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Some Spammer Has a Crush on You

Posted by Hemos on from the i've-got-a-crush-on-you dept.

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.)"

1 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Actual e-mail from crushlink.com by KPU · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Guess what... you've got a secret admirer!
    Want to find out who it is? Come visit...

    http://www.CrushLink.com

    Email address:
    Invitation code:

    Make sure you enter in this information
    exactly as shown above.

    See you soon!

    Sincerely,
    The Crush Master

    ---

    PS. This is not junk email. You've received it
    because someone *you know* came to CrushLink and
    confessed an interest in you! Maybe it was that
    hottie from English class or the cute one at the
    party last weekend or maybe--well, we can't even
    give you a hint until you come to CrushLink.com.

    PPS. If you do not wish to receive any more of
    these messages from CrushLink, please visit
    http://www.CrushLink.com/block.php3