There are some companies that seem to be making videos for YouTube that don't specifically mention any products, but feature the products prominently none-the-less. At least one person has noticed the trend and reported on it in at least two videos, one that has already been proven to be an ad and the other only just released.
Obviously the new ad has the same goals as the old: to market a product without actually naming it, by appealing to the public's love of Internet stunt videos.
I don't really have a problem with this. They're getting attention for the product with legitimate interesting videos. Whether a pro company made it or not, the stunts are pretty interesting and people are watching it for that. Assuming they're not trying to give the impression that these are amateur videos anyway.
Reunion.com is using a deceptive marketing strategy where they pretend to be someone you know who is inviting you to Reunion. If you go to Reunion.com to see who it is, sign up, and make the horrible gross mistake of giving them your e-mail address password, they will automatically send out false e-mails to all the people in your contact list.
Two things are going horribly wrong here. One is that Reunion.com is using false and deceptive practices and is doing nothing less than what a virus or hacker would do. I hope the hammer of law hits them hard and fast
The second thing is that people somehow believe it's ok to give up their e-mail address password which is a huge no no.
Not too long ago, I put an item on my Christmas wishlist that my wife bought, but I put a link to a fraud company as a place to buy it. If I had bothered to check it out first, I would have quickly realized as much and saved us both a lot of trouble.
So before you pull out your credit card, you should check them out.
Even though I've shown that bigger companies don't leak data (or didn't used to anyway), that doesn't stop smaller sites/companies. An easier way to see if someone is sharing your e-mail address when you don't want to is to use variations of your own e-mail address for each site. Google's e-mail service allows you to add data to your e-mail address and have it still successfully reach your inbox as described at this Makeuseof.com article. As of today, this tip does NOT work with Hotmail.
With help of a friend that uses Gmail, I was able to confirm that it works exactly as described in the article. I will definitely be using Gmail for all further account signups.
It's this easy to destroy someone. Just post an ad on Craigslist.com stating that everything on a man's property is free and people will rob the place blind. All that's required is for someone to know when you're out of town.
I've had a Yahoo! account practically as long as I've been on the Internet. I've practically abandoned the mail because of the amount of spam it recieves every day, but I still use it from time to time and it has a lot of historical and nostalgic value due to the e-mails that are still in there.
I've also used my account for the Yahoo! Answers service to help spread information about credit freezes and avoiding scams like lifelock. I'm guessing that last one is why I got a generic letter like this:
Oops
Your account has been suspended.
If you feel there has been a mistake, please contact us at answers-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com.
Most likely, your account was suspended in violation of Yahoo! Answers community guidelines. Click here to read the full guidelines
In the meantime, feel free to browse Yahoo! Answers
* Back to Home
Ok. I'm pissed, but I'll give them a chance to explain themselves and I sent them this:
Your system is saying that my account is suspended and to read the
guidelines. First, I've done nothing that would violate any reasonable
guidelines and second, the link to your guidelines doesn't work. Third,
I need you to re-instate the account and provide a reason for why you
suspended it in the first place (assuming this isn't a glitch in the
first place).
There was a quick exchange where they mentioned that they can't investigate without knowing the username I was complaining about. Oops. After that, I get this:
Hello,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.
We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers
and/or the deactivation of your Yahoo! ID. We reviewed your case, and
decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement.
Once an account is disabled for a violation of the Terms of Service, the
subscriber to the account will lose the ability to log in and access the
account and its contents (including email and content stored with any
other Yahoo! service). The account also will not be reactivated.
Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account, we invite you to read
the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines to help
ensure your new account is not deactivated.
You nebulously say that I have violated something in your terms of service with no justification, no explanation, and no recourse what-so-ever? And I'm supposed to guess which part of your TOS I allegedly violated and try again, abandoning the account I've held with you in good standing for over 10 years?
