Would You Like Some Quechup With Your Spam?
A fair number of bloggers and readers have complained of being duped into handing over the e-mail and instant messaging addresses of their friends and family to a new social-networking site called "Quechup," which tends to welcome new members by spamming everyone who is close to them. While the site's marketing practices are no doubt annoying, the all-to-common fool-me-once-shame-on-me response from new users taken in by the ploy shows that a great many otherwise intelligent people lack basic Internet street smarts.
Pop the term "quechup" into your favorite Web search engine and you're bound to find thousands of sites and blog posts from people who were bamboozled after receiving an invitation to join the network from one of their online acquaintances.
What's remarkable is not how many people who received the invite link clicked on it and decided to join, but that so many completed the registration process, which actually asks prospective members to fork over their user name and password for the account they use to send e-mail and/or instant messages online. Not only that, but the site states in plain vew that it will use your information to send Quechup membership invites to all of your friends.
In fact, within a few minutes of completing your registration, Quechup will interactively log on to your e-mail or instant messenger account and blast out an invite to everyone in your contacts or buddies list.
Please don't misunderstand me: I am not in any way condoning the marketing practices of this so-called social networking site. Frankly, I don't see how any company that pursues such a marketing strategy can succeed in the long run. However, it does underscore the reality that far too many people fail to see their e-mail address, password, computer or instant message credentials for the real-world commodities that they are.
By Brian Krebs |
September 13, 2007; 3:27 PM ET
Latest Warnings
Previous: AOL's Free Anti-Virus Switcheroo |
Next: Report: Four Percent of E-Crime From Fortune 100
Posted by: Rick | September 14, 2007 4:02 PM
Spam is already pretty salty on its own. Maybe I'd add some Cholula or Tapatio, but no Quechup.
Posted by: antibozo | September 14, 2007 4:07 PM
It is simply mind boggling to comprehend the lack of critical thinking skills so evident here. Are people really so ignorant? Or is just as Forrest Gump would say, "Stupid is as stupid does"?
Either way, it's becoming an epidemic!
Posted by: TJ | September 14, 2007 5:34 PM
The screenshot you posted doesn't look like stating "in plain vew [sic] that it will use your information to send Quechup membership invites to all of your friends". First, the section is titled "Who do you know on Quechup?". Second, it takes extremely close reading to realize that
"Choose the address book with the most contacts and we'll find matches so you can add them to your friends network and choose which non members to invite to join Quechup."
can be parsed in two ways, one of which makes "we" the subject for the verb "choose". (And doesn't the next sentence seem to contradict that interpretation?)
Is there another place where the site does state that in plain view?
Posted by: Jesse Ruderman | September 14, 2007 10:11 PM
That said, giving your email password to a site you don't have a *really* good reason to trust is pretty dumb :)
Posted by: Jesse Ruderman | September 14, 2007 10:13 PM
"We'll find matches so YOU can add them". That led me to believe that I would have a choice in who I invited. Nowhere did it say they would send unsolicited invitations.
This company's practices are worse than annoying. Some of the people on my contacts list are important business people with whom I communicate carefully and respectfully.
Jokes on me; tricked into inviting these people to some crappy dating service.
Posted by: Brett Roberts | September 16, 2007 9:33 PM
"Stupid is as stupid does." An epidemic? Hope it's not catching... Where's one of those nose and mouth covers worn during flu season?
Posted by: Pete in Arlington | September 17, 2007 10:31 AM
"giving your email password to a site you don't have a *really* good reason to trust is pretty dumb"
Bingo! Therein lies the problem. The password should NOT be given to anything other than the entity hosting your e-mail account! To do otherwise is just asking for trouble.
And the root of the problem is as Brian states, "too many fail to see their e-mail address, password, computer or instant message credentials for the real-world commodities that they are".
Posted by: Tim | September 17, 2007 12:47 PM
Bebo asks for this info too. If you do share this info then by all means change your password right after.
Posted by: Shamus | September 18, 2007 2:42 PM
Hell yes people are that stupid!
A third of us still believe Saddam had something to do with 9/11! How stupid is that?
Posted by: Strider | September 18, 2007 8:27 PM
I'm starting to think that internet access should be licensed -- the same as driving a car. Some people are just too dumb to be trusted with the privelege, and their ignorance is constantly creating problems for other users.
Posted by: | September 18, 2007 11:21 PM
Crooks will constantly have an edge since you can't protect people from themselves. Spam persists because it works, like, in the real world, there are buyers for miraculous medals and phony investment plans.
Posted by: Nick | September 19, 2007 10:20 AM
Don't Blackberries do the same thing (log into your email account by proxy)? Perhaps that has inured people.
Posted by: antibozo | September 19, 2007 12:57 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Hear hear. Do they hear?