Interesting to read your post today, considering that I have just received spam here from a business that is fairly well known and not just the anonymous offshore hosted affiliate spam. It seems like those companies are starting to consider this acceptable. Where would I report a site that is being spammed on a regular wordpress blog?

Mike

Classmates.com is the same way. Maybe they are owned by the same folks. It's more than a little annoying. I don't even open the emails anymore because if I did, I'd be sent to a page where they want you to pay to find out who has been looking for you. Seriously, 5-10 people a week have NOT been looking for me, but if you believe the 'hype' of the emails, they are. Oy!

Thank you for mentioning this, Dave. Everytime I think that the badgering/pestering school of marketing is on the wane, something like this crops up in my life. What can you do? Opt out. Mark it as spam. Tell your friends. And never, never, never, never, never give them a penny.

I wish to state publically and for the record that David Taylor and I were not "partners in crime", at least not of the feloneous type (Dave will know what I mean).
I am flattered that he mentioned me by name in this august publication and look forward to making contact with him.
Alive and thriving in Tucson, Arizona.
Ivan Avetissian
Agoura HS `80
GO CHARGERS

I receive email at work from reunion.com that is addressed to my daughter. I have tried several times to unsubscribe and/or delte the contact information. Every link takes me back to the login page. How can I get rid of this spam?

Thanks for expressing exactly how frustrated I feell about Reunion. I actually gave these people money in a moment of weakness... hoping to find an old partner in crime.... ARG!!!!

Anyone know where Pete Hubbard from San Diego 1969 is ?

re: I have tried several times to unsubscribe and/or delte the contact information. Every link takes me back to the login page. How can I get rid of this spam?

Step 1 - login! (if you don't know your password, you the forgot password link - what a surprise)

Step 2 - My Account -> Subscriptions -> disable

..and I have to share the road with people like this.. its a scarry world.

Reunion.com just emailed me that 14 people were looking specifically for me by name. Unfortunately I bit and found that I didn't know any of the people that were listed as looking for me. What a scam! I recommend AGAINST this unscrupulous website. There are much better networking/people tools out there, like LinkedIn and Plaxo.

actually, I'm a member of reunion, and I don't find it any more over the top than all the myspace emails I get when someone has an event, requests to be friends, and so forth. It's not really that much of a hassle for me, and I enjoy the prospect of maybe an old friend is looking for me, and on a couple of occassions, it was an old friend. What a kick that was!!!

So, I guess I'm biased since I had a good experience.

Sorry for the repetitive posts, but I just read over some of the other comments. Especially from that guy that thought he got had by going to their site on the comment just above my earlier one. Now, I don't condone spam (I get more than 100 a day), but to say that you get scammed when you get an email that someone was looking for someone with your same name, and age, in the same state and you clicked on it, is a bit over the top. Come on, is your time that important that you feel so deceived when you click on an email like that? What happens when you watch TV and a commercial comes on when you didn't expect it, are you outraged? What about the radio? When you get junk mail, and you actually read it, are you scammed into reading it? Are you as outraged then? come on... take things into perspective a little bit.

This company is really deceptive. They send you an email telling you that people are searching for you. Then they make it sound like it will cost $2 per month to join....really it is $72, because they make you pay for 3 years worth of months upfront... and they don't do canceled accounts or refunds.

When you join, there is no one real looking for you. They don't base it on people in your class from a certain school, it is just who happened to type in your name...and they might have been looking for anyone with your name. 14 searches and not one of them was even from a state I had been to.

It was a trap and they purposely deceive you to get your money and then offer you nothing in return. STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM REUNION.COM...They are SPAMMERS and SCAMMERS!!!!!

Reunion.com is a major fraud site. They charged me $36 NINETEEN times through PayPal yesterday on an reunion account I canceled months ago. There's no way to get through on e-mail, no phone number available and since I used my debit card for the initial membership 18 months ago I now have to fight with my bank for the $600-plus refund. I'm reporting them to the state AG and FBI fraud units but don't have a lot of confidence they'll do anything.

reunion.com is a scam. they pulled $120. out of my account and will not refund it. i did get through to a phone number but the guy was very rude stating that they don't give refunds or cancellations and that i could do nothing about it and when i told him they were a scam he said "i better watch what im saying because i won't like what he can do" they need a federal investigation into thier business practices. i am turning them into my credit card company and going to fight it out to not pay them a dime!! big time scammers!

