Verisign Spam

Some people never learn. If you spam me, there is a good chance that I WILL mock you on the internet. Sure my site gets all of 2 readers a week, but they will know how big of a jackass you are.

Here is the spam that I got from Verisign:

—— Forwarded Message

From: “Borgches, Sergio” sborgches@verisign.com

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:39:24 -0500

To: Webmaster Webmaster@lightedge.com

Subject: Ineffective EV SSL Certificate on domain: my.lightedge.com

Dear Webmaster

Ineffective EV SSL Certificate on domain: my.lightedge.com

Are you aware that the Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificate that

you have on your domain does not display the standard EV interface

that your customers are expecting on Firefox 3.5?

Mozilla launched the latest version of their browser, on 2 July 2009.

Not only has it won the Guinness World Record for more than a

million downloads in a short time, but Firefox 3 currently accounts

for over 20% of global browser market share.

Instead of displaying the GREEN address bar, which reassures visitors

that your site is safe and authentic, it is displaying the BLUE

address bar, which means they do not get the full benefit of EV.

(Please see screenshot attached).

A rapidly growing portion of your Web site visitors are not seeing

the green address bar. It has shown in research that users look for

the green address bar on the sites with which they transact and that

77% of users will hesitate to complete the transaction on a site that

once had the green address bar but no longer does (TecEd study,

2007).

VeriSign is the leader in EV SSL security and we would like to assist

you to rectify this problem by offering you a replacement EV SSL

Certificate AT NO CHARGE! Our Extended Validation SSL Certificates

trigger the green bar in Firefox 3.5. We work closely with the

browser manufacturers to make sure that our customers’ security is

always world class and that there are no interruptions in your online

security.

To take advantage of this offer, and to make sure that your address

bar is GREEN in all current EV-enabled browsers please contact me and

I’ll help you switch to VeriSign, the worldwide leader in trusted

Internet communications and commerce.

Yours faithfully

Sergio Borgches

Inside Sales Executive

VeriSign Security Services

sborgches@verisign.com

Toll Free: 866.893.6565 option 1 ext 2296

First off Sergio, the webmaster address? Really? Like anyone really reads that stuff anymore. Half the time these go to an admin buried deep in cubeland who has filters that take webmaster, hostmaster and yourmom@domain.com and filter them into the bit bucket. I have these same filters, I’m that guy! I just happened to be going through my spam folder (yes, it was caught as spam Sergio!) when I found this little gem. I just couldn’t pass it up. Here’s my advice Sergio, if you really wanted to get someone’s attention, you CALL them.

Now, besides the fact that you didn’t call, this is a bit like ambulance chasing if you ask me. And I can’t say that I really blame you for it, but it still makes you a scum bag. The issue isn’t with the certificate. The certificate is STILL an Extended Validation (EV) certificate that shows up with the green bar in just about every browser that is out there except for Firefox 3.5. Why? Well its a bug in the browser. More details can be found here. If you happen to have a Verisign, Thawte or I think GeoTrust, you’re fine. This just seems to be an issue with a few providers. Globalsign being one of those. But never fear, addons.mozilla.com is also protected by a GlobalSign EV certificate so they are well aware of this issue. But instead of taking the high road and just putting out a press release saying that Verisign customers are not affected by the latest EV certificate issues in FireFox 3.5, you took the lowest road of them all and sent out spam spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Way to keep it classy!

So this Sergio is why I’m not going to swing my business over to you. Sure you’re just trying to get a leg up on the competition. But the methods in which you are doing it make me want to work with GlobalSign even more.