I was surprised to receive an invitation from a colleague to join the quechup.com network so we can continue our [non-existent] friendship there. I figured G had sent out a notice to everyone in her address book without first removing the people she doesn’t really want to “be friends” with. I only got part of this right.
Every one in G’s address book did get an quechup.com invite, but those invites weren’t sent by G. I’ve been following up on this story since then.
Quechup will ask for your email account ID and password when you sign up to their social network, and then send out invitations to your contacts in your name. Doing so, apparently, whether you remain a member of their service or not. The word on the net is stay away from quechup. According to Boingboing “Quechup is rotten: don’t accept invites”.
If you have signed up to quechup, ticked agree to their TOS and given them your email account password, immediately changing your password may block them from sending an invitation in your name to every one of your address book entries. This is worth a try, but be forewarned that it may be too late already to stop this from happening.
In future, any time you are prompted to give any individual or company open access to your address book’s contacts, your personal antennae should turn bright red and jab you in the head to remind you, “Uh uh. Don’t go there.”
For now, you might want to cancel your membership with Quechup on line. And, also write to Quechup’s parent company instructing them to be sure and remove your name from their active membership roster. It seems that Quechup continues to show members on their website as active even after they’ve cancelled their membership.
Howard Rheingold posted Quechup’s corporate information through Twitter:
Quechup attorney, I am told: Loeb & Loeb LLP 345 Park Avenue New York, NY 10154-0037 Tel: (212) 407-4000Tel: (212) 407-4000 USA
Quechup parent corp, I’m told: iDate Corporation 6767 West Tropicana Ave. Suite 207, Las Vegas, NV 89103 Las Vegas, NV 89103