I have recently received e-mails asking me to join 'social' networks. These
e-mails have come from people I do not personally know although research
reveals that the connection is our LBCs. When the 'sender' is queried 'why
me?', I am told to disregard the offer. No explanation is provided.
The apparent answer has been revealed in the following (partial) exchange
between Kim Komando and a listener to her radio program:
Are you spamming your friends?
My husband recently joined Reunion.com. He wanted to get in touch with some of
his old classmates. Well, the site somehow scanned our e-mail contact list.
The site is now sending invitations to all of our contacts. That's our family,
friends and business contacts. These invitations say they are from my husband.
How can the site do this without our permission? Is this legal? It feels like
we are being used to send spam.
-Ourania Riddle in Dixon, CA, listening on KSTE 650 AM
This is a potentially embarrassing situation. Essentially, Reunion.com sent
spam to everyone in the Contact list. This is especially annoying because it
includes your business contacts. An explanation/apology e-mail is probably
required.
So, how did this happen? Reunion.com is a legitimate service. It doesn't have
rooms full of hackers mining people's e-mail accounts. Unfortunately, the
finger of blame is pointing at your husband.
The site didn't hack your e-mail account. Your husband gave it permission to
access your contact list. To be fair, this is easy to do accidentally. He
probably didn't know it happened.
Social-networking sites and related services rely on friends' lists. To get
anything out of it, your friends need to use it. Any social service without
friends is pretty much useless.........
Just a heads up to read all the small print when doing anything on the
Internet (or any 'contract' for that matter).
(The Other) Len
Vacaville, CA, USA
1967 AH 3000 MkIII, HBJ8L39031
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