"Spotlite Radio" / spotliteradio2013.com spam

This spam email is promoting an apparent Whos' Who scam hosted on a site called spotliteradio2013.com which purports to be an organisation called "Spotlite Radio". The email is sent to a role account, not a real human being.. marking it out clearly as spam.

From:     Patricia Wu [darin@contacteagle.info]
Reply-Ro:     databaseemailergroup@gmail.com
Date:     11 April 2013 03:42
Subject:     SUPERCHARGE YOUR ONLINE LIFE WITH SPOTLITE RADIO!

Hello,

You were recently chosen as a potential candidate interviewee to represent your professional social media community in the 2013-2014 Spotlite Radio.

We are pleased to inform you that your candidacy was formally approved on April 10th, 2013. Congratulations.

The Social Broadcasting Committee selects potential candidates based not only upon their current standing, but focusing as well on criteria from executive and professional directories, associations, and trade journals. Given your background, the Director believes your profile makes a fitting addition to be featured.

There is no fee or obligation to be included. We must receive verification from you that your profile is accurate. After receiving verification, we will validate your candidate listing within seven business days.

Once finalized, your broadcast radio interview will share prominent media space with thousands of fellow accomplished individuals across the globe like yourself, each representing accomplishments within their own specialized area.

To verify your profile and accept the candidacy, please visit here

Our registration deadline for this year's candidates is April 30th. To ensure you are included, we must receive your verification on or before this date. On behalf of our Committee, I salute your achievements this year and look forward to welcoming you to our broadcast social network.

Click here to verify your profile.

Warm Regards,

Patricia Wu
Chief of Broadcasting

Spotlite Radio

-----------------------------------------

This email is intended only for the recipient(s) and is private.
If you receive our invitation in error please reply with unsubscribe in the subject line

It isn't clear if the "Spotlite Radio" hosted at spotliteradio.com (currently down) and spotliteradio2013.com are actually related. spotliteradio.com was only registered a few months ago in September 2012 and according to New York State is owned by:

Selected Entity Name: SPOTLITE RADIO LLC

Selected Entity Status Information

Current Entity Name:	SPOTLITE RADIO LLC
DOS ID #:	4306578
Initial DOS Filing Date:	OCTOBER 11, 2012
County:	NEW YORK
Jurisdiction:	NEW YORK
Entity Type:	DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
Current Entity Status:	ACTIVE

Selected Entity Address Information

DOS Process (Address to which DOS will mail process if accepted on behalf of the entity)
SPOTLITE RADIO LLC 14 WALL STREET 20TH FL NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10005
Registered Agent
NONE

So this "Spotlite Radio" is properly registered in the state of New York, and it appears to be a sort of social radio site where people can make and broadcast their own shows.  There's nothing obvious on the spotliteradio.com website that makes it look suspicious, although judging by the dormant Twitter account the whole thing ground to a halt in February.

So what can we tell about the spam? Well, spotliteradio2013.com contains Google Analytics code for UA-3676294-22 which belongs to a New York web design company called Webnbeyond (webandbeyond.com / webnbeyond.com) but they may simply be the web designers. All these domains are on the same server of 66.11.129.87.

The email originates from the IP address 70.126.247.237 which appears to be in Tampa, Florida via 192.217.124.43 which is also contacteagle.info (mentioned in the spam email above), registered to:
Registrant ID:CR121682219
Registrant Name:Darin Delia
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street1:1321 Henry Ave
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Spring Hill
Registrant State/Province:Florida
Registrant Postal Code:34608
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.5615964330
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:

Spring Hill is about 40 miles north of Tampa, so there's a good chance that the originating IP and domain belong to one and the same person.

Darin Delia runs a Florida-based company called Contact Page Media, Inc and this is described on his LinkedIn page thusly:

We use Google Search Technology to reach Contact Pages on your Business Targeted Market. We reach thousand of websites per hour using our software, and we have the capabilitity to reach the unique target you just cannot find with email

What this means is that they scrape the email addresses off the web and spam the hell out of them. You'll note that the spam email lacks a contact address (for example) which breaks the CAN-SPAM act. Note also the email address of  Patricia Wu [darin@contacteagle.info] which is either somewhat deceptive, or perhaps Mr Delia likes to be Ms Wu at the weekends. But then probably Mr Delia is only sending promotional emails rather than running the scam.

The privacy policy page on spotliteradio2013.com leads to another site called mywhoswhonetwork.com registered to an address in Texas:

   Whos Who Network
   John Williams (webmaster@mywhoswhonetwork.com)
   +1.8084524561
   Fax:
   2172 Willshire
   College Station, TX 77845
   US

This same company also owns the following domains:

• americanleadersmagazine.com
• globalregistryonline.com
• mywhoswhonetwork.com
• professionalnetwork2012.com
• professionalnetwork2013.com
• pronetwork2012.com
• taxadvice2day.com

But a hyperlink from one domain to another does not prove ownership, and the privacy policy could simply have been ripped off a competitor's site. So no smoking gun there. In fact, there's no actual evidence of who is responsible for this spam, and probably all we have are some innocent bit part actors.

I can't vouch for the trustworthiness of the actual Spotlite Radio (spotliteradio.com) site one way or another. One the surface it appeared to be a public-access web radio service, and there's nothing wrong with that. As I said, this spam may not even be from them. But it clearly is a spam because the domain role account is not an actual person and the claims made in the spam email are clearly rubbish.

So what does happen if you sign up for this. Well, according to this report they charge you $850 for a worthless plaque and an entry in a pseudo-who's-who guide,:

It was a pleasure speaking with you this morning. Confirming your show date is on January 9th at 3pm EDT. Attached is the invoice for your purchase of the Spotlite Radio Show,Distinguished professional of the year plaque and a half page biography in our 2013 book. If you could sign and send back to us, but make sure you keep a copy for your records as well. This is just confirming that you made a partial payment and were going forward with the program. Once we have your pre interview done for your upcoming show I will be sending you the links to the website. Hope you have a great week and I look forward to speaking with you soon. Call in number is XXXXX -Amanda Lynn 

In other words.. here's some crap. If you record your show then well send you the URL for spotliteradio.com and you can upload it yourself. Best avoided in my opinion.