Nationwide Class Action Filed Against DoubleClick

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Nationwide Class Action Filed Against DoubleClick

Posted by timothy on Sunday July 20, 2003 @06:32AM from the well-and-truly dept.

Stanley Ference writes "A nationwide class action lawsuit has been commenced in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, against DoubleClick Inc. DoubleClick is a leading provider of products and services used by direct marketers, web publishers and advertisers to plan, execute and analyze marketing programs. In 2002, Doubleclick served more than 630 billion ads on the Internet for thousands of customers." If you've ever been tricked by one of those ads telling you that your "connection is not optimized" or that you have "1 new message waiting," you could be part of the class. Read on for details.

Stanley Ference continues: "The class action complaint alleges that DoubleClick deceptively and fraudulently commandeered millions of Internet users to the commercial websites of DoubleClick's customers through dissemination of tens-of-millions of fraudulent Internet advertising banners that impersonated computer system messages. The Complaint states that through use of such Fake User Interface ("FUI") dialogs that fraudulently represented themselves as computer system error messages, DoubleClick tricked millions of Internet users into interrupting the work they were performing to respond to the fraudulent system message, only to unexpectedly find both computer and computer user thus hijacked to commercial websites of DoubleClick's customers.

Additional information about this lawsuit, including an illustration of the advertising banners that are the subject of this lawsuit, may be found at ferencelaw.com/doubleclick."

Here's a link to the press release (PDF) announcing the filing of this lawsuit.

35 of 525 comments (clear)

Aww by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 06:34 · Score: 1, Funny

last heard at doubleclick "awww fui"
Whoa whoa whoa by st0rmshadow · 2003-07-20 06:34 · Score: 3, Funny

So I don't have one new message waiting for me?
1. Re:Whoa whoa whoa by xYoni69x · 2003-07-20 06:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No, actually, you don't... There's a bug that causes your software to think you have a new message waiting for you, which points to the fact that your connection isn't optimized.
  
  --
  void*x=(*((void*(*)())&(x=(void*)0xfdeb58)))();
2. Re:Whoa whoa whoa by furballphat · 2003-07-20 06:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Hey. I got one too and it's fake as we...
  
  oh shit! gotta go. my computer is broadcasting an ip address
3. Re:Whoa whoa whoa by Gzip+Christ · 2003-07-20 07:13 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  There's a bug that causes your software to think you have a new message waiting for you, which points to the fact that your connection isn't optimized.
  It also points to the fact that your computer is broadcasting your IP address to hackers!
in other words by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 06:36 · Score: 4, Funny

" If you've ever been tricked by one of those ads telling you that your "connection is not optimized" or that you have "1 new message waiting," you could be part of the class

You can be part of the the Class action if you are willing to admit that you are stupid.
Warning Your Computer Has Been Hijacked!! by heironymouscoward · 2003-07-20 06:36 · Score: 3, Funny

Click now to discover whether YOU are eligible for a part of the MULTIMILLION payoff against DoubleClick!!!

Yes, you too can be part of the twenty-first century "I'M SO STUPID I DESERVE MONEY" movement.

Click now and receive $$$'s!!! (*)

* Subject to reality.

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Ceci n'est pas une signature
1. Re:Warning Your Computer Has Been Hijacked!! by yintercept · 2003-07-20 07:35 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Personally, I always mod up posts where someone calls other people stupid. That way people won't think I am stupid. Like the person posting the article, I am driven by what other people think of me.
  
  Anyway, I agree that the smartest people I know don't spend that much time with computers, or watching television for that matter.
  
  I don't own a TV, but when I see a TV, I notice that I am more impacted by the commercials than people who've been anesthesized by the machine.
  
  With computers, the marketing data seems to show that when advertisers introduce a new type or shape of ad, the click rates will go up, until people get used to them. I suspect that if you measured the activity of new Internet users, you would see them clicking on the 468x60 ads at the same pace as the new Google/adsense ads. Conversely, as the market is anesthized to the adsense format, its rates will drop.
  
  But back to calling people names. I haven't heard any disparaging remarks about Iceland for awhile; so, I would like to say that anyone who lives in Iceland is stupid...and get some mod points.
  
  PS: if you live in Iceland, I apologize for the crude, and blatantly false remark, but, hey, we do what we can for mod points.
2. Re:Warning Your Computer Has Been Hijacked!! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 08:21 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  So you're saying there's actually a beef patty in a McDonald's burger? Come on! How stupid do you think we are!?
wait a sec ... by Rubbersoul · 2003-07-20 06:37 · Score: 3, Funny

For me to get into this class action lawsuit I have to admit that I am a dumb ass and was tricked by a "FUI" ...

