Reunion.com spam alert

This morning I got a request from a friend to connect through Reunion.com. Seemed innocent enough, and I fell for it. Which is to say, they got one of my email addresses. Nothing more. Far as I know. But somehow they put X and N together and began spamming people I know.

Now I have five emails from friends, so far, plus one each from my wife and my sister, each with copies of spams from Reunion.com. The reunion.com emailings go like this:

Hi,
I looked for you on Reunion.com, but you weren’t there. I use Reunion.com to search for lost friends and contacts, and to stay connected with people I know, so please connect with me.
— Doc
RESPOND TO DOC:
Connect with Doc Now! – You’ll also find out if anyone else is searching for you.

I left out the links.

Oh, I also got one like the above, from myself. Another other notified me that “You’ve just been added to Doc Searls’s Reunion.com Address Book.”

What address book? And how exactly did they get that list of contacts?

Fortunately all those friends and relatives who wrote back were smarter than I was and saw the email from reunion.com as the scam it is. Others? I dunno. Live and re-learn, I guess.

Here’s the Google lookup of Reunion.com and spam. Plenty there.

I am among the least litigious people on Earth. But I can’t help but wonder … Could I (or we) sue these bastards for false representation? Invasion of privacy?

[Later, on 28 October 2008…] Since this post currently comes up first in Google searches for Reunion.com spam, it’s a lightning rod for continued complaints about Reunion.com, which is obviously still an asshole company. Though that they may be, I’m not going to sue them, since I have lots of better things to do. So I just posted this update, and suggest readers go to the Wikipedia article on Reunion.com for details about what’s wrong with the company and what little you can do about it other than avoid and complain.



54 responses to “Reunion.com spam alert”

  1. Happened to me, I was doing some poking around the site to see what they were up to, and unintentionally spammed everyone in my address book.

  2. Doug, how did they come to possess your address book? That’s what’s not clear to me. I feel like they lifted my wallet.

  3. I knew you would not be using such a dork application, plus I don’t go near anything of that nature that requires registration, that one had quite a reek to it.

  4. I was doing some research for a project and checking out various sites like reunion. I happened to have one of those invites in my inbox at the time so I click on it and went through the process. The second screen they have you fill out makes it seem like they are using openID to authorize you (it is my fault, I just glanced and assumed and didn’t look for the logo). Turns out it was really just to get to your google address book. Before I could stop it it had spammed everyone on the list. It is human error that by the looks of things is happening to a lot of us. I should have known better and normally don’t sign up for these types of sites. You click, you learn.

    It was interesting what happened afterwards though. A number of people emailed or contacted me via Twitter to make sure I knew what was going on. There was also a spike in traffic to my personal site and a large amount of people that searched my name on google. The latter doesn’t matter to me, but just shows how reaching this issue is.

  5. And fast, from your description very fast processing, I’m lucky for I don’t have to communicate so very widely and have learned to stay simple and out of most ongoing loops. Even from early on never could see the point in using modes such as —- what was that one way back—-uh, ICQ….why would one need that when you had email, I stayed away from even ICQ somehow innately, but as noted I did not need broadband reach (good name for a rock band, as that guy down in Miami might chirp). Now seems I can smell them.

  6. Alex Zavatone Avatar
    Alex Zavatone

    I just got email from Verena Costello from Reunion.com Verena? Riiiight.

    This reminds me when myself and a friends go spam from Facebook from some girl that looked almost familiar. There was no girl. Just an excuse to sign up.

    Anyway, I reported Reunion to Spamcop. Bastards.

    Now, if I can get rid of all my spam from the UAE, (um, why?) I’ll be getting somewhere.

    Cheers,
    – Alex Zavatone

  7. Mid-life, a few old pals managed to look me up. Made me curious about a few others. Found Reunion…what a mistake!

    This was five years ago and I had to ditch the two email addresses I’d given them. So this kind of harassment is less important to government than file-sharing?!?

  8. The same thing happened to me yesterday and I’ve been spending the last 24 hours trying to straighten things out. I got the email at my work address, but decided to join with my personal address (thank goodness for that). But as soon as I entered it, it sent the spam.

    I’m a member of both Plaxo.com and LinkedIn.com. Both of those sites allow you to select those you wish to invite.

    If you figure out that lawsuit thing, count me in.

