While I cannot speak to their marketing practices in general, Cogent has taken specific positive steps to avoid inadvertant use of the ARIN Whois data for solicitation (taking place after our January 2020 engagement with them on this topic), and in August of 2020 they regained direct access to the publicly available ARIN Whois data.  We do occasionally get reports of potential misuse, but it is definitely far fewer than before (and many track back to contact information provided to them via other means.)    

As always, if you believe that your ARIN Whois contact information has been inappropriately used for solicitation by any organization, you can report it to us at compliance@arin.net for review and potential investigation. 

Thanks! 

/John