Demos Auctions - a New Auction House, and a New Creation by NSB/Zeus?

Acsearch is only an archive, but the developer of acsearch also runs biddr.
It’s probably best that Simon explains this himself, I don’t know the details.

 

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I explained it in the post here:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/zeus-numismatics.358119/page-3#post-4556286

Unfortunately, the admins here do neither allow you to have multiple accounts, nor to change your user name. When I initially signed up, it was to answer a question about acsearch.info, so I chose the user name accordingly. Now I am stuck with it.

 

Today I got unsolicited advertising from Demos in my mail box, because
"You were subscribed to this list because:
You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website."

Which I definitely did not do, nor on their website, nor through other platform. And I need to input my email address in order to unsubscribe, which should not happen. So in the spam will go from now on, but one more question mark regarding the affiliation of this auction house to Zeus, because NSB did exactly the same, although I am not officially subscribed or approved bidder with NSB, but I am with Zeus.

 

Is it my impression or the posts of the owner have been deleted from this thread? This also happened to the posts of the owner of papillon in the respective thread.

 

I noticed this as well and was not so happy with it, how do they know my e-mail while I did not sign up for the auction, and I ticked off to receive any newsletters. @acsearch.info, could you clarify on this? Perhaps a bug in the system, or something else? It should not happen in my opinion.

 

Same with NBS...same with Demos...Zeus seems to be recycling the same email list for these new auctions houses...both times a new auction house has been founded in affiliation with Zeus, I am somehow signed up...isn't this reuse of emails without permission from the person in violation of EU law? (not to mention their data breach a few months back)

Edit: yes, this practice is in violation of the law..."With GDPR in place, marketers will only be allowed to send email to people who’ve opted-in to receive messages. While this has already been the case in most European countries under the EU Privacy Directive, GDPR further specifies the nature of consent that’s required for commercial communication. Starting in May 2018, brands have to collect affirmative consent that is “freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous” to be compliant with GDPR."

Its not a great look to see companies flagrantly disregard the privacy of their customers like this...and to see them remain hosted on auction platforms...we give them money and business so they repay us by illegally swapping/trading our personal information

To what degree Zeus or NBS is involved is unclear but Demos received our emails from somewhere (like NBS a few months back. Zeus seems to be the culprit here). Demos has violated the law. Will they still be allowed to participate on Biddr with no consequences? And what of Zeus Numismatics?

 

Yes, indeed. The owner of Demos made a post a few days ago, which was deleted for unknown reasons. It would be great if the admins/mods at least would let us know why the post was deleted.

The post explained that the owner of Demos is also the founder and partial owner of Themis, which is the reason that some of you, who have bought from Themis in the past, received a newsletter from Demos.

We are not happy with that at all. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about it.

@Pavlos and others: Did anyone receive the newsletter who has not bought from Themis? It is one thing if the very same person reuses their list, but another if an auction house shared this kind of information with third parties.

 

I have never done business with Themis and somehow am receiving these mails from Demos...I don't appreciate the sale or trading of my personal information by this firm. Will Biddr step in and tell this firm to not violate our rights? I will take what action possible with EU and encourage all other EU citizens whose rights have been violated to report this here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-t...ta-protection-rights-havent-been-respected_en.

 

Sent you a PM.

 

In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act lays out rules governing commercial email marketing. Purchasing or recycling subscriber lists between distinct businesses seems dicey to me, though I'm not a lawyer. The fines for violating the rules are steep.

 

Thanks

 

I don't collect coins from foreign countries or foreign coins, except Canadas. The rules/laws in other countries are different than those in the U.S. If a problem arises from transactions with a foreign country, it is difficult to correct any problems with them. Many of those countries have close borders and if they don't comply with interstate laws, they just move to another country and change their names. Coin collecting should be fun and exciting and when problems arise from a transaction in the U.S., we have many ways of dealing with them. There are many purchases by collectors that post here that are with foreign countries. I bet we only hear a fraction of the problems that arise from dealing with foreign countries. I wish all of you the best in your search and purchase of coins from foreign countries. The U.S. is a very young country and we seldom find hoards in the U.S. that are older than a couple of hundred years. I know it is exciting when all goes well when you collect foreign countries. It's that fractional percent of purchases with foreign countries that goes wrong.

 

It is thief edited involved.. Stay away and be careful!

 

As a nubie to this site I am really surprised at all the noise. This is a digital world we live in. If you want to control your digital footprint there are some basic steps you should do.
1) Setup at least 3 emails address! 1. for business, 2. for friends and 3. for internet purposes - consider this your spam email.

You use main email with people that you personally know. Use the other for business transactions(banks, finacial institutions, etc) but expect to get advertising and "newsletters" as well! Finally, the internet email address that you use to sign-up for the local companies, bars, resturants, online mechants, etc. this is your general junk mail account.

If you are only using a single email address in today's world....well, you should really think twice about that!

As for GDPR and "breaking the law", you really better be certain of this..you might be actually breaking the law with slander. Remeber, GDPR is personal information gather and sharing. If your email is shared, so what...see above.. if your email does not directly idetify you then it more than likely doesn't apply to GDPR. If your email is say something like John.Doe@ yahoo.com then it might be a shade of gray. If your email address is John.Doe.Springfield.Illinois.USA@yahoo.com then you are getting closer to GDPR. Remember, GDPR is about identifying information. If your newsletter is being mailed to you then you are getting closer to violating GDPR because that is identifable information (residental). If it is just your email address...well..follow my advice above.

So, far I have purchased from every Demos online actions. My coins have come very quickly and nicely package. What more can you, honestly, ask for when you are dealing with lower valued coins? I will say that I picked up a couple extremey rare coins and 1 that I might send in to CNG to see if they are doing another Supplemental to Roman Antioch, by McAlee. I have nothing but positive feedback for them.

If there are business ethics issues, well, caveat emptor...when is any purcahse without its risks?]

This is my opinions based on a little research...do your research and form your own opinions and ask your lawyers about legal issues not forum users!

 

It would be libel or defamation, not slander. And expressions of opinion rather than assertions of fact don't qualify as such in the first place. And even if they did (as in the case of the accusation by name that got deleted), it would be a civil issue, not criminal. No breaking the law involved! You're being a bit silly. (In my opinion. Not an assertion of fact.)

 

Exactly my point!

But the multple emails is very sound advice, in my opinion. And thanks for the correction!

 

It's not only the email address itself that is important but whether it can be used to identify someone. You could have dsbsajdsfhd@gmail.com and if that email address can then be searched to identify a person, that's a problem. That's a real possibility given email addresses are unique and perhaps the most common identifying attribute for someone online.

I believe it's for this reason that GDPR considers either of the following to be personal information:
- A personal email address (e.g. from Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook etc)
- A work email address with your full name

So yes, a leak of personal email address with or without names could be considered a breech of GDPR. Certainly at the tech companies I've worked at we're extremely careful with user email addresses and sending out a marketing email with every user CC'd would be a serious data breech.