  9. […] Searls Weblog:  (May 10, 2008) Reunion.com spam alert I am among the least litigious people on Earth. But I can’t help but wonder … Could I (or we) […]

  10. I am always CAREFUL to take the time to read anything that prompts me for my Yahoo address book. I saw that Address Book feature on Reunion.com and clicked the opt-out link, so I didn’t have any issues.

  11. I’m thinking that they are not spamming. But Reunion.com does make it very easy to accidentally send invites to everyone in your address book. What I remember is I responded to an invite exactly like the one you show, set up an account and accessed my Yahoo address book (which I use for junk mail and never deleted any old contacts). In tiny writing and a tiny check box is the choice to hand select who you want to invite. If you don’t check this, boom, everyone in your address book is sent an invite like the one above, PLUS this invite shows your current email address you are using for your newly set up Reunion.com account. So far, I had one undesirable person contact me and I’m simply ignoring them, hoping they don’t wreak revenge for things in the past.

  12. I had the same thing happen to me, I inadvertently caused a spam to everyone I know. I am still sorry.

  13. doesv anyone know how to delete your account without being on hold on the phone for an hour?

  14. Spamming aside, Reunion.com is absolute fraud. Before you sign up for their “Premium Membership”, they set up a fake profile of any person you’ve searched for. This is based on thumbnail information that’s already out there in the public domain. They lead you to believe this person has consciously joined Reunion.com and set up their profile and may be looking for you. Their alleged profile is grayed out and a pop up appears above it prompting you to sign up for the Premium Membership for $5 per month. Well, you will be billed, quite deceptively, $60 in one lump sum for an entire year.

    I’m not ruling out getting the FBI involved.

  15. Can anyone tell my why reunion.com is a Google sponsored website?

  16. Yes google adwords and adsense campaigns and affiliate programs are big money and google has no qualms about letting sites exploit this technology. CheckoutFree is also misleading folks that if they will take up one of their offers you will receive a one year subscription absolutely free. Well don’t you believe it. I have done it and I cannot even find anyone who will address the issue. Reunion will not take any responsibility for third party promotions even though they pay for them. If I could, I would shut them down permanently. I am getting at least one spam per day from them saying someone is looking for me. This is an out and out lie! When you click on the link it takes you to a membership signup screen. If you abort that it takes you to the free membership offer site CheckoutFree.com which is really a scam. When you abort that and go to your Reunion account you will not find that person seeking you anywhere. If there is anything that I can do to stop the spam please tell me. On a lighter note Classmates.com is a very reputable site and I am pleased to be a part of it. I think if a million people would send complaints to Reunion and jam their mailboxes it would be better than going to Six Flags for me.

  17. Reunion.com was a site that I really respected and utilized to find friends from my past–high school, college, old neighbors, etc. I think the CEO over there has really gotten a bit cocky, greedy and has taken the marketing concept a bit too far by invading people’s personal address books and trying to drum up new business. (perhaps his wife has a high-cost Botox or jewelry habit, but that is another story…) I had signed up for a three year membership in 2007, but come 2010, I will not renew it. Oh, that reminds me, if you are a current paying member at reunion.com, please be sure to remove your credit card or debit card payment information or the company will auto-renew your subscription without your authorization. My business will continue with classmates.com. It is much more professionally run and not at all invasive of my privacy or that of my contacts.

  18. I fell for this as well! I was so surprised when business contacts (and not to mention a couple of ‘personal’ contacts that I would not want to contact me) started emailing me back from my reunion.com request. I emailed the website to find out what happened and to let them know I was reporting the website as a spamming one-they never responded to my email, but I have been letting everyone know not to sign up with them unless they want this to happen.

    Count me in as well if you go forward with anything. I dont think anything monetary needs to take place, but they need to change their business practices.

    Tracy

  19. They tricked me as well and then spammed all my contacts. What agencies handle regulating, controlling, and prosecuting this kind of thing? Anyone know?

  20. They they are using trickery and manipulative tasks to obtain our contact lists, I would categorized this as a spaming tactic. It seems to me as though a person may file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ at the following URL, I would assume they could prosecute the company under the CAN-SPAM Law. They have a File Complaint link. It only took me about 5 minutes to complete hopefully, this will raise awareness about this tactic.

    Additionally, if you want further proof that they company is a more or less a fraud, check out the Better Business Bureau website. http://www.Reunion.com gets a “D” score. http://www.la.bbb.org/BusinessReport.aspx?CompanyID=13177175

    A score of “D” means, “We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it. ”

    Hopefully, if each one of us raises awareness we can stop this company from using our information to manipulatively make money.