I just want to agree with what Jamie posted (2 posts behind me) Thats exactly what happend to me! I was recieving the same mail about 2wice a week from reunion.com stating that someone was searching for me. I couldnt get a name but they showed the location this person was from and these "searches" for me were all coming from that same location. I honestly thought that someone from my past was looking for me ALOT! So I paid the fee in order to find out who it was, and come to find out the person "searching" for me was someone I had never met in my life. Its funny, after they got me for my $$$ I never recieved another email from my "searcher"!! Yep, reunion.com is the biggest scam Ive seen legally!

OK, so what do we do about this? I just got scammed earlier today with a message 25 people were looking for me.

Is there any class action law suit we could join together to take these types of businesses down?

Come on there must be at least one law student that reads this. If not, perhaps you who are reading this know someone who can hurt these people financially. They have our information and who know who they are selling it to.

Perhaps we should all contact our legislators, our local or national news outlets?

The only way this sort of thing will stop is when these companies are exposed nationally and hurt financially.

It's our America and it's our money.

Maybe you Dave Taylor have some clout or idea of how to get the ball rolling?

I just got scammed the exact same way! Someone was supposedly looking for me, I signed up for what looked like month-by-month, and suddenly I was out $120. I sent a mail asking to be cancelled, and they did cancel and give my money back ... But 5 days later, they recharged me for the same $120. Their 800 number is fake ... the people there haven't even heard of reunion.com.

I called the bank to reverse the charge, filed a fraud complaint, and am changing my card so they can't recharge again.

I would be happy to join in a class action suit against them.

Is there anyway to get a refund from reunion when they fraudulently solicit users?

It's time for a class action, i just got scammed as well thinking my birth mother was looking for me. I'm fed up and this needs to stop.

To those who keep whining about deception on the grounds of $2/mo vs. $72/subscription - read the fine print before you pay for something, stop complaining for your own ignorance. $2/mo. wouldn't even cover the transaction costs, so of course they need to hook you for a year or more at a lump-sum rate, standard practice.

Re: "reunion.com is a scam. they pulled $120. out of my account and will not refund it." - talk about deception! this writer didn't mention that s/he willfully provided the account information - you signed up for it, stop pretending to surprised, and read before you commit to any agreement.

Hmmm - I DID read the fine print and they screwed me out of a year's membership anyway. SIX weeks prior to my subscription renewal (which in hindsight I shouldn't have done), I reset my account to NOT automatically renew. But they charged me $36 anyway. I immediately sent an email to dispute the charge (and two follow-ups) - no response. I have lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and contacted my bank. Next - the Attorney General.

Reunion.com engages in deceptive business practices and perpetrates fraud - plain and simple. It may not be a fortune, but I will be damned if I will sit idly by. Screwed and wasn't even kissed!

Amen Janna!!! The one contact that I made on reunion was not necessarily worth the $36 but I am a reasonable person and when i decided to pay the $36 I decided to take the "loss" if I had to on the first charge but automatic renewal, that's a croc(k)!!! And I agree $36 is not a lot but not when it's something that you don't want and they aren't even professional enough to admit that they are acting in an unreputable manner. THEY SUCK!!!!

I just signed up for classmates website because I received an email saying that someone was looking for me. When I emailed her back, AFTER I paid for the 3 month membership, I received a very generic email back. Generic enough that I was like, that's weird! She was looking for me but then blew me off??????? Personally, I am convinced that they send out generic emails to entice you. Anyway, I had signed up because I vaguely remembered her name, very familiar. Anyway, I had already been contacted twice before by people who also paid for the service and I was just thrilled to hear from them. Since I had twice had a positive experience, I didn't think $15 for three months wasn't too bad. The "fake" email that prompted it was a bummer. But I am hopeful that I will run into others that are real. I will not renew, but after this article and all of your thoughts and experiences, I will definitely keep an eye on my credit card bill. Like someone earlier stated, if you give your card info online, then you need to expect a certain percentage of bad experiences. I give my card info all the darn time. I order everything online from books to bras. I expect to get ripped off eventually. That's why I keep a very close eye on my statements. And I ask for a new debit card with a new number every six months. It's free and worth the hassle for the convenience of ordering online. I have been ripped twice. And both times I made the hugest stink that I was refunded immediately. The trick is to be smart and armed with knowledge when you approach it. Approach it with a firm attitude, not rude, and be calm. Freaking out and "bitching" turns anyone off. Especially people who already have your money. If your stupid and reactionary, well then....kiss your money goodbye.

