I was poking around on the internet the other day looking for I.a.U.S. (Interesting and Useful Stuff) , when I came across a site that was offering a free “30 useful ways to do useful stuff” report.
The site was a legitimate one, and had a photo of the owner of the site, along with a bio, etc. I thought that the report could be a good one, so entered my e-mail address to down load it. And it was a good report with, indeed, 30 useful ways to do useful stuff.
Then the daily e-mails started coming in. They were harmless e-mails, packed with further useful tips, and I didn’t mind them too much. I’d have a look at them, and then delete them if there were not worth keeping.
But then I started going through the backlog of unread e-mail. There was one e-mail from the above-mentioned (or not-mentioned) company. It was from about three weeks ago. In it was a message that asked me to click on an “opt-in” link to verify that I wanted to receive information. I did this and was taken to a screen that informed me that I would “now receive e-mail” from the company!
Makes me really wonder what the point of it all is…

The opt-in e-mail

The confirmation message