Razorfish spams clients to distraction

Perhaps they should send out a bottle of wine with their apologies?

Web consultancy firm Razorfish has been forced to apologise for an email cock-up which resulted in sending unwanted spam to thousands of its clients. The mess began when Razorfish techies accidentally set up a news group when they sent out a newsletter to Razorfish customers. As a result, unsubscribe responses were sent to everyone on the list, as did increasingly angry responses from the spam-ees, generating thousands of extra emails. A spokesman for the company said emails had also gone out to a few old clients of the firm - their names have previously been removed from the newsletter list. Razorfish CEO Jean-Philippe Maheu personally wrote to apologise to customers. The email newsletter has been suspended for the time being. The cyber-blunder is particularly embarrassing for Razorfish, which has built its reputation on the slick handling of online image. The misfortune also comes at a rocky time for the firm, which is struggling against collapsing demand for web consultancy. To visit silicon.com's Digital Blunders site and find out just how wrong you can go with a simple email, visit http://www.silicon.com/goto-Digital-news where you will find stories like this man's: "When I was getting divorced, my now ex-wife sent me an email telling me she couldn't afford to live in our flat and therefore wanted me to buy her out. I forwarded this to a mate, adding the comment: "Fantastic, the flat is going to turn into a Grade A bachelor pad, let's start pulling cheap sluts," and unfortunately copied her in the reply." For more email confessions, visit http://www.silicon.com/goto-Digital-news