Just my two cents.

Brandy

reunion.com..... what can I say besides BIG FRAUD!! $120 out of my account and for what???? I will be reporting as well.

I just paid $60.00 ($5.00 per month don't you know) to joing reunions.com. what a stupid thing to do! My daugther found my sister on myspace in 30 seconds and it didn't cost me a dime. Wow! I wish I would have known, it would have saved me money! Oh, well. Live and learn. And at least I found my sister after 20 years!

my hot mail account is only for activation and stuff.
use firefox and gmail and recieve 0% spam.

REUNION. com got me too. The 4 names I was curious to see are ficticious. Maybe this phishing expedition should be sent to the attorney generals offices of all states.

It's a well designed "money grab". FRAUD sounds good too.

JON GOULD
ITHACA. NY

a fool and his/her money are soon parted. I didnt go any further than the "free" membership, but Im sure my new email box is going to be littered with their spam. I know most all major credit card companies do reverse charges if you call and request it and they can determine it is a fraudulent charge.

I'm a sucker - fell for the bait. Very humbled by this too because I am an information security representative where I work and should be able to recognize the signs. It was PARTICULARLY upsetting however, when I perused resulting images for familiar faces of past friends, to encounter two obscene pictures. I had clicked on the Free Trial button. Reader beware! None of the 30 or so pictures contained people I knew....My Windows Messenger Buddy List addresses were targeted. So apology/ALERT emails are going out immediately to all of them to break the chain of deception initiated by this unwitting victim.

My first comment is DO NOT JOIN REUNION.COM

All you will get is spam mail. Furthermore, I tried to get a refund within 2 days and they refused! What a waste and such a poor site to make money off of harmless people.

I also in a moment of weakness decided to try someone I went to high school with and try to make a mends. They posted two debits to my checking account. one for 71 and one for 35. This made me furious since after all it said it did not take the card stated it in small red print. Then i put the next 35 thinking the first two did not work on my credit card and it took it. So now I am out 141.00. I will never be involved in something like this again. Classmates is bad enough but taking peoples money and never refunding it is just plain bad. My bank is on this with their lawyer. So hopefully I can recoup some of this lose.

I recently decided that I would give Reunion.com money to see all of the people that were looking for me. Once I made the payment and saw that over 100 people who I had no clue who they were, I decided to contact Reunion.com and ask for a refund. The customer service rep. told me that it was nonrefundable but would be refund me a portion and I only had to pay for a day. What a waste.

Whew! Thanks for the warning. I almost bit. Re union was offering free membership if you subscribed to a product by one of their advertisers. They had a product I was planning on ordering anyway, so I was going to do it. However, when I clicked on the more info button and read what was being offered, I realized it was no deal. After the inital promo, it was going to cost me almost $7/wk for the Sunday New York Times. No thanks. However, for looking into it, I am sure I will be deluged with spam-- in fact, it has already started-- e-mails thanking me for joining (which I didn't), and telling me to choose a product. I think I am safe since I didn't enter any credit card info.. Ditto the other folks here-- watch out!

Good article, Dave. I almost signed up for Reunion.com just a few minutes ago.

Just a note to all you good folks inspired by some of your stories. It's a good idea to call your bank and change your credit card account number at least once a year. Very easy to do and only leaves you without a card for a couple of days. Nobody can defraud you with the old number, and it doesn't affect your record as far the length of time you've had the account open. The only downside is that you will have to update your account number with any legitimate company that periodically bills you. They will usually bill you automatically, find that the charge doesn't go through on the old number, and contact you. Good way to find who has your credit card number anyway. Do it today, and keep the scammers out of your wallet!

I see that many of you have actually spoken with someone at Reunion.com. I have also had problems with them and can't seem to find a phone number to contact them. Would someone please share the # with me?

I want to unsubscribe now.

whoa! glad i accidentally found your site...my bd
is 11/11...around that time i got an e-mail saying
that someone was looking for me...i just knew it was the guy i had a huge crush on in 1970, his bd was 11/10...i was just about to bite, when i noticed that someone else was looking for me...it
was myself! 55 yr old female from the same town i was currently living in?!? i knew then that it was a scam... nobody in there right mind would
willingly move here to this one horse town...but
still it really hurt to have your feeligs uplifted
just to have your balloon popped!...thanks for all
rhe info...sorry for the ones that have lost money!

