New York Times readers targeted by erroneous e-mail

A high-profile e-mail message hits many. A couple of hours ago, we received the above message from the NYT, thinking it strange they were canceling our print subscription because we only have a digital one. We called the number, and were told the lines were busy, and offered a fax line to call — because, clearly, faxes are the most modern mode of communication these days. Then, just a few minutes ago, we saw this:

A spam message was sent broadly today with the subject “Important information regarding your subscription.”

— NYTCo Communications (@NYTimesComm) December 28, 2011

The email was not sent from The New York Times.

— NYTCo Communications (@NYTimesComm) December 28, 2011

Not good, huh? Well, according to Business Insider, the company in charge of these accounts was compromised earlier this year. Did you get this message?

» EDIT: Yuri Victor at The Washington Post says it’s likely the e-mail was a mistake, despite the company’s claims otherwise, and that the sender had the right to e-mail subscribers for the paper.

» Second edit:  A New York Times reporter says that the Times made an error, and that the message wasn’t spam.