Classmates.com Sued by Unpopular Man
Posted 11/13/08 at 10:19:07 AM by Paul Lilly
Classmates.com user Anthony Michaels must have felt like he really left an impression on his former friends from school. After all, the social network service was emailing Michaels to let him know his past acquaintances were viewing his profile and trying to get in touch in with him, only he'd need to upgrade his membership to find out who and to be able to email these individuals. Fair enough, he thought, but after dropping $15 on a Gold Membership, Michaels claims the whole thing was a scam and in fact no one from his past was either viewing his profile or trying to contact him.
"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."
Sad for Michaels? Yes. But did Classmates.com break any laws? Several, according to the San Diego resident's lawsuit, in which Classmates.com is being accused of intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, negligence, fraudulent concealment, and violation of California business and professions code. Not to mention being a meanie head.
The suit alleges that there are hundreds of thousands of users just like Michaels who have been tricked into purchasing a membership to Classmates.com. The lawsuit asks the court to both refund millions in subscription feesand fine the company for its alleged deceptive advertising.
Does this lawsuit have merit? Hit the jump and post your thoughts.
Yes fine the crap out of
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 12:53am
Yes fine the crap out of these aholes and give full refunds with a little extra for emotional damage caused by these aholes.
Unpopular too..? Also?
Submitted by auwingr1 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 5:39pm
This is great! I got duped by the same email. I had friends that were supposedly trying to contact me. Then I discover that unless they are members also, we cannot email one another. Or, will they forward my email to them, unless they are a member.
That membership didn't last long. I dropped Classmates.com like a hot potato!
See, good does prevail.
My mom said I'm cool
Submitted by dankers on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 3:23pm
I'll be honest and admit I signed up for classmates.com but I'm a cheapskate and as soon as they asked for money I ran for the hills. I kept getting E-mails about classmates veiwing my profile and wanting to meet me, all I have to do is sign up for the Gold Membership or summat. I just unsubscribed to it and they eventually stopped. Now about my Maximum PC Gold Membership...
I wonder if he's killed
Submitted by that Linux guy on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 2:31pm
I wonder if he's killed himself. Being known as the unpopular, lonely guy who sued classmates has to be an atom bomb to his self-esteem.
Classmates was a clever idea
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 11:12am
Classmates was a clever idea when it came out like 10 years ago. The internet has grown up a lot since then and most aren't willing to pay to find out what the rest of your high school class is up to. I mean really, who cares?
What do you mean who cares?
Submitted by s3th on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 1:50pm
What do you mean who cares? Lol, Idk about you but I have tons of friends and when I graduate and go into the airfroce nextyear, I dont think Ill see any but 2 of them for the rest of my life. To get back in touch would be awesome, not to mention just to see what others have done in their life.
No offense tho if you have no friends just saying :]
Maybe you've heard of this
Submitted by yogurt80 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 10:14pm
Maybe you've heard of this popular free site? www.myspace.com.
Yeah but you don't need
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 2:28pm
Yeah but you don't need classmates for that. Classmates is aimed at people like me. I gradutated in 92 and all of a sudden I'm curious what Joe Shmoe is up to because I talked to him once in a while in high school? I say again, who cares?
I stay in touch with my true friends from HS. I don't need to pay for a classmates account for that.
i agree
Submitted by devin3627 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 8:58am
i've seen these people in ads for two years and they lie to you and are manipulating a lot of people and freeloading off of trusting people. but heres a lesson....NEVER trust the internet.... be smart.
i agree
Submitted by devin3627 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 8:58am
i've seen these people in ads for two years and they lie to you and are manipulating a lot of people and freeloading off of trusting people. but heres a lesson....NEVER trust the internet.... be smart.
Hrm, while what I believe
Submitted by Pyrophorics on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 8:50am
Hrm, while what I believe they have been doing is wrong ... it doesn't take
a lot of sense to realize it was a scam.If you start a membership you can view other people’s info right? So then,
if classmates were trying to reach him and they had a membership ... why would
he need to create his own membership?If someone wants to get a hold of me badly enough, they will. I am not going
to try and help anyone find me by creating a membership. That just doesn't make
any sense.So someone is looking at your profile but they haven't contacted you. They
obviously don’t feel the need to talk to you for some reason, why bother trying
to get a hold of them? :/
THANK YOU!!! Now perhaps
Submitted by Shalbatana on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 8:28am
THANK YOU!!!
Now perhaps they'll stop emailing me every other day with the same false info. It was a useful site that got greedy, and has become irrelevant since one can find all their classmates where they're really hanging out...
facebook.
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
They're not gone though...
Submitted by Usagi on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 9:16am
Yeah, Classmates.com got busted, and I believe that particular incarnation is "off the air."
But they're not gone. No sooner did they quit using the classmates.com title, I started getting e-mails from www.usareunited.com with the exact same line of crap. "Classmates are trying to reach you from *** High School!"
So they just changed domain names and are still at it.
Semper Leporid!
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