Some Spammer Has a Crush on You

ewhac writes "Salon is running an article about how that cryptic email saying someone has a crush on you may not be what it seems. Portrayed as services to foster romance, some voice concern that some such sites -- two with falsified WHOIS records -- are preying on people's insecurities to build spam lists and directed relationship graphs (who knows who). One site in particular, SomeoneLikesYou, has the temerity to demand you subscribe to an affiliate marketing program or cough up $14.90 before it will hand over the email address of your alleged crush.

A friend of mine and I were bit by SomeoneLikesYou in the last week. The scam is elegant in its simplicity. The site teases you with an email claiming to know someone who likes you, then makes you guess who it might be by submitting their email address(es). Each of those addresses receives a teaser email just like yours. Rinse, repeat. I ignored the message -- obviously a fake; I couldn't possibly be anyone's crush :-) -- but my friend took the bait and fed it some demographic data and email addresses. Once she realized what was going on, she wrote to everyone apologizing for any spam they may have received. She also sent a nastygram to the site's operators.

It should be pointed out that there is no proof that SomeoneLikesYou is doing anything nefarious with the data they're collecting. However, their credibility is not strengthened by their faked WHOIS records and their meaningless doubletalk on privacy issues (the declaration, "We send precisely zero e-mail advertisements," says nothing about the behavior of their partners/affiliates.)"

Comments

awwwww damn

[gatesh8r]

I sent in my money and all she sent me was spam. And here I thought she was going to send me a nude pic and hours of hardcore action.

We did this in primary school

[stere0]

SOME GIRL: I know somebody who's got a crush on you
ME: Oh yeah? Who?
SOME GIRL: Will you pay me if I let you have a guess?
ME: I don't care, I'm rich, there you go. Is it SHE?
SOME GIRL: No. Nice try, though.

[later...]

SOME GIRL: Hey OTHER GIRL, I know somebody who likes you
SHE: Oh yeah? Who?
SOME GIRL: Will you pay me if I let you have a guess?
SHE: There you go. Is it stere0?
(note: I didn't have facial hair in primary school)
SOME GIRL: No.

I overheard them, and this is how SOME GIRL got rich by doing this to the whole school and how I got my first kiss a couple of weeks later. :-D

Nothing immoral about this at all

[Brento]

There really is someone who likes you. In fact, here's the original personal ad involved:

"Mass email marketer ISO young, wealthy singles with low self-esteem and money to burn. Low IQ is a plus, gullibility even better. Turn-ons: making telephone calls at dinnertime, taking long walks on the beach with your money."

Does this mean...

[Wdomburg]

Noone really has a crush on the support alias for my company? I don't know how I'm going to break the news to it.

Re:This is obviously a ploy.

[krog]

these guys sent "someone has a crush on you!" messages to thousands of MIT students. talk about blowing your cover. :)