back to article FedEx helps deliver THOUSANDS of spam messages DIRECT to its Blighty customers

Fed-up FedEx customers in the UK were hit by an email storm yesterday, after a sad sap at the delivery company mistakenly hit the reply-all button on a daily alerts mailing list. Inevitably, it was then besieged by jokers, spammers and idiots replying with the request to be removed from the list. Reg reader, Nick, who flagged …

  1. psychonaut

    FuckUp

    best i can do at this hour of the morning and not enough tea

  2. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Past time.

    It is far past time that Reply All were permanently placed in the Hall of Shame.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Past time.

      Can we qualify that to

      Ban 'Reply all'

      When the list of recipients is greater than 'n' where 'n' is confgurable.

      For a small number of recipients it is still useful but as with any tool/gun/canon, in the wrong hands it can have really bad consequences.

      1. Matt 21

        Re: Past time.

        I was a bit surprised that they don't use the "undisclosed recipients" trick. Why would you give all your subscribers each others e-mail addresses?

  3. Christoph

    This kind of error is extremely easy to make with a single slip, and for inexperienced people it is excusable.

    If, that is, you are living in the early 1990s when e-mail first became popular and nobody really knew what they were doing. It is NOT excusable from a large firm 20 years later.

  4. Anonymous Dutch Coward
    Thumb Up

    Subtitle

    Haven't even read article, but kudos for that subtitle!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BCC?

    In order for a Reply All to send out to all those customers, then those email addresses must have been in either the To: or CC: fields.

    Surely any customer email addresses should have been in BCC: ?

    1. frank ly

      Re: BCC?

      Yes, but as a customer you belong to them and they're proud of their customers and like to wave them around so everyone can see.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: BCC?

      Or… it was a mailing list address in the To or CC field, and someone left the barn door open…

    3. tfewster
      Facepalm

      Re: BCC?

      Does this count as a Data Breach rather than just an annoyance, as email addresses were disclosed? email addresses may not seem important, but could be used for phishing or invoice-fraud attacks.

      A sternly worded letter from the ICO might prevent further sloppiness.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: BCC?

        Does this count as a Data Breach rather than just an annoyance, as email addresses were disclosed?

        Probably not, I doubt even FedEx would be as crude as using an in-email-client mailing list. Big lists of email addresses in the To or Cc fields is a sure fire way to get your host blacklisted.

        No, this sounds like an email list (with a dedicated address) that was misconfigured to allow anyone subscribed to post to the list. Not what you want in an announcements list.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe, maybe not

    There was a SPAM sent out yesterday in the U.S. that purported to be a FEDEX delivery notice but it was not from FEDEX so there are all sorts of SPAM going on.

  7. disgruntled yank

    Are you sure it was FedEx?

    Did the truck park in a drive lane while the message was delivered?

  8. Stevie

    Bah!

    How many "FedExEmp would like to recall this message" messages flooded the internetworks right after the initial delivery?

    My favorite thing at work is to arrive back after a week-long illness to discover some twonk sent me so much mail my mailbox overflowed on day 1, at which point the mailbot sends me two mails a day to tell me my mailbox is full and I can't receive mail.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bah!

      How many "FedExEmp would like to recall this message" messages flooded the internetworks right after the initial delivery?

      A dead giveway they're using Outlook too… and the Microsoft-centric view of the world that you can just magically unsend an email in the same way you can unpost a letter.

      Sorry fellas, once you click send and the email leaves your border router, it's GONE.

      1. Stevie

        Re: the Microsoft-centric view of the world that you can just magically unsend an email

        But the notification that a withdrawal has been requested at least lets you know the mail in question was sent in error and therefore you should not take everything in it as "operable".

        Stop droning on about Microsoft-centric view. This is just a feature enrichment that does not break the e-mail paradigm in any way, it merely increases the functionality for those that use MS Office. MS are entitled to increase the feature set of their own office software and you are free to not use it. No harm, no foul.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like