If that email circulating in town offering to sell data about the attendees of this year’s Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival didn’t go directly into your spam folder, don’t hesitate to mark it as such.
“Total scam,” said Scott Hunter, director of the Los Altos Village Association, which organized the festival, held July 9 and 10. “We would never offer our mailing list for money.”
The email, which the Town Crier received July 11 from adrian.cassar@datamarketing.services, promises to provide information on more than 10,000 festival attendees – data such as company name, company URL, contact name, title, phone number and email address – for a fee.
Replying as an interested party, the Town Crier received a response July 13 from someone identifying himself as Marty Wilson of V-Orange Data Processing, who offered to sell the information for $300.
This time disclosing that the email was from the local newspaper, the Town Crier responded by asking Wilson how he received data festival organizers had not shared.
“Yes, this information has not been disclosed,” Wilson replied. “But we are one of them who have the list.”
According to its website, Delaware-based V-Orange Data Processing “is one of the leading b2b data management services.” The company’s About Us page also states, “We value integrity, personal excellence,…
