with allegations of supporting spam has been rather dubious. He claims, alternately, that a) it's not spam because it doesn't meet some strange definition of spam that he just made up (the real definition is "Unsolicited bulk Internet advertising"), b) the spam is a "joe job" where affiliates are trying to get each other kicked out of the affiliate program, or c) that the spam is produced by some "New World Order" conspiracy out to destroy Robin Hood Software (gosh, this guy really needs the AFDB!). For some reason, this New World Order conspiracy is only out to destroy Robin Hood Software... not any other security vendor (and there's plenty who provide better security than EE will ever provide). Quite... bizarre.

Meanwhile the spam continues, with a terrifying new twist: Push-ICQ links that can even set your home page to point at a terrifying scare ad. Wired Magazine did an expose' on these ads, which are widely spammed via USENET. Readers from around the globe have complained that they have been subjected to these terrifying ads.

What does Andy of Robin Hood Software say about this new type of spam for his product?

Uhm, well, he encourages it. Says Andy, "we now welcome FAKED LINKS, PUSH LINKS, ICQ, BLIND LINKS, POP-UPS, you name it, we'll convert it!". In short, Robin Hood Software welcomes spam, as long as it results in a sale. The only time they object to spam is when there's risk to their Internet connection, and even then, it's perfunctory objection. It hasn't kept them from being bounced from ISP to ISP as their reputation catches up to them. Who knows, maybe one day they'll even run out of ISP's to sign up with!


Copyright 2018 John Bryant All Rights Reserved
Last modified: Tue Jul 22 08:15:04 MST 2003