I'm appalled at your complete lack of customer service in this regard. Even if I were to believe that I had legitimately done something wrong, how can you terminate an account with no warning or second chance? I expect that you will cite some technical difficulty in managing second chances, but I assure you it's a trivial process that I can teach your database admins to implement if you'd like.
However, I don't expect you to be moved by simple logic so instead I offer this: If you intend to let this situation stand as-is, I will make sure that I tell my story. I am active in the Internet community and will submit this debacle to sites such at The Consumerist, Slashdot, Digg, and more, giving each the chance to hear what Yahoo! is really like.
Further, I intend to write to Google offering to be a spokes person on their behalf, using my story as an example of why they are the better choice in all things. I'm sure they'd be interested in having another nail for the coffin.
I will give you a period of time to respond to my request before taking any such action and I welcome you to prove me wrong and actually settle this in a reasonable manner. If so, I expect a justification for my expulsion AND immediate reinstatement of my account. Once I am actually aware of what provision of your TOS you claim I violated, I can make adjustments (if necessary).
Jeremy
Now let's see what happens.
Update 2008.03.18
Not surprising, but I'm baffled that I was right. Yahoo responded with a form letter:
[+] Yahoo's form letter response
Click the + to read it, but it's as bland and purposeless as you'd expect.
[-] Yahoo's form letter response
Hello Jeremy,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.
We appreciate your inquiry. Yahoo! may, in appropriate circumstances and
in its sole discretion, remove or edit any content and/or terminate the
accounts of users who appear to have violated the Terms and Conditions.
Any action taken is confidential. We will not release this information
unless required to do so by law or under other similar circumstances. We
are unable to make exceptions to this rule.
We invite you to visit the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community
Guidelines. These documents can be found at:
For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/
I've written an e-mail to "The Consumerist" hoping that they'l take an interest in this story or at least provide me with some advice on how to proceed. Sure I've got ideas, but I'd rather leverage the experience of the pros if possible.
[+] My letter asking for advice from The Consumerist
Click the + to read the e-mail.
[-] My letter asking for advice from The Consumerist
My Yahoo e-mail was the first online free e-mail account I ever had. While I don't use it much now, it has years of historical e-mails that I would rather not lose if I don't have to. However, Yahoo, in their infinite wisdom has disabled my account due to what they claim was a violation of the TOS when using their Yahoo Answers service.
I have recently become very active in the Answer boards providing information about identity theft and why you should avoid credit monitoring and insurance (note that I have a very high ratio of "best answers" as well). Chances are they took issue with one of the following:
1) Almost every posting I made links back to my site. They might have considered that self promotion, but if I knew a better site that contained the information I wanted to reference, I would put it. I always fully answered the question only providing the link to my in-depth articles if they wanted to read more.
2) The more likely scenario is that I am a very vocal opponent of Lifelock. They've been getting a lot of press for their insurance service that they bill as "protection" though it doesn't protect anything but Todd Davis's bottom line. Recently, I've been doing daily searches for questions mentioning Lifelock and posting responses explaining why I believed it was a waste of time and money.
Either way, they suspended my account with no warning and no justification. I complained via e-mail and recieved form letters again and again, even when I sent them one warning them that I would use my online voice and also offer to be a spokesperson for their competitor (Google in this case). So far, I've recieved nothing but form letters for the most part.
Now, I already said I don't value the account THAT much, but the principle of it is driving me batty. It's like being kicked off the bus without warning, without explanation, and with no opportunity to correct whatever behavior I allegedly engaged in.
So my question to you and your readers is, what should I do now?
I've already blogged about it on my page (http://www.jeremyduffy.com/arguing-a-yahoo-account-suspension/) and will keep a journal of the events as they occur though considering my readership of like 3 people, that's not going to amount to much. I've also contacted one major online news site (that's you).
What's next? Local news? Other major news sites? Contact Google as the "Unscrewed" author would have suggested?
-Jeremy
Update 2008.04.08
Not getting much traction with some of the things I've tried, but I'm going to file a Better Business Bureau complaint and see what happens. Should be interesting.