  21. I just spammed everyone in my contacts from an older account i use for my junk mail address. Unfortunately i had a lot of old contacts in there including ex boyfriends, ex friends, professional contacts, crazy guys who i dated long ago and I would never intentionally contact. I’m so embarrassed and also kinda freaked out that Reunion.com could somehow access all of my contacts and then make it look like I intentionally sent all of them an e-mail. My current friends think it’s funny and I can laugh about it with them, i’m just embarrassed about all of those old contacts that were inappropriate to receive a “personal” e-mail from me like that. Reunion.com sucks!

  22. We have a house for sale and some people wanted to rent it. In this market, sure – so my husband told me to just do a little online searching to see if I could find anything obviously wrong about this couple.
    A search result showed the wives name at reunion.com, so I clicked on it – I had signed up on reunion a long time ago (back when they seemed legit), and it had me re-enter my email account…
    I don’t think that they got my address book (I haven’t heard anything from friends/relatives). HOWEVER!
    I just got an email from reunion that ‘someone was looking for me’, and it listed the potential renters age, hometown and school…which makes me think that SHE got an email when I looked at her name. Thats irritating! I mean, I looked at many names…so did they all get an email that I searched for them?
    How embarrassing.
    By the way: I’ve noticed that Classmates now has a little checkbox that says, “tell so-and-so you visited” and you have to uncheck the box or else that person will be notified that you looked at their profile.

  23. What a bummer. I operate a business that often receives orders from people who do not fully complete their order application. I thought that Reunion.com would assist me in verifying these addressees.Bang – pure fantastic spam action. Ruined my chances for some orders when purchasers complained about my “spam” tactics. Thanks Reunion.com for your underhanded “assistance.”

  24. As I move often, and have lost contact with people over the years, when I got that email, I bought it. OUCH! I just spammed everyone in my address book, including professional contacts. Thanks Reunion.com for making me look like a twit!

  25. I was billed for $24.00 from Reunion.com and did not know why.
    I contacted Reunion.com and they wanted my credit card number to trace the charge. I refused and then they would not accept my
    offer of the authoriztion number from my account. The person at Reunion.com then left the call. I found Doc Searls Weblog and decided to offer my two cents worth of complaint to how ever finds there way here. I agree with all the negative comments offered on Doc Searls Weblog.
    How ever reads this message; “Have a wonderful Day”.

  26. I blocked emails from Reunion.com and they then forwarded them to my partner’s business email address. I don’t know how they got his address because I did not click on the address book option when I (regrettably) signed up 3 years ago to search for my best friend from college. I used my partner’s computer a couple of times to check my hotmail email, which is what I used for Reunion.com so I wonder if they have access to his email by this means. This seems illegal and I am going to look into reporting them to the FBI.

  27. i signed up for the free reunion.com……evidently gave them my credit card number, as my last bill shows where they charged me 59.00 and then another 1.00. when i call the 888 number they have 22 calls ahead of me and i am supposed to wait???? i have called my credit card company and had them cancel the charges, but since i can not get them on the phone to cancel the account, i will probably be charged again. Do you know how i can cancel my credit card number with them?? i am computer illiterate, can’t even seem to make capital I’s tonight, duh! I never have been able to get in touch with anyone that I used to know, can not afford this charge, don’t want it, but it keeps sticking around like chewing gum. good luck with the F.B.I. Sandy.

  28. […] may I wrote Reunion.com spam alert, which ended this […]

  29. Well, I did not spam anyone but when I put my name into the search bar and there I was, my in laws, husband, children, their husbands, children, in laws and extended families, what a shock! I did not have these people in my address book, so cannot figure out how they connected me to all my families extended families over 10 different family lines. Took me two days to get ready for the call I made to them. Told them I was going to turn them in everywhere I could think of and would join a law suit if I found an active one. They gladly said they would refund my money, and within 3 days would have all my families personal info. taken off the Internet. I am now locked out so cannot even see if they did take everything off but have a friend who will check. Also told me to contact pay pal and take off the auto matic payment, that I had not even approved. What a piece of work they are. Now I have researched other places on the Internet, I am finding more calls I need to make and have my personal information, that I did not give permission for them to use, taken off. We need to have some new laws to help stop the fraud and spam. It has taken the pleasure out of having a computer and made it into a night mare! Get your money back, the phone number for reunion.com is on your statement. and start finding all the other places you and your extended family may be out there for the taking, pictures and all. Then report everyone you can. I know it takes time but that is the only way it will ever stop…..

