Miles to go ...
Arun Gupta is a Technology Evangelist for Web Services and Web 2.0 Apps at Sun. He was the spec lead for APIs in the Java platform, committer in multiple Open Source projects, participated in standard bodies and contributed to Java EE and SE releases.
Monday October 22, 2007
Boycott yaari.com - "Spam 2.0"
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This is a "Web 2.0" world so I join different community sites (such as facebook, linkedin, orkut etc.) in order to be not left behind :) One such site happen to be yaari.com which brought me embarrassment instead of any apparent benefit. |
After I registered with their website, it sent an email of the following format to random set of addresses from my GMail address book:
Subject: Arun is your Yaar!
:)
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 10:51:15 -0500
From: Arun MY_EMAIL_ID
Reply-To:
admin@yaari.com
To: EMAIL-ID FROM GMAIL
Arun
San Jose
Arun Gupta wants you to join Yaari!
Is Arun your friend?
Yes <http://www.yaari.com/y-register.php?i=SOME_WEIRD_NUMBER> No
<http://www.yaari.com/y-register.php>
Please respond or Arun might think you said no :(
To stop receiving emails from Yaari.com, click here
<http://yaari.com/y-email-opt-out.php?param=YET_ANOTHER_WEIRD_NUMBER>.
If you have any concerns regarding the content of this message, please email
abuse@yaari.com.
Yaari LLC, 358 Angier Ave, Atlanta, GA 30312
I apologize for unknowingly sending a message from my account.
This is absolute shame. The website says "social networking site created by Indian youth, for Indian youth". I really don't care who has created the website but this is complete invasion of privacy. Stop it yaari.com and get some real work done!
If you get an invitation to join yaari.com, send it back to the original sender along with the link to this blog. An already created account can be deleted by going to Accounts tab and selecting "Deactivate Account" and, of course, never joining back.
Read more horrid experiences here and here.
Boycott yaari.com image used from Aalaap.com. I could not inline the image for an unknown reason.
Posted by Arun Gupta in General | Comments[35]
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This is a personal weblog, I do not speak for my employer.
Just correct the spelling of Aalaap :)
Thanks!
Posted by Aalaap on October 22, 2007 at 09:46 PM PDT #
fixed, thanks for the catch!
Posted by Arun Gupta on October 22, 2007 at 09:49 PM PDT #
I am also a recent victim and know what you are talking about:-)
I joined the boycott campaign - http://home.comcast.net/~vivekp/2007/10/bocott-yaaricom.html
Posted by vivek on October 22, 2007 at 11:39 PM PDT #
Thanks for the link Arun. I read on your blog that you attend various web-related events including a recent Java event in Minneapolis. Is there a website where you can track these events for the Minneapolis area?
Posted by Amit Chowdhry on October 23, 2007 at 12:36 AM PDT #
How did they get a hold of your addressbook? Did you import or something? I am not going to sign up (to give them an added statistic) but just curious.
Also, the site is a copy paste of hotornot.com.
Posted by Mohit on October 29, 2007 at 08:04 PM PDT #
Sorry for the question I asked in the previous post. I was too p***ed off to Google around further. I read the linked blog (http://www.aalaap.com/2007/07/say-no-to-yaaricom.html) where I was able to get the whole story. Thanks guys for raising this issue - it really brings a very bad name to legitimate and creditworthy Indian startups.
Posted by Mohit on October 29, 2007 at 08:31 PM PDT #
Hi,
I am facing a similar problem. The website stole my address from my address book and sending emails to every one. This is pathetic. They should be punished for stealing and causing spams.
Posted by Sunil on October 30, 2007 at 06:01 AM PDT #
I think I gave up my gmail address :( It's unethical to ask for the password anyway and that's what is irritating.
Posted by Arun Gupta on October 30, 2007 at 07:59 AM PDT #
Just change your passwords for gmail before your accounts got lost !
Posted by Ilya Erlikhman on October 31, 2007 at 03:07 AM PDT #
Yeah, I made that change already :)
Posted by Arun Gupta on October 31, 2007 at 04:14 AM PDT #
No point in changing the password guys .... they steal the addresses when you are signing up.
