So far, I have received three unsolicited e-mails and I was also signed up to a Google Group I didn’t ask for last week. All by the Zecco folks, who, according to an unsolicited e-mail from “Trish Telesco”, is “very anti-spam”.
But last night was my favorite - I got an unsolicited e-mail from “Alfredo Gutierrez” that said:
This is email is not spam. It is not computer generated and you are not part of a list. Please let me know if you want more information about Zecco.com or a going to blog about it. Thank you.
-from Zecco unsolicited e-mail dtd 22 Sep
For the Zecco folks, Wikipedia says that spam:
.. involves sending unsolicited messages to many recipients. Unlike legitimate commercial e-mail, spam is generally sent without the explicit permission of the recipients..
September 23rd, 2006 at 8:29 am
I to was signed up for the Google group w/o my authorization, and I also received the email about zecco’s free stock commissions.
Funny, that I am not part of a list, yet I am on a list that I did not ask to be on.
When filling out these forms like this I don’t trust most of them so I use a yahoo address that gets filled with spam, yet the address that gets this guys emails is the one on my website specifically written in a way, you have to be human to use it.
This Alfy guy, obviously is visiting PF blogs, in an effort to try to get some free press. I say we give it to him, bad press that is. Thanks for being the first to give him bad press.
Hope you let him know, so he could read how people are upset by his marketing technigues. May he go bankrupt, very quickly.
September 23rd, 2006 at 8:55 am
Very Sorry,
I work at Zecco. We were trying out a new feature on google that was not fully documented. Had no intention of making anyone join a group against their wishes. Just evaluating online tools. This is not spam. Whether we are using google for evil or good remains to be seen. You’ll know on October 9th.
I feel especially bad about this because evryone who got the google groups communication is someone whose blog we read and like.
Very truly sorry.
Any questions please contact me at sabin.speiser@zecco.net
September 23rd, 2006 at 9:53 am
The staff at Zecco has made such a point of saying their marketing e-mails are not “spam”, when they:
(1) have been completely unsolicited,
(2) were never opted into by myself (or others it seems), and
(3) offer no way to “unsubscribe”.
September 24th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Hi Alexander. My name is Soren and I am one of the founders of Zecco. I am sorry you have been sent unsolitited email. I can understand why that would be irritating. As you will be aware this was an unintended result of using Google groups … and will certainly not happen again.
That said I would be interested to hear your comments on the Zecco site once we get past launch. I saw your previous comment re. investing being an individual sport … but for me the point is that if we manage to disintermediate the traditional information sources and make a more democratic process it will probably mean that everyone ends up with more information and more opinions on the value of that information — and that this in turn may be used to make perhaps even better individual decisions. So yes — investing is an individual sport but the playing field is not level at the moment and we hope to be part of creating a more level playing field.
As things move forward it will be very interesting to see just what sort of informational nexus our users will be able to provide — and what sort of value this will provide to everyone that wishes to use the site.
My personal decision to get involved in creating this site has not just been for profit (although that plays a role as well) but as much to provide a venue that opens up new possibilities for investors.
As someone who like me appears to be a seasoned investor I am sure you are aware of the fact that the more information can be amassed and analysed on a specific subject the better changes of understanding it.
For example Goldman Sachs is generally thought to have one of the worlds best Private Wealth Management portfolios (only available to individuals with more than $15 million to invest) and also has the worlds largest section of highly trained analysts building the information that leads to investment decisions in that portfolio. So as you can see there is strong case for a corellation between collaborative information gathering and sifting and individual investment results.
Anyways … I’d be very happy to continue this discussion with and other investors — on zecco.com as well as on your own blogs.
I would also point to the fact that we have decided to split advertising revenue with bloggers that use our site to host their blogs — and believe we will be able to generate many more pageviews for our bloggers than most will be able to on their own.
Anyways … hope to be able to continue the dialogue and always interested in commentary, suggestions, ideas for improvement etc.
Cheers
September 24th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Hi Soren,
Thank you for your comments.
I agree that the playing field is not level when it comes to investing, especially when comparing individual investors to institutional investors. It will be interesting to see how Zecco affects that.
I also agree that the more information is available the more people can understand their investments. I do think that a lot of the information is already out there, just most people are not interested in looking at it.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:10 am
This is a tricky area. I consider all unsolicited commercial emails to be spam. But as a blogger, I want people to be able to contact me to bring new services and products to my attention. The google groups thing is another matter. I think if Zecco gets too aggressive with their promotions, it can only continue to backfire.
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:33 am
I agree Joe. There is a line drawn and companies know when they cross it. Zecco needs to be cautious especially at this pre-launch stage. So far they are not making great decisions and that sets a tone not easy to change once set in the minds of bloggers.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:34 am
Very Interesting…
Thank you.
Steven Burda
http://www.linkedin.com/in/burda
October 16th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
The Zecco guys don’t care if they spam people, they steal money too. Next they’ll start raping and pillaging. I tried out their service and lost 100 bucks in the process. They wont let me withdraw or trade it. http://theitguysblog.com/2007/10/16/zecco-trading-word-to-the-wise-stay-away/