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Toyota Claims Woman "Opted In" To Faux Email Stalking

Posted by timothy on from the give-marketing-new-prescriptions dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ABC News is reporting that a California woman is suing Toyota for $10 million for sending her email that appeared to be from a criminal stalker. The woman claims the emails terrified her to the point that she suffered sleeplessness, poor work performance, etc. Toyota says the ruse was part of a marketing campaign for the Toyota Matrix. A Toyota spokesman says they are not liable for the woman's distress, because 'The person who made this claim specifically opted in, granting her permission to receive campaign emails and other communications from Toyota.'"

3 of 667 comments (clear)

  1. Yep by sopssa · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    A Los Angeles woman is suing Toyota for *$10 MILLION* over a marketing campaign that she claims "punked" her into incorrectly believing she was being stalked.

    She even made her longtime boyfriend sleep with a club and mace next to the bed for protection.

    Yeah, you need $10 million to cover that. Only in USA.

    This also makes me wonder; maybe she had something to hide because she got so scared?

    1. Re:Yep by ground.zero.612 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      A Los Angeles woman is suing Toyota for *$10 MILLION* over a marketing campaign that she claims "punked" her into incorrectly believing she was being stalked.

      She even made her longtime boyfriend sleep with a club and mace next to the bed for protection.

      Yeah, you need $10 million to cover that. Only in USA.

      This also makes me wonder; maybe she had something to hide because she got so scared?

      Leave it to some asshole to say this is an endemic problem with being a citizen of the USA. Maybe opting in to receive advertisements from Toyota is a little different than signing up for a stalkeresque marketing assault. By your logic, it would be completely within my legal rights to personally visit every single person on my opt-in advertising distribution group, and punch them in the face as a part of my new "ad campaign", then when they sue me and press assault charges I can simply claim they opted-in so they have no legal recourse.

      People like you, making comments like these, are the reason people like me consistently tell you that a) you are really a fucking asshole, b) you clearly belong in totalitarian, egalitarian, corporatist or socialist society which the US is not, and finally c) if you're this big of a piece of shit and you live in the US, GET THE FUCK OUT and stop trying to change our country into some European colony (I know, the irony...)

      --
      "Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
    2. Re:Yep by brentonboy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      The way you normally hear this story is all about the labels. Some lady didn't know that coffee is hot, and she sued McDonald's for not putting a little "caution: hot!" label on it. Now they do, and that solves that. But the fact that it was really about the coffee being too hot, and the solution involved not just a label, but an actual reduction in temperature makes this seem a lot more reasonable.

      Those little warning labels on coffee cups still seem absurd to me though.