This is absolute nonsense. Yaari is a virus.
Posted by TK on October 31, 2007 at 06:41 PM PDT #
Great post Arun, they even screwed my contacts.
Bad website and shameless copy of hotornot. As always, another non-innovative Indian website
Posted by Rahul on November 02, 2007 at 07:14 AM PDT #
I had the SAME experience with Yaari and encourage everyone to 1) not sign up and 2) spread the word. Yaari is in the business of phishing, and unless you want your entire address book hijacked, do not sign up. I was in the precarious position of having to send an apology email to everyone in my address book, including to 3 senior executives at a Fortune 100 company I am currently interviewing with. How embarrassing, and just disrespectful.
Please spread the word - boycott Yaari.com.
Posted by Mayura on November 24, 2007 at 05:25 PM PST #
I am also the victim of YAARI.COM.but I dont know where to complain.Pls anybody suggest how to react for the same.
Posted by Srikanth on December 05, 2007 at 09:08 PM PST #
Yaari.com. STOP your unethical marketing strategies.
Posted by Shankar on December 27, 2007 at 03:12 AM PST #
There is a method to break into almost any e-mail account and do the abovementioned acts.
Posted by 117.96.23.75 on December 30, 2007 at 08:38 PM PST #
How dumb do you have to be to give yaari ( or any other portal for that matter) the password to your email account?
Quit complaining and grow some brains!
Posted by Watcher on January 08, 2008 at 07:02 PM PST #
"Grow some brains"? Ok...that makes sense.
Anyways, I made contact with the President of Yaari, and she is aware and taking action on this subject. She seemed very geniune, and apologized for the issue. I think her mission is a good one - she just didn't have the right development/legal staff supporting her.
Posted by Mayura on January 09, 2008 at 07:30 AM PST #
She may be a good individual but certainly does not have business sense cause what she did was unethical and painful. This due diligence is important even before starting a mom-and-pop shop.
Posted by Arun Gupta on January 09, 2008 at 07:44 AM PST #
Hello Friends,
Please do not accept the Friends request for yaari.com posted to you as mail by your friends name from the yaari.com itself. and also if you do have your account on yaaari.com then beaver of this problem b'coz the same will/was happen with your address book email also. so my suggestion is to delete your account from yaari.
--
Regards,
Rishikesh Khodke
Posted by Rishikesh KHodke on February 21, 2008 at 11:29 PM PST #
Yes, absolutely "yaari.com" is intervening in public privacy, they send mail to every contact list that i had in gmail account, referring each of the adressee to join the community, even i had to face my senior to stop sending this nonsense, it is humiliating, they are just too mean to hack your email address to increase their account. Stop doing this! infact boycott "yaari.com"
Posted by uma r on February 27, 2008 at 04:42 AM PST #
file a complain over here
https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup
rgds
uma r
Posted by uma r on February 27, 2008 at 04:49 AM PST #
This just happened to me today. It has been awful. I have been dealing with this problem all day. I have gotten SOOOO many e-mails from people in my addressbook, most of whom are professional contacts. Yaari should be shut down. When I e-mailed them about it, they claimed that they got my permission to do this in the fine print of the Terms and Conditions. I don't care what the terms and conditions say, this is a CLEAR violation of privacy.
Posted by JBTMOM on March 26, 2008 at 07:23 PM PDT #
Hi
I also registered with yaari.com a while back, forgot all about it
and today they seem to have sent their horrible marketing rubbish to all in my address book several times.
sent an email complaining about this to abuse@yaari.com
been sending out appology emails all day
B*****
Posted by jbains on June 08, 2008 at 02:31 PM PDT #
Watcher: they tricked you. 6 months later and they're still spamming.
Posted by Jonno on June 14, 2008 at 03:12 PM PDT #
i just got invited by a person i never knew... checked out what site it was that i was invited to.. thanks for the update.. i'm registering, period.
keep it going.. dude!!