Reunion.com is a scam, so don't tell us we are ignorant.
What they DON'T tell you is that WE MUST DISABLE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL or we will be AUTOMATICALLY renewed--NO fine print says that arsehole.

Consumer Affairs, here I come.
They also don't know how to tell me how to read my emails in rich content--maybe because I don't have any when THEY email me saying I do.
They need to be put away for fraud, and felonies, they can go straight to hell, imho
THey soon will be in Consumer Affairs most wanted;) Just watch....

I don't think they have a number, unfortunately, they probaby operate in a garage in the boonies!

F'n bullshit...this company billed me $72 last December for something I never signed up for. They were very reluctant to refund the $72 and I was LUCKY enough to get $48 refunded to my bank account. Low and behold, here we are in December again and my bank account was debited $36 by reunion.com. What a scam!!! I called them again today and they wanted my credit card information. I refused and asked them to check under a last name. They saw the refund from last year and tried to tell me that the $36 being billed is not under that account. I told them that they needed to reverse the charge, but they continue to refuse until they get my credit card number. I told them that I canceled whatever account they had under my name and there should not have been any renewal, but they do not want to refund the $36.

Here is the phone number if anyone else who feels they have been scammed:

(888) 704-1900

Looks like I need to go to my bank and process this charge as a fraud (which it is).

Talked to them this morning. They are not removing my photo. And, she said they needed my password, before they could help me. Oh really? They have all the info they need on me. And my damn photo is still posted. I told her about the comments I have seen here, and it seems they do not care. The phone number is correct, and you do actually get to someone human, but the girl I first talked too sounded really dumb.
Just remember>>>>GO TO YOUR ACCOUNT AND DISABLE THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was a "free" member of Reunion for about NINE months and decided to go "Premium"...after a year, I decided the Premium benefits weren't worth the $36 so I didn't renew...AND, I un-checked the "automatic-renewal" on my account...end of story!!!

WOW...quit "whining" people!!!

What bothers me the most about reunion.com is that how they get away with having a "no refund policy" that should be illegal. Who knows if this company has some kind of political ties. This is why they get away with it. Or maybe some other unknown reason. No company who renders services should have a "no refund policy" a customer has the right to cancel. I took out a three year membership and decided to cancel. Why should I be charged now. I have no intention of using it. I filed a complaint. That should not even be in the contract. Eventually something has to give. If not the law, then they are gonna find themselves messing with the wrong mentally ill person one day. Everyone gets theirs and what comes around goes around. I am trying to find out online how long they have been in business and cannot find it. I don't know how this company has 30 million members. I have trouble believing that. even if none of us get our money back the best thing to do is put in complaints with the agencies so if someone calls before joining reunion.com they will see all the complaints and not join.

I have contacted the federal Government and they are very intersted in Mr Tinsley's website.!! It is just a matter of time before he is taken down.
I just feel that more people should fight for what they want, rather than bitch about it! on a website or post a comment!

can anybody tell me when the white pages started charging for info? Every name i have looked for directed me to a site that said i had to pay for the phone number. Where can i find a FREE out of state phone number? Or are there no such thing anymore?

Hi. I posted a note in here last week but I see it hasn't shown up. Is that because I didn't put in my e-mail address? I don't want my address published so I didn't put it in.

I agree with the fact that Reunion.com has been very misleading. They kept sending me e-mails after I posted my profile saying "Two people are searching for you!" and when I finally gave in and forked over the $36.00, there was only one person listed, not two, and with the same first initial and same last name as me. Was I perhaps searching for myself? Anyway, I called them to the mat on it, and wrote them and told them that their business practices were fraudulent, and then I demanded a full refund. As of yesterday afternoon, they sent me an e-mail stating that they would refund my payment in full, and delete my account. So at least they have said they will give me my money back. I'll find out tomorrow if they actually do or not.

PS Here is the full address and phone # of reunion.com:

Reunion.com
2118 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1008
Santa Monica, CA 90403
888-704-1900

If you haven't been promised your refund yet, I suggest you write AND call. That's what I had to do.

This reminds me of the early days of AOL when they had a near monopoly on internet service. They were in so tight with the banks that they could even get a charge against a closed account.