  30. I have my private email address as a contact in the hotmail address book used for spam email. Because of this I was alerted when the Renunion invite appeared in the private inbox.
    Immediately, I sent out an email to all contacts in the account for spam mail to ignore any invite from Reunion and explained to them that Reunion had used their addresses without permission.
    Hopefully none of them will be conned.

  31. They’re back at it in force. As an email administrator I had to block these spams, … uh, “invites” based on the subject line a few months ago. Today I was fortunate to catch a few making their way into our system, though the subject line is common enough to make it impossible to block it without risking legitimate mail. However, in side it has the text “Someone is Looking For You” and I block on that line. The statement is true enough but that “someone” probably has nothing to do with reunion.com. Yet it wouldn’t hold up in court that it’s a false statement, however misleading it is.

  32. WHAT A SCAM!!!!! I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS A PEOPLE SEARCH. iIT’S NOT IF THE INDIVIDUAL THAT YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR IS NOT A MEMBER OF THIS SITE, FORGET IT!

    THEY KEEP SENDING ME EMAILS THAT 4 PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR ME AND WHEN I SIGN IN THERE IS NOTHING. I EMAILED THEM AND TOLD THEM TO STOP SENDING ME FALSE INFORMATION.

    CAN’T BELIEVE I FELL FOR THIS ONE!

    IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO?

  33. Let’s flood reunion.com’s customer service line with complaints: 1 (888) 704-1900. I found this number on their about-us page: http://www.reunion.com/about-us . I followed the phone menus as though I wanted to subscribe to thier premier service and I got a live person. I asked and received a clear description of their address book “feature.” I politely asked the customer support person to pass on the feedback, if she had any opportunity, that this feature was being perceived as misleading, aggressive and invasive spam.
    My wife was nabbed by this scam–very embarrassing and annoying.

  34. Soooo….I just got off the phone with a very patient lady over there at Reunion.com. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too terribly long (it’s 7:55pm Eastert Time)…

    You see…this is the THIRD time I’ve spoken with Reunion.com and THIS is the FIRST time I’ve had any luck with these people. The first two times I was totally gaffed off and treated like I was worthless to them. More or less a “sorry for ya” kind of attitude. This time however…the lovely lady was kind and understanding. I also had kind of a “poor me” thing going since I’ve recently left military service and the money in my account WAS all I had for Christmas! $56.00 may not be a lot to some people, but to me…it’s a couple toys and a pair of pants for my son. 🙂

  35. If you people look a bit more CAREFULLY YOU’ll see that Reunion has:

    – Automatic
    – Manual invitation system

    The default is Automatic and if you select that it clearly states that you’re sending ALL your contacts invitations. Some people simply overlook that and say it is a spam. I can’t believe it.

    This post was written on May 10 and I heard that Reunion back then had some non-legitimate business practiced but eventually they’re ok now. No needs to worry. Just open your eyes and READ.

  36. @Dare

    If you check out reunion.com at BBB, they now have an “F” (down from “D” as noted above. You’d be a fool to give a company rated that bad anything.

  37. I, too am pretty angry with reunion dot com — I discovered something interesting, though: even though I’m no longer a paying member, my profile still exists on their site and I can edit things like my middle name and brief description of myself. So guess what? I simply “updated” my profile with things like this: ” Reunion dot com is a ripoff. don’t subscribe; if you already have a subscription cancel it sooner the better”

  38. Eric I say: BBB, FTC go to hell I want to experience it first hand. Don’t let BBB or whatever tell you what to do.

    I tried registering there…entered my HOTMAIL USER AND PASS (I don’t do this usually…and selected manual-invite). I asked friends to tell me that I never selected them if they received email then and 10 days later…the answer was NO. Now, I don’t know if friends who received my manual invites were sent emails more than once…that would be a little bit half/ethnical.

    What I know is if you select manual-invite that Reunion DOES NOT TAKE YOUR CONTACTS AND SPAM THEM WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. How?

    I TESTED IT MYSELF. Not relied on BBB or whatever…

    If you want to check it on yourself.

    Now I’m trying it to see if they actually send email more than once to contacts that I selected. Here’s the initial message:

    xxxx xxxx added you as a friend on Reunion.com.
    Please confirm you know xxxx so we can connect you.
    Do you know xxx?
    Yes No
    Accept this connection and you’ll see xxxx’s profile and photos for free!
    You’ll also get access to the popular feature: Who’s Searching for YOU?

