A lot of people got emails today saying their New York Times subscriptions had been canceled, even if they had never purchased a subscription or had one that they had not canceled. Jim Romenesko has some details here.
Update: A communications director for the New York Times Company, Danielle Roades Ha, has sent this statement:
An email was sent earlier today from The New York Times in error. This email 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 email address to The New York Times. We regret this error and we regret our earlier communication noting that this email was SPAM.
It seems like maybe it was spam, just spam sent by the New York Times Company rather than some unauthorized imposter or outsider who somehow got hold of the Times list.