Posted by utsav on June 18, 2008 at 09:00 PM PDT #
I signed up for Yaari after getting invitation from my relative.I did not know at that time that he was also the victim of Yaari's cheap gimmicks to gain members.But the worst thing is I could not even access my yaari account to deactivate, I am getting msg stating that I am not a member but all my contac IDs were stolen. What to do now.
Posted by Praveen on June 22, 2008 at 04:55 AM PDT #
I found myself I am the victim today.
I also couldn't login their site to deactivate just as Praveen reported above.
>But the worst thing is I could not even access my yaari account to deactivate, I am getting msg stating that I am not a member but all my contac IDs were stolen.
Changing my yahoo password won't help?
Then, what we can do?
6 month later, they are still spamming!?
NO!!!!!
Posted by MM on July 01, 2008 at 10:06 AM PDT #
Shameless creatures!! Why donn US governing body do something, just throw them out, miss prerna and her damn company
Posted by uma r on July 07, 2008 at 05:39 AM PDT #
I don't appreciate receiving YAARI junk and I did not even register with them.The sorry guy I dumped did and clearly forgot to delete my address.Unsolicited mail stinks.YAARI get a grip!
Posted by digusted on July 11, 2008 at 10:33 AM PDT #
I can't believe a social networking site can be so intrusive and abusive. I also advocate boycotting Yaari.com, see my page for details on how it abused me.
Posted by Mohammad Keyhani on July 13, 2008 at 04:08 PM PDT #
Hello,
I recently received an invitation to join Yaari.com. I made a terrible mistake, which was joining that network with my most used Gmail account. Upon signup I provided my Gmail password.
Guess what: _ALL_ my contacts received an invitation to join Yaari.com.
I wasn't even asked wheter I agreed to submit such silly invitation to ALL my contacts.
I received phone calls and emails from customers, family, friends asking whether they should accept this invitation.
Believe me, being an IT professional, I felt _really_ stupid having provided the credentials of my most widely used email account to such a dishonest, unethical and irresponsible company: YAARI.COM.
At least I will spread the mouth to alert people not to join such network.
Trust me: STAY AWAY FROM YAARI.COM, they exercise unethical Spam 2.0
Posted by Alex S. on July 17, 2008 at 09:17 AM PDT #
Everyone,
Are you all going to complain or are you going to DO SOMETHING?
Yaari's practices are not just unethical they are ILLEGAL.
They contravene the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm
1) Go to the FTC page http://www.ftc.gov/spam/
2) Click on "File a Complaint" (on the left column).
It's a bit slow so be patient.
3) Click on "FTC Complaint Assistant" (On the right)
4) Is your complaint concerning identity theft - NO (hit next)
5) Dissatisfaction with other Business Practices (hit next)
6) Select "Internet" and "Other Internet Practices" (hit next)
7) I have a complaint about my options (or lack of) for protecthing my privacy online. (you can also select option 1 if you have children in your email list). (hit next).
8) Do you know the name of the company (Yes) (hit next)
For the company details enter www.yaari.com. You can use Prerna@yaari.com for the email. (Just put zero dollars).
For Step 5, I put the following in the additional info
"This company is a social networking site. They contacted me by sending an invitation that impersonated the email identity of someone known to me. After signing up on their site http://www.yaari.com I found out that they take all of the addresses from my email address book and send invitation emails to each contact that claim to be from me. I believe that this practice contravenes the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act."
-- Please don't just grumble. Make a difference: File a complaint with the FTC.
Tim
Posted by Tim on July 26, 2008 at 11:24 AM PDT #
I recently received an email invitation for Yaari, and because I had never heard of it before, I decided to do some research first. After reading your blog, I can tell that Yaari is bad news. Thanks for the help!
Posted by Mike Li on July 27, 2008 at 01:57 AM PDT #
Yaari are still doing this! I had a mail saying a friend in India invited me to join. I joined, and have now had to mail everybody I ever mailed warning them.
This is a shameful activity and is spreading now outside India, not helping India's reputation in cyberspace, as there is no other Indian networking site that has a high profile outside India.
Yaari are breaking the law, and need to be reported to the Indian police.
Louise
Posted by Louise Larchbourne on August 06, 2008 at 01:46 AM PDT #