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man .sig
No manual entry for .sig.
1. Re:wait a sec ... by donutz · 2003-07-20 07:11 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  What about the helpdesk staff whose time is wasted by calls that users have computer with unoptimized connections or that they can't seem to get to this waiting message? I would think they should be able to get in on this lynch mob^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H class action lawsuit.
how do you prove you were duped? by SuperDuG · 2003-07-20 06:39 · Score: 2, Funny

is there an IQ test or something?

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Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
"FUI"??? by CraigoFL · 2003-07-20 06:40 · Score: 1, Funny

GUI, GUI, bo-BEUI
Banana-fanna-fo-FUI
Me My Mo-MUI
GUI!

*sigh*
Re:Damn - fooled again by aussersterne · 2003-07-20 06:42 · Score: 4, Funny

It's more like this scenario: A police car flashes you. Do you pull over? Of course. An officer gets out and walks to your car and only when he gets to your car window and begins to try to sell you Chanel copies do you realize that his badge reads "great scents", that the logo on the side of his car reads "To Scent and Perfect" and that the thing on his belt is a credit card reader, not a baton.

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STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I'm just waiting..... by Nemus · 2003-07-20 06:43 · Score: 2, Funny

To start getting spam mail about this. "Yes, you too can earn millions like your favorite corporations like SCO and engage in frivilous litigation! All at home, and in under 8 hours a week!!".
Oh well, at least if I get part of the settlement I can start buying some of those penis pills and russian brides everyone keeps telling me about. I mean honestly, I don't even know half of these people. I guess I just met em at a party or something, but they seem to have gotten my name confused with someone elses. Jesus, you'd think I was on some kind of mailing list or something.

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Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
Amusing by squiggleslash · 2003-07-20 06:44 · Score: 5, Funny

I had a friend who saw one of these pop-ups. It looked exactly like an MSDOS window, complete with a copyright message from Microsoft, the correct font, and a message implying there were serious system problems. Clicking on the "Close" box brought up the website, I learned later.
All of this, of course, was on his KDE desktop... (no, I've no idea why he had pop-ups enabled.)

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You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Re:Damn - fooled again by EvilTwinSkippy · 2003-07-20 06:48 · Score: 5, Funny

It's more like this scenario: A police car flashes you. Do you pull over? Of course. An officer gets out and walks to your car and only when he gets to your car window and begins to try to sell you Chanel copies do you realize that his badge reads "great scents", that the logo on the side of his car reads "To Scent and Perfect" and that the thing on his belt is a credit card reader, not a baton.
Glad I'm not the only one that's happened to. I swear on the beltway that between the unmarked police cars and the policecar salesmen it's a miracle anyone can tell who is who. Though I will say, the Chanel knock offs are great at removing engine deposits and removing gum from the bottom of shoes.

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"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Mozilla, you let me down by jtheory · 2003-07-20 06:55 · Score: 2, Funny

Just think, if I hadn't blocked images from all of doubleclick's servers, and disabled those popups... I might be in for some money! Curse you, Mozilla!

I don't have the background to comment on the legitimacy of this suit -- but I sure am curious to see how it plays out, since I have always hated the deceptiveness of those ads. My wife gets fooled occasionally, and I have to clean all that Gator crap off the computer *again*. If only she'd swear off IE for good....

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There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
Re:good and bad... by double-oh+three · 2003-07-20 07:21 · Score: 1, Funny

'The Complaint asks the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County to award punitive damages against DoubleClick in the amount of $500 per class member, as well as compensatory damages in the amount of $5.00 per deceptive advertising banner issued by DoubleClick. The Complaint also seeks an order enjoining DoubleClick from issuing similar Internet advertising banners in the future.' -from the lawsuit website. That's a lot of pennies... (5,000 to be exact)

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"For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
Re:Right. by KimiDalamori · 2003-07-20 07:25 · Score: 2, Funny

You mean you dont use FVWM95???

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Lagito ergo expectabo
Re:Damn - fooled again by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 07:28 · Score: 1, Funny

If you saw a sign that said 'Traffic advisery, use this route instead.' you may very well follow it
No, the "advisery" would tip me off.
Re:Damn - fooled again by pizen · 2003-07-20 07:29 · Score: 5, Funny

Or, maybe more realistically, a sign that says "Warning: next stop for blinker fluid in 200 miles"

This really gets people the older they get. Not only do they need blinker fluid more often because they often forget to turn off their blinkers but they're also more likely to be taken in by the hoax. This is why I never use my blinkers.
Re:Damn - fooled again by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 07:29 · Score: 3, Funny

> Also I have yet to levetitate from
> eating their enchilada bowls.

