Upon logging into his Gold Membership profile in order to view the classmate contacts … Plaintiff discovered that in fact, no former classmate of his had tried to contact him or view his profile," the complaint reads. "Of those www.classmates.com users who were characterized ... as members who viewed Plaintiff's profile, none were former classmates of Plaintiff or persons familiar with or known to Plaintiff for that matter.
If approved, the suit seeks class action status.
Classmates.com User Sues; Schoolmates Weren't Really Looking for Him [WIRED]
]]>I sent them an e-mail to see how I could get the information off, and they told me to sign up for a new account and then I could do it that way. Silly me, I actually listened, so now I have my name on there twice and I can't get the customer service department to help me, probably because it's run by robots.
]]>"Someone Signed Your Guestbook Yesterday
Your Guestbook
1 new signature yesterday
15 previous signatures
Open your guestbook.
Your guestbook received 1 new signature yesterday!
Who's thinking of you?
Take a look >>"
Funny, when I WAS a paying member years ago, I was NOT getting all these "visits", "signatures" and the like. How did I suddenly get so popular??
I went to high school 40 years ago.
From the sleazy methods Classmates has always employed - the porn matchmaking business model - I'd always presumed they were just a cleaned up version of something like Amateurmatch, which is notorious for spamming the daylights out of email addresses. It should be pretty obvious by now that come-on lures such as "free to SIGN UP" or the software industry's equivalent - "free to download" (but not to use) - are bait & switch gimmicks to avoid.
]]>@Trencher93: I am a member of classmates.com and have been since they started up, but I've never paid them a dime. That said, I have been receiving those emails lately that do indeed say that I have messages waiting for me and to sign up for the Gold membership so I can view them. So, yeah, they did actually send out an email worded that way. They're toast. Or at least they should be.
]]>@tc4b: I agree... I'm actually surprised this hasn't occured to me, but false advertising is illegal... and yet we just seem to let it go on the internet. c'mon, I know I'm not the 1 millionth visitor to your website, I know that Kathy, the 23 year old schoolteacher from just down the road isn't trying to contact me, but somehow we've managed to just gloss over these lies as part of the internet noise, when in reality it's so much worse than that. I agree, kudos to this guy, and I'm amazed that nobody has done this before.
]]>@dasunst3r: Wait, Orkut's contributed more to Western civilization than the name of a Bonde do Rolê album?
]]>You can take the ass out of classmates, but then all you'd have is clmates.
I hope they just go away...I am so sick of seeing that stupid ad that reads....."She married him?"....crap....who gives a rats butt who married whom?
]]>Sadly you know there are people out there, right now, purchasing classmates gold memberships. These are probably the same people who think myspace and facebook are the devil.
]]>Just imagine if your mailman came to your door and said "A friend of yours has sent a letter...pay me $40 and I'll let you have it" and it turns out it's actually a Val-Pack mailer!
]]>@testsicles: My high school class has a facebook group. Works great for exactly that purpose.
]]>@copious28: I think it's one thing when one of us tech-savy people fall for this. Yeah, you're an idiot.
But when it's someone who is still naive and believes that the internet is full of wonderful people, then I have some sympothy.
I've received these e-mails from Classmates.com before. I've always ignored them since I have facebook.
]]>This is also going to cost the taxpayers money by tying up the judicial system.
This man and his lawyers should think of something productive to do instead of this B.S.
]]>Oh yes it is rpm773, I've been waiting for this type of action for a long time. I got less than stellar service,honesty when Juno ISP was supposed to give me a free month trial, but yet charged me right after I signed up. Classmates are a division of United Online.
]]>Which is the garbage part, at the very least, they should show WHO the message is from (if there is a message), and not just that there is a message.
IE, why would I sign up to read a message from someone I don't want to talk to?
/besides, anyone that could find me on classmates.com, can find my profile elsewhere on the net
]]>I have a Classmates profile. I got a paid account right around the time of my 10-year class reunion and found some people through there. I did let the paid account lapse though - like others have said, why should I pony up when I can find people on Facebook and Myspace for free? Not to mention that earlier this year a guy from my high school set up a site on Ning for anyone who grew up and/or went to school in my hometown. It's got the message boards and groups and things, is much more active than Classmates, and it's free. : )
]]>@Tightlines: I don't pay, I just have a fake profile to see whatever you see with a fake profile that you wouldn't see without logging in. Not much difference. But I still get the emails, that was my point.
]]>Oh come on Ben! Anyone who has any sense would not believe those ads in the first place. I guess we waited 13 years for someone both dumb enough to buy into their ads and had the wherewithall to actually sue...
]]>Oh, wait, I see- musta been by owl.
]]>Good for him. Classmates.com offers no service of any value. It sucks up bandwidth on the internet, and it tries to bilk people out of money. The sooner it dies the death it deserves the better off we will all be.
Classmates.com deserves to die. Please kill it.
]]>@apronk: You are so right. I remember when Classmates first came out. I thought that everyone would be signing up for that. How neat would it be to be able to keep in touch with all your friends in one place and not worry about changed emails address, etc. They were so close, now people would be better off just to create a facebook group.
]]>People seem to have no trouble finding me. Probably because I have an unusual last name, and have lived in the same city since 2000, and the same house since 2002. Plus there really isn't anyone from my class that I care to talk to, barring a couple of buddies, one of which (are you ready for this?) recently SENT ME A LETTER!!!!
It's been a looooonnngg time since I got a letter!
]]>I have a fake profile on Classmates, just so I can look around. I'm registered with an extremely fake name like Johanestoonan VanBildenbergersmithen to a highschool I never attended and I still get span saying "Find out who has signed your guestbook Johanestoonan" and "Johanestoonan, Your classmates are looking for you!" That's how I know it's B.S., nobody in the history of the world has ever searched for Johanestoonan VanBildenbergersithen let alone signed his guestbook.
]]>What is the point of Classmates.com when Facebook and Myspace let you search by highschool and graduation year anyway?
Classmates.com has somehow survived the dotcom burst. Cockroaches!
]]>These people are annoying SPAM meisters. It seems that almost everyday I get email from them saying that new people signed up, my classmates want to see me, people looked at my profile, new photos, new updates, etc.
Like a child at a grocery store screaming for his mommy to buy him candy for an hour straight, they will do anything to get you to spend a dime.
]]>@Maulleigh: Oh, now THAT one just makes me laugh.
"Is our service so pathetic that in 6 months we can't get you a decent date? No worries - you can suffer through another 6 months of our pathetic service for FREE!"
]]>@Trencher93: Really? I get "your old classmates are looking for you" emails from Classmates *all the time*. There are separate emails that say "see who's viewed your profile", which suggests that the other one means people are leaving messages, or have in some way indicated that they want to communicate with you.
I assumed it was people just wandering through, but occasionally considered ponying up the money to find out who.
Personally, I think that if you have created a profile and classmates then sends you an email saying that other users are looking *for you*, then it should in fact mean they are trying to find you... Not that someone viewed your profile and went "nah, not her."
]]>Who would be eligible for that class? Anyone who's graduated high school in the last 40 years?
]]>Just kidding... anyone I really cared about in high school eventually found me on Facebook or MySpace over the past 4 years.
]]>As much as I think that guy is a moron and survival of the fittest should apply online as well, that site does strike me as the same type of scumbag company that would make adware so I hope they lose.
]]>