Davidson’s sexy spam

Alan Davidson likes to complain. Last year the head of Long Island brokerage firm Zeus Securities and former director of the National Association of Securities Dealers complained about the association’s plans to go public.

Alan Davidson likes to complain. Last year the head of Long Island brokerage firm Zeus Securities and former director of the National Association of Securities Dealers complained about the association’s plans to go public. Now he’s got a beef with the mountains of junk e-mail and faxes he receives daily, which he blames on the NASD.

The group accidentally leaked its member e-mail list during an election last year, and Davidson thinks it has found its way into the hands of online marketers. Last month he complained to Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. about a solicitation inviting him to browse online product offerings from Outback Ladies Lingerie, an Australian purveyor of push-up bras, garter belts and bustiers. The e-mail, forwarded by Davidson to Levitt, includes a link to Outback’s site, which features attractive young women modeling the company’s wares.

“I’ve been in this business for 13 years, and I’ve gotten more solicitations like this since the election last year than in all those 13 years combined. This definitely isn’t regulatory communication,” says Davidson, whose e-mail account is with America Online, a favorite destination for so-called e-mail spammers.

Nonsense, says an NASD spokesman: “The NASD
e-mail list is a confidential list used only for legitimate communications with members. We suspect the origin of this solicitation is not the NASD member list, and we have received no other complaints regarding it.”

And though Davidson bristles at the junk mail, he’s quick to add that he has no problem with scantily clad female models. “There’s certainly nothing wrong with lingerie. I wouldn’t be surprised if some members paid more attention to this than to some of the other communications they get courtesy of the NASD.”

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