<p>I have to admit, signing up for that PSAT student search thing has flooded my inbox with messages from colleges. When I receive this mail, I often check the address that sent the mail. Most often, the mail that comes from College X (<a href=“http://www.college.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.college.edu</a>) has graphics, or specific information.</p>
<p>Often, I receive mail supposedly from the college, but each email is almost exactly the same - they all say something like, "I’ll send you <em>insert name of guide I’m not really interested in</em> and to cap it off, is extremely unprofessional-sounding: “Your Best Campus Visit Handbook Ever won’t be available after today and I need to receive your request by midnight tonight.” They always have a signature: Sincerely, <em>Insert Name</em>, dean of admissions, <em>college’s name</em>, <em>address</em></p>
<p>The address of these emails is always <a href=“http://www.*insert%5B/url%5D”>www.*insert</a> college<em>-info.org</em>, clearly not from the college itself. Being at least somewhat computer-savvy, I did a WhoIs search of some of these domains and found them all belonging to this one address, a particular “Royall and Company.” Does this company really get paid by colleges to advertise, and if so, why do such a lackluster, unprofessional-seeming job to the extent that I think it’s spam mail?</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experiences of these “x-info.org” emails and/or insight to their origin? If it’s not spam, why is the advertising so similar/poorly done? And if this is spam, then how in the world did they get my personal info?</p>