New York’s attorney general says that Tagged.com stole the identities of more than 60 million internet users by sending emails that raided their private accounts.
Many are now planing to sue the social networking website for deceptive marketing and invasion of privacy.
Consumers had their privacy invaded and were forced into the embarrassing position of having to apologise to all their email contacts for Tagged illegal behaviour.
Started in 2004 by Harvard math students Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith, Tagged calls itself a “premier social-networking destination.” The California-based company claims to be the third-largest social networking site after Facebook and MySpace, with 80 million registered users.
Tagged may have acquired many of them fraudulently, sending unsuspecting recipients emails that urged them to view private photos posted by friends.The message read: “(name of friend) sent you photos on Tagged.”
When recipients tried to access the photos, they could in effect become new members of the site
The system was set up so that a user was asked whether the sender of the photos was a friend, then suggesting that if the recipient didn’t respond, the friend “may think you said no” (accompanied by a sad face icon). Every person on a user’s contact list received an email that again read, “(name of user) sent you photos on Tagged.” The site then released a flood of offers for everything from sweepstakes to other services.
The attorney general said a lawsuit would seek to stop Tagged from engaging in “fraudulent practices” and to seek fines. Plans to sue the social networking website for deceptive marketing and invasion of privacy are definitely in the works.
If you or anyone you Know have more information on this scam please leave us a comment on Sandy Hutchens Ripoff Repoting.
January 12th, 2010 - 4:01 pm
We at Tagged would like to clarify, for you and your readers, that this matter has been resolved with the New York Attorney General and there will be no lawsuit.
Tagged regrets the confusion some experienced with our email invitation campaign in early June of 2009, that resulted in some complaints. We immediately addressed the issue and cooperated fully with the NYAG office.
Tagged has completely revamped our invitation process, used by all social networks, to make it the clearest in the industry. Everyday millions of people around the world enjoy interacting with our site and we are committed to ensuring people have a positive experience with Tagged.
If you would like to read more about the situation and our settlement please visit The Tagged Blog and this post: http://blog.tagged.com/?p=193. Thank you