Fighting the BMW Spam Machine – Part 3

How to Get A the Attention of a Global Corporation

In Part two I wrote an open letter to BMW AG, but like a tree falling in a forest with nobody to hear it, you don’t know if an unread letter made a sound or not. The trick is how do you get the attention of company like BMW?

The answer is you do a little research and you use some leverage.

It didn’t take long for me to find http://www.bmw.com/com/en/general/contact/contact.html, and that gives me the email addresses of several BMW employees in Germany who can either address my concerns or make sure they are addressed.

I decided to start with MS Christel Reynaerts, Head of International Corporate Sales. It is important not to include everyone in the same email as that may trigger some spam filters. Additionally, you want to change the text, at least a little, in each message or multiple duplicate messages may trigger spam filters and the recipients will not know that there is a problem they need to deal with.

I also sent a message to http://www.facebook.com/bmwmuenchen/app_256308547735406

You might message them and ask what they are doing to stop BMW spam!

In this case, since BMW is a German company and their Distributor is operating in the USA, I can also contact the German Ambassador to the US to let him know how poorly his countrymen are representing Germany and ask for assistance in getting BMW to stop allowing a US company to use their logo in spam runs. I suspect the Ambassador has more important things to do and will make sure someone else makes sure that this isn’t going to be a distraction any longer.

Additional steps on the “to do” list include:

File a complaint with the Attorney General for Washington State.

File a complaint with the Attorney General in New Jersey.

Check with the FBI to see if there is a potential criminal harassment complaint since BMW of Mt. Vernon refuses to stop emailing me,

Research legal options for a civil lawsuit against BMW of Mt. Laurel, Holman Automotive Group, and BMW of North America.

Time to send a bunch of emails to BMW employees now. The firstname.lastname format of employees at BMW.com tells me there is a reasonable chance that I can also email senior management at the company as well!

I’ll post more as I learn more or take more actions.

For background see

Part 1 - Fighting the BMW Spam Machine
http://randy-abrams.blogspot.com/2012/06/fighting-bmw-spam-machine-part-1.html

Part 2 - An Open Letter to BMW AG
http://randy-abrams.blogspot.com/2012/06/fighting-bmw-spam-machine-part-2.html

Part 4 - Filing an Online FTC Complaint is Easy, Fun, and Socially Responsible
http://randy-abrams.blogspot.com/2012/06/fighting-bmw-spam-machine-part-4.html
 

Part 5 - Using the Internet Crime Complaint Center (The IC3)

http://randy-abrams.blogspot.com/2012/07/using-internet-crime-complaint-center.html

©2012 Randy Abrams - Independent Security Analyst