Business

NYT in e-mail gaffe

The Gray Lady is red-faced.

The New York Times, hours after denying it sent possibly more than 1 million e-mails to subscribers and hinting that it was the victim of a spam attack, admitted it was behind the techno-goof.

“An e-mail was sent earlier today from The New York Times in error,” said a spokeswoman. “This e-mail should have been sent to a very small number of subscribers, but instead was sent to a vast distribution list made up of people who had previously provided their e-mail address to The New York Times.”

The Times employee said, “We regret this error and we regret our earlier communication noting that this e-mail was SPAM.”

Earlier today, an unknown numbers of Times subscribers and non-subscribers received e-mail notices from the newspaper informing them that company “records indicate that you recently requested to cancel your home subscription.”

The e-mail was sent from an address listed as: nytimes@newyorktimes.com.

Business Insider reported that the address where the e-mail originated is registered to Epsilon Interactive, which the report says was “compromised” last April.

The e-mails do not solicit any customer information such as Social Security numbers or personal data, but they do instruct recipients to call 1-877-698-0075 to take advantage of a 50-percent discount on a home-delivery subscription.

Callers to that number either get a busy signal or a message that says, “Due to high call volume, your call cannot be completed at this time.”

It then directs callers to try to e-mail an apparently bogus address or to send information to a bogus fax number.

kkelly@nypost.com