Typing In an E-Mail Address, and Giving Up Your Friends’ as Well

Typing In an E-Mail Address, and Giving Up Your Friends’ as Well
By ALINA TUGEND

I THOUGHT it was a little strange when I received separate e-mail messages from two people I knew only slightly asking me to click and see their photos on a social networking site called Tagged. I ignored them at first, but then thought maybe I should check it out. After all, I should keep up on what’s hot in the social networking world, right? This could be the new Twitter.

That’s when I started doing everything wrong. I obligingly typed in my e-mail address and a password to see those photos. Well, the photos didn’t exist, but I had unwittingly given the site “permission” to go through my entire e-mail contact list and send a message to everyone, inviting them to see my “photos.” I found this out only when I started receiving e-mail back from people agreeing to be my friend. I quickly realized what had happened and shot off an apologetic message explaining why I inadvertently spammed them.

As friends’ responses started rolling in, I heard from some who had received similar e-mail. Others told me about the same problems with Web sites like MyLife.com and desktopdating.net... In the case of Tagged, my friends received a perky e-mail saying: “Alina has added you as a friend on Tagged. Is Alina your friend?” Then you click on yes or no. Even more insidiously, it adds, “Please respond or Alina may think you said no,” with a sad-face icon next to it. I apparently also offered to share some photos; some annoyed friends even told me to resend the pictures because they couldn’t find them. “It’s using the chain mail psychology,” Mr. Argast said. And he’s right. My friends got guilt-tripped into signing on...

I spoke to Greg Tseng, founder and chief executive of Tagged, to ask him what happened. He said all social networking sites invite you to e-mail your contact list to join up or discover which of your friends are already members, but that a software glitch meant an unusually large number of accidental invitations went out recently...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/technology/internet/20shortcuts.html

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"Software glitch" my ass. They're probably using your Yahoo or Hotmail username and password to read your email as well.

P.S. Prior to cofounding Tagged, Greg Tseng was cofounder and CEO of Jumpstart Technologies. In March 2006, Jumpstart Technologies settled with the Federal Trade Commission on violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, which included a $900,000 fine - the largest penalty to date for illegal spam (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/03/freeflixtix.shtm)

All of the people in her address book got notices saying she had invited them to join TAGGED.

It's a SCAM.

them because I wasn't sure. It was persistent, but now I am glad I didn't even go there.

I don't get emails or send them, rarely ever even do PMs

Some people think emails are private, and since all that stuff is open to corporations and governments, that privacy is an illusion, so should not be used just for principle.

I got an email theat said a friend was joing their group and he needed me to agree to put my email address on his new list.
So - not wanting to be off his email list -- Iagreed.

:puke: they kept bugging me and bugging me to join, it was hell getting rid of them!

This same problem was covered in a consumer column in my local paper.

(I never use Facebook applications that need to access my information.)

when you give out personal information on twitter or the net you lose control of it. And yet you still continue doing it.

And with twitter, I don't HAVE to give them my email password anyway. I just don't use any feature there that requires such an intrusion.

Warn away, but do try an get a broader fact base about it too.