[+] My BBB Complaint
Click the + to read my complaint to the BBB
[-] My BBB Complaint
I have had this account since 97 and it is my oldest online account. I have a store of e-mail going back for over ten years, some of which I wanted to keep.
I have used their new "Answers" service and received consistently high feedback in the form of "best answers". However, they allege that I violated their terms of service and canceled my account with no warning, no second chances, and no justification.
Further, canceling of my Answers account also blocks my access to e-mail and all other Yahoo services under my username.
First, canceling an account without warning or provocation is irresponsible. Not providing me with any recourse or opportunity to challenge their actions is also a very poor decision. Though I admit that making stupid business decisions is within their right, removing my access to e-mail with no way of recovering it is poor form at best.
I want a solid justification for why my account was terminated. I don't believe I violated anything and even if you think I did, you shouldn't have canceled my account without a second chance. Implementing a "warning" system in your services is a trivial task. I can show your programmers how to do it if you think they're unable to already.
Even if you refuse this reasonable request, I want the contents of my e-mails after which I will be happy to discontinue the use of any Yahoo services in perpetuity.
And their response:
The case has been reviewed and has now been forwarded to the business for their response. This business has until April 30, 2008 to respond to your complaint. You may contact our office after April 30, 2008 to check the status of your complaint.
Mua ha ha ha! Forwarded to them for their response. So there.
Update 2008.04.13
Though they told me that I wouldn't be able to access my e-mail I checked today and it turns out that I can. Since I didn't try it before, I can't tell if was able to get to it all along or if this is somehow related to my BBB complaint. If I find out for sure, I'll post it.
Update 2008.04.24
[+] Yahoo's response to the BBB
[-] Yahoo's response to the BBB
Yahoo! suspended Mr. Duffy from our Answers service due to violations of our Terms of Service. This suspension only applies to Answers. Mr. Duffy's Yahoo! account is still fully available and functional, including email service. Records indicate the account has been used as of 04/14/08.
[+] And my response to that
[-] And my response to that
I have discovered that the e-mail is active though their representative originally told me it wasn't (thus my complaint). While that was the larger sin, disabling my Yahoo! Answers account with no justification and no second chances, especially one that I had put a large amount of time and effort into is wrong.
It may be legal for them to do so, but it is a foolhardy decision and my complaint about their business practices stands. People should know that Yahoo! could drop them in a moments notice unfairly before they sign up for Yahoo! services.
Update 2008.04.25
The BBB has noted that I said I didn't accept their response, but the BBB has closed the case anyway. Not surprising.
Next, to Google:
I have always championed Google services over competitors with one exception: Yahoo Answers. Their interface is, sorry to say, superior to what Google offered. However, I recently had my account cancelled with no warning despite the fact that I was a highly rated contributor who was a subject matter expert in Identity Theft issues. Though they claim I violated their policy, I don’t believe them and they have refused to provide any justification what-so-ever.
If you are interested in promoting bad press about your competitor, I would be happy to be a spokesperson on your behalf. People should know that a company that treats customers as Yahoo does is not worth getting involved with.
Lifehacker has an interesting article about managing your online reputation. They talk about how to tell when new information about you surfaces (setting up a Google alert) and how to amend or respond to negative information. There are also ways to artifically improve the way you're viewed online (your own blog).
It's a good read for anyone who's concerned about what people will find when searching for your name online.
In what is perhaps the dumbest move eBay has ever made, they are planning to eliminate the ability to leave negative or neutral feedback. Positive feedback is already pointless with a horde of robotic responses left only for bragging rights:
AAAAA+++++ Buyer!
Would Buy again!
Fast Shipping. Excellent Seller!
What does any of this mean? NOTHING. If you want the real scoop, it used to be only the negative feedback that would give it to you. Besides, if you DO get scammed, it's not like eBay will do anything about it so the negative feedback was the only thing that would protect you.