    As I said I don’t know of their practices before as this post was written back in May. What I know is that they don’t do this NOW…from first hand experience.

  39. Evangeline Custis Avatar
    Evangeline Custis

    Scrapping address books is something usually done by people creating viruses and worms. I go into Reunion.com occasionally to seek out an old name or two. I have never experienced my address book being spammed. I can offer a solution to this problem. It’s a little bit of work at first, but to me it has proven itself, especially when I was hit with the Blaster worm and people in my address book were not victimized.

    I don’t keep my address book anywhere in my email program. I created a Word document with a simple 2 column table. Or you can have as many columns as you like. I place a person’s name in one column and their email address in the last column at the end. Keep the email address alone in it’s own column. Each email address is followed by a semi-colon and then hit the space bar once. Other systems can use a comma and a space at the end of each email address. I keep the list on my desktop and I password protect the list that I keep at work, so nobody at work can get at my personal addressbook. I catatorize my list in groups: family, friends, church people, non-work related business, people who don’t like Forwards, etc. I can copy and paste one address or select down the email address column for whichever groups I want. When I paste them into the address field in my email message, they are already separated by the semi-colon and space between each address. Just remember to put the space AFTER the semi-colon or comma.

    I’ve enjoyed keeping my address books at home and work right on my desktop for about 12 years. None of my friends are mad at me about getting spammed or wormed. For that luxury I certainly don’t mind reaching behind my IP screen to open my address book on my desktop. Hope this is of help to someone.

  40. Be a part of a growing group to shut down Reunion.com. Report to: http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/feedback.htm

  41. PS – Reunion.com was financed by Oak Investors. I have a left a message on their voicemail. http://www.oakinv.com/contact/

  42. tHEY KEEP TAKING THE MONEY OFF MY CREDIT CARD AS A PRE AUTHORIZED, EVEN THOUGH I ONLY OKAYED ONE PAYMENT TO SEE WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT. i CAN’T RAISE THERE WEB SITE TO CANCEL IT.

  43. I JOINED THIS OUTFIT ON LINE AND AM TRYING TO CANCEL–I NEVER WAS ABLE TO LOG ON–AND THEY DON’T ANSWER MY E-MAILS OR ANSWER THEIR PHONE. ANYONE HAVE ANY TIPS???

  44. Doc, thank you for publishing this earnest account of how you fell for the reunion.com scam. One of my family members fell for the scam, but reading about others with the same experience has made her feel better.

  45. I just joined Reunion.com to research history of my family.
    What a mistake. I am so embarrassed because faculty and staff are receiving this junk because I am a professor at a local college. I don’t know what to do to get out of this mess. I’m usually very careful, but this time I really made a fool out of myselt. If anyone can figure out what to do, please let us know.
    Thanks.

  46. Marilyn Baltenbach Avatar
    Marilyn Baltenbach

    Dear reunion.com

    Please remove my name ,age and living in the town on the list of computer. Pls remove it as immediately. Thanks

    Privately,
    Marilyn

  47. Note that reunion.com is not listing itself as mylife.com, but if you look in the fine print all of the copyrights, etc., say reunion.com. They can run, but they can’t hide.

  48. Note that reunion.com is now listing itself as mylife.com, but if you look in the fine print all of the copyrights, etc., say reunion.com. They can run, but they can’t hide.

  49. Typo in the first comment – says “not” and should be “now”. Please delete the first one, and this one as well. Thanks.

  50. Thanks, Rick. Oddly, it seems to be corrected without my help. Hmmm….

  51. Mary Ellen Crawford Avatar
    Mary Ellen Crawford

    I just had Reunion.com bill me for a search that I never had performed. I wasn’t even near a computer on the date it was supposedly done. I reported to my bank which is doing an investigation. I also had to have a new card with a new number so they can’t (hopefully) do it again.

  52. I was so relived to find this poist and all the comments. I have just been hammered by Reunion and was looking for information on them. All the comments here made me fell better (at least I’m not the only one that got done here). I’d never heard of Spamcop before, buit having seen it here I have also reported Reunion to them. If anyone has any other ideas as to how to get these guys closed down please let me know, I will be first in line!
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  53. They’re back, and this time they’re spamming as “mylife.com.”

    Same IP addresses, but new domain names.

    You may want to update your spam filters to block the new string.

  54. […] more about Reunion.com at Wikipedia, this influential technologist’s blog, and at the Better Business Bureau, where the BBB gives Reunion.com a well-deserved grade of […]

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