I see a lot of you are unhappy with this website's scams, no-refund policy and spamming.
The problem I had is completely different: I was told by a friend that I HAVE A PROFILE on that website.
And yes, there was my profile there that I have never created!!
First I thought they are affiliated with classmates.com, or they buy this stuff from classmates.com, but the data is different.
The current location was correct, also the name (rather rare for the state and town I reside in). My age was off by two years, my birthday was off several days, and on classmates.com
I never even entered my birthday.
I talked to three of my friends who do not have accounts with reunion.com
and ran a check on them - they all showed up in the search results,
with the lists of all the cities they ever lived in and with the lists of their relatives.
You can not see their phones and addresses unless you subscribe, but you can if you do.
I learned a lot of second names of the people I know for years but never cared to ask.
Moreover, accounts for two of my friends had photos (one photo each)!!
Does anyone know how in the world reunion.com puts all this stuff together?
As of me, besides the cities where I actually resided, there was a place listed where I stayed overnight several times
but never was a resident of. Very, very impressive.
Also: looks like they pull the data out of peoplefinders.com. Maybe they are just a front-end interface for peopelfinders
and there's no reunion.com really? But peoplefinders.com are registered in Canada...

Another item that impressed me: when I ran a check on my boss' name,
in the list of the relatives there was a name of a trust fund he apparently established.
I am really curious if all this is legal. One post before mentioned that contacting government
agencies is a good idea - what agency should I contact? BBB does not deal with this.
And if there is a class action law suite already, please let me now.

Hello Dave, I have been searching for someone since the early 90's and a neighbor of mine ended up putting me on reunion .com and botching the whole thing up so that reunion.com has the other party looking for me instead of the other way around. Yherefore, when I get on reunion.com, I am the other party instead of the one looking for the other party. I think reunion.com is a scam and I believe they want money membership. I want nothing to do with reunion.com It's better to get some radio D.Jay to announce over the air for who your'e searching for than some stupid reunion.com Now , how lame a name is that? Sincerely, Samantha Krista

I fell for that Reunion.Com also. There is no fine print. They just make it sound good. I could kick myself for even signing up. It looks good to who reads it, but WATCH OUT. They'll take the money out of your account and you can fight it, but it won't do you any good. These people should have charges brought against them for "fraud on the internet". They are good at catching pedifiles, someone should check into this and bring up charges for all the people they have scammed.

Cindy Karsti, Youngstown, OH

I want out of Reunion.com too, for some very good reasons. Can someone please help me??

I happen to know for a fact that some of the "nice" kids from my high school are now drug users. We also unfortunately have a high percentage of alcoholics who graduated from my school. What is Reunion.com doing to protect me from them?

I've come here now and then to see if there are any new messages. I'm still wondering what Pam meant above about Reunion.com "protecting" us from drug users and alcoholics. No disrespet to Pam when I say this, and maybe I am misunderstanding her point, but isn't it up to each of us to make our own decisions concerning drug and alcohol usage and even if we are friends with those who do, that doesn't mean we are going to start using those things?

they just weny away,i payed for my does.and went to sign on and not ava came up.what do and who do we see tell call,e-mail.i would like some answers.

i have a gold membership with classmates.com and i have had nothing but positive experiences. i have found old friends again and keep in touch. i have been pestered for months about how 8 people on reunion.com are looking for me,over and over. well, i bit that hook like a starving fish. so curious to find out who's looking for me because i was looking for a couple of people and thought-why not?. i read the agreement and checked out the pay methods,read carefully. the agreement and sign-up page tell you that you can make monthly payments or pay a year's subscription. i made sure that was clear because i didn't have the money for a year. well, i put in my info and hit enter and it tells me they just took out $60!!man, i wanted to rip someone's head off! i guess i learned that the statement " you get what you pay for" is completely wrong. i paid a few bucks and got a great deal, now i paid a lot of money and got nothing. their customer service reps are very rude too. i did not see a single soul on reunion.com that i knew, now or then. now, i have no way to get my money back and i am screwed-no grease either!. they claim it is crystal clear, but i beg to differ. i think websites like theirs should be thoroughly investigated and be made to change their agreement. but, i guess crooks aren't going to do that. it seems to be working for them. i'll be sure to put them on the list with the european lottery scams(no,i didn't fall for that one)lol. i guess that's all i can do now is laugh, because no one's gonna do anything about these kind of scams. i am so angry that i couldn't even say what i would like to do to them because it would send me to prison. i just hope they get what's coming to them eventually. to be shut down would be so sweet!they are useless.

