The American Society for Quality (ASQ) has contracted with Boxwood Technology to promote usage of the Society’s online “Career Center” portal.
Boxwood claims to be a “trusted career center provider for associations” which has “generated $300 million in non-dues revenue via our outsourced job board technology and other career-related services.”
In May 2012, Boxwood sent unsolicited emails to past users of the ASQ Career Center, using a marketing tactic known as “false familiarity” in which the sender alleges to have tried to have made personal contact with the recipient, implying that email is only the result of that personal effort having failed; in truth, the company does not ordinarily make any first contact with the recipient at all.
From one such email, sent by Boxwood’s Sherry Yousefi, received by Oxebridge on May 15th:
I am sorry that we were unable to connect via telephone today. I am the advisor for the ASQ Career Center, here to help you fill your open positions through ASQ.
The company had not actually attempted to contact anyone at Oxebridge by phone, or through any other means. The return email address for Ms. Yousefi was for a boxwoodtech.com domain, not ASQ.
Boxwood was the subject of a 2010 online complaint, when a computer user, who was investigating his system for spyware, discovered an unauthorized credit card transaction by Boxwood for $150:
I looked up Boxwood Tech on the web, and they’re some kind of job resource site. So I called them to see what could have gotten purchased, and it turns out they sell batches of people’s emails to people who want to do email blasts. What a scammy site. Someone had bought two email batches on my card.
The Boxwood website indicates that the company is offers “private-labeled, robust job board and career center technology that seamlessly integrates into existing association websites.”
Our job board technology allows you to generate significant non-dues revenue and satisfy members with a popular benefit that’s easy to deliver.
In the past, ASQ has used bulk emails to promote various services, but it was not clear if third party organizations were used to do so.
Oxebridge has not used the ASQ Career Center resource since 2008, and no Oxebridge employee is a current member of ASQ, indicating that Boxwood is mining old data to source its spam list.
At some point, ASQ modified its online Privacy Policy to specifically address the Career Center issue. The policy, as of May 2012, now reads:
If you supply your personal information to an ASQ partner, such as a training provider or the Career Center, please be aware that ASQ no longer has control over the use of your personal information. We will not knowingly partner with companies that abuse personal information. However, be aware that our partner companies may contact you if you choose to conduct business with them.
Despite the phrase “conduct business with them,” the ASQ Career Center website (here and here) does not indicate in any fashion that it is operated by any organization other than ASQ itself, except for a statement that the job search feature is “powered by Boxwood Technology.”
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