Really? It happens to me all the time. Starts a couple hours after the enchilada bowl. Or, bean burritos for that matter. I just have to stay away from open flames or the levitation thing gets WAY out of hand. Damn near got a concussion hitting my head on the ceiling first time somebody lit up a cig during a particularly bad episode of levitation.
Re:Damn - fooled again by avalys · 2003-07-20 07:36 · Score: 4, Funny

Just have to check - you know there's no such thing as blinker fluid, right?

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The problem with this lawsuite... by Dunark · 2003-07-20 07:56 · Score: 1, Funny

... is going to be finding enough people who are willing to testify that they were stupid enough to click on the silly ads.
/usr/bin/cynicism --on by Alethes · 2003-07-20 08:09 · Score: 2, Funny

If you've ever been tricked by one of those ads telling you that your "connection is not optimized" or that you have "1 new message waiting," you could be part of the class.

Yeah, the special education class.
Re:Damn - fooled again by operagost · 2003-07-20 08:13 · Score: 3, Funny

You got it, Captain Obvious.

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Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
*ahem* by skinfitz · 2003-07-20 08:19 · Score: 4, Funny

If you've ever been tricked by one of those ads telling you that your "connection is not optimized" or that you have "1 new message waiting," you could be part of the class.

If you've ever been tricked by one of _those_ ads then what are you doing reading /. ? Get yourself back to AOL and stop getting big ideas.
Windows FUI on my Mac by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 08:48 · Score: 4, Funny

The programmers at DoubleClick are coding wizards...they must have spent months getting Windows APIs to work on my Mac. I don't even need to have Virtual PC running to access these important system messages...
Re:Damn - fooled again by frisket · 2003-07-20 09:34 · Score: 1, Funny

> If you've ever been tricked by one of those ads telling you that your > "connection is not optimized" or that you have "1 new message waiting,"
...you might just be a redneck.
Sorry, I'm out of sympathy with these people. If they can't tell what's what on their screen, they shouldn't be using a computer, let alone accessing the Internet.
Re:Damn - fooled again by aonifer · 2003-07-20 10:14 · Score: 2, Funny

Just have to check - you know there's no such thing as blinker fluid, right?

Wait, what?

Crap.
Re:Damn - fooled again by _randy_64 · 2003-07-20 13:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Ah, so you must live in Maryland? I think I've seen you around!

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I mod down all the "free iPod"-sig losers.
Re:Damn - fooled again by Alien+Being · 2003-07-20 13:56 · Score: 2, Funny

Those are the same folks who drive around all winter with summer air in their tires.
If this had happened in China... by Tokerat · 2003-07-20 16:27 · Score: 3, Funny

...would that have possibly been a Hong Kong FUI?

*rimshot*

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CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
StupidPeople? Or stupid advertising? by rice_burners_suck · 2003-07-20 17:51 · Score: 2, Funny

Good! I'm sick of those lame advertisements! To be sure, I don't really mind banner ads. It's pop-ups that piss me off. But banner ads that are annoyingly animated or those that pretend to be lame computer messages are just plain tiring.
People who actually believe those are error messages are StupidPeople (tm). Like, you can't tell that it's part of a web page, stupid.
Just a little side note: It reminds me of all these stupid people on my cousin's street. I came to L.A. for a week (I live in Mexico City, if you must know) to visit my cousin and his buddies, and to go booze it up on the Sunset strip. So there's this stupid restaurant on the corner of his street, another one of those "trendy" restaurants with one-syllable names (because StupidPeople cannot remember names with more than one syllable--it overflows their stack), and it's always crowded. The StupidPeople who eat there always park their cars on my cousin's street, and as a result, my cousin and all his neighbors are at a loss to find parking spaces. During the weekend, it's especially bad. To make matters ironic, his street is permit-parking only. So he called the parking enforcement agency and they came by and ticketed at least 10 different cars. All these StupidPeople came back to their cars, saw the tickets, and started reading the parking signs, as if they didn't know that it's illegal to park there without a permit. What's even funnier? My cousin's roommate was outside when one such group of StupidPeople pulled up in their Stupid Ugly Vehicle (SUV) and he told them that they can't park there. They did anyway, got a ticket, and then acted all surprised when they did (I watched them gleefully from the window when they returned to their car).
I call them StupidPeople because they all look the same. They all have this Los Angeles accent and vocabulary that is different than in, say, Louisville. All the women have stupid, meaningless tattoos on their lower backs. All the men have a lame haircut. And you can tell by their speech that unlike the typical computer geek, they do not have a brain inside their head. They are simply StupidPeople. Their stupidity drives me up the wall.
Back to banner ads: People who fell for this trick should not be allowed to use a computer in the first place. And the people who made these stupid ads should be shot for lack of imagination.