I, like a previous poster (Alex...I believe), apparently have a profile on reunion.com without ever registering or entering any info. I had never even heard of their site until I googled my cousin's name to see if his obit was online yet (he had passed away recently), and up pops my name with a link to my profile full of accurate info. Where the hell do they get this stuff??? And how do they think they have the right to do this??? I wanted to get my info removed so the first thing I did was check the FAQ where they list that you have to supply your SS# to have yourself removed. WHAT??? Get real!

I just discovered the same problem as the person above ... reunion.com has a profile for me that appeared within the past two weeks and which I never set up. I tried to 'log on' and they said I had 'registered' under a different email. I had never even heard of this site, and they have extensive information like the other person described -- including my correct age, which I have never posted online. I hope regulators crack down on these people.

Reunion.com just totally pissed me off.
I signed up for a free account and my gmail
account was open in another window. I missed
the small print "skip this step" in the far
upper right hand corner and hit continue.
They sent spam email to EVERYONE in my gmail
address book! I called their customer support
to complain and they said I must have given
them permission by typing in my gmail password.
I did not, but gmail was open. They did not seem
to care, I closed my account, I will never ever
deal with them again. So if you have gmail (or
yahoo or any other popular free email account)
open and don't specifically opt out they will
spam your entire address book. It seems they
are trying to fool or trick people into allowing
them to send spam in their name.

I agree with everyone about how Reunion.com and Classmates.com lures people in with the idea of paying a couple of bucks a month only to learn that they're going to end up paying a lot more. And that it's non-refundable whether you use the site or not.

This is exactly why www.RememberHighSchool.com was built. I based it off another alumni site I built for my own high school called www.Quivierian.com. The Quiverian site has been running for almost three years now and has over 3,100 legitimate alumni registered. It was built out of my own frustration with paying just to email a classmate. The alumni love the site. I get emails all of the time telling me how someone has reconnected with an old friend.

It was this good feeling that I got from helping them connect that I decided to use it as the foundation for RememberHighSchool.com. I wanted alumni from all high schools to get the same benefits as my high school did.

You're probably thinking this is a sales pitch and that there's a catch. I don't blame you. Classmates.com and Reunion.com have done a really good job of jading people.

There is no catch. There is no "Going Gold" or any other subscription. It's 100% FREE. You can email alumni directly or send them a private message. Post pictures, post messages, announcements, share your own web links, and on and on. No cost at all.

Even though it's only been running since November we already have alumni from 520 schools on the site.

So I simply invite you to come check out the site - www.RememberHighSchool.com. Leave your debit card in your wallet because you're not going to ever need it.

Check it out, register and tell your family and friends and feel free to email me if you have any questions about the site. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions.

Thanks, Dwen

3rd time they have found my ex-I was divorced 24 years when she passed away- I know very well where we buried her and don't need any help from them. also they said my uncle was trying to e-mail me -WOW - he died in 1962- thats real powerful connections

My daughter was looking for someone else and these people sent me a email stating that she was looking for me... This is my daughter. come on now.. she knows where I am at. I called her and she said what happened. I found this site and was about to send it to her and noticed that I would not be sending it to her email but to reunion.com. I knew nothing about these people but I would NEVER give them ANY business seeing that they contacted me and LIED about someone trying to reach me.. This should be ILLEGAL! They are SCUM!!

I signed up for the free Reunion.com and next thing I know they linked into my address book of 1600 people and sent an email to every single one of them saying I wanted to get together with them.

I'm ready to take them to court on this one. What a bunch of losers.

I just did a search on my name, and found my name, age, birthdate, and place of residence listed on one of the links to reunion.com!! It says I've been a member since Nov 2003, but I never registered with them!!
I couldn't find any way to request removal. But I plan on wearing out that phone number requesting them to remove my information. It might be a good idea for all of you who are having problems to just keep calling them until you receive satisfaction.

I read through this entire blog attempting to find someone that had the same thing happen to them as my wife experienced. C.K. and bob seemed to have experienced this. My wife had clicked an email from a friend asking her to join Reunion.com (which was probably spammed). She was using gmail and claims that all she did was open the email and then close it. Apparently it grabbed all of her contacts and sent them emails requesting them to join Reunion.com in her name. One of those people was my grandmother. Since we had no idea that my wife had "sent" all of these emails to people, we did not send out any warning emails telling people not to follow the link (or even click on the email). My grandmother ended up opening the email (and perhaps created an account) and all of her AOL contacts were spammed with requests to join Reunion.com in her name. Needless to say she was pretty pissed and now she has to send out apology/warning emails to everyone who was spammed. This must be illegal or at the least, unethical and warranting a report to the BBB. Did the two of you take any steps to report this and/or are you looking for more support? Let me know.

For what ever it's worth I feel the people who set up the site reunion.com are a little more then deseatful in the way the thing is laid out

Does anyone know of a way to stop them from spamming people they got from an address book? A friend is having e-mail sent to people from her AOL address book repeatedly saying she wants them to join reunion.com when she never joined herself nor did she give any e-mail addresses. She wants to get this stopped.

Unfortunately, I also signed up for an account. I did see and click on the "skip this section" button to see what would happen (instead of entering my password), and so far have not had any spam emails sent to my contacts to join. I did also have my gmail account open in another window since that is where I opened the invitation email in the first place.

Since I was wary about giving my email password to them, I did a Google search about it first, and found this website, among others, detailing the dangers of reunion.com. I have sympathy for those that got sucked in, since I (partially) did also. Deciding that I no longer wanted a reunion.com account, I tried to immediately disable my account by clicking on "My account" (see previous post with further instructions), and before I could continue, it asked me to validate my email address. I DID NOT validate it, hoping that that will somehow not "completely" activate it - we'll see.
I also received a welcome email from them that also said "click on any link in this email to validate your email address." I believe they require you to verify your email to prevent someone else from trying to create an account using your email address. Additionally, on the web page that asked me to validate my email address, you can choose to change your email address, which I proceeded to do so and change it to the email address that I use for entering contests, etc. where I expect to just get spam mail (just in case that helps somehow). Then, as expected, I received an email at that new address that again asked me to verify my address, which I didn't do of course. Near the bottom, it says "(If you did not create an account at Reunion.com, please disregard this email)." So hopefully, if anything, I will just get some spam mail from them. Perhaps I will now get spam to both email accounts, but at least now I know to just ignore them.

At the bottom of the original email that asked me to join, there is a link that allows you to "opt out," to stop receiving follow-up invitations. I clicked on that, and hopefully that will help too. On the other hand, I know that sometimes clicking on those links in spam emails just prove to them that your account is active and they will just continue to spam you rather than stop.

By the way, remember next time, if you see something that you are unsure of, anything at all, online or not, do a quick Google search on it BEFORE you proceed. If there are others who are in your same situation, you will most likely find them. There is SO MUCH information on the internet these days. Of course, that's obvious if you've found this page, and I should have remembered my own advice! I often use the word "scam," "awful," etc. with the search too. That has saved me a few times. Use it before you think of buying an infomercial product or any other product, or before you forward on one of those "SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW" emails (better yet, go to Snopes.com for the latter). And don't believe the first website you see either, you may have to filter through a few of them to end up finding out that something really is a scam. Hope this helps for the future!

Thank for the real deal on this website. I am no web newbie, yet I would hate to ignore an old friend that is looking for me. I guess that is the social engineering part of their pitch... deleted!

OMG!! I was just about to pay $15.00 to upgrade to Classmates.com to see who was looking for me. This was for a three month period at $5.00 per month with an automatic renewal when the 5 month were up. Supposedly, a total of 21 people were searching for me within less than a week but I have to pay to see who they are. Also they have bulletin board postings which are suppose to be free but if you put your email address or telephone number they delete it from the post. I did several bulletin board posts to old class mates and it turned out that some went through for free and some they said I or the classmate I was trying to contact had to become "Gold Card Members" (paying members) in order for the recipient to be able to read the message. They also have a discussion board which is free but if you post your email or phone number it is deleted there as well. All emails you send out cannot be read unless you are a paying member. I am soooooooooo glad I came across this site with all the feedback cause I was just about to waste $15.00 and possibly more than that. The only thing that was okay with the site was being able to post photos that my friends can see without paying through the teeth. I wonder how long that will last before they require payment for the photos.

Hi!

I almost did the same thing myself. However I was not willing to give unknown people any of my card information, trusting soul that I am. Instead, at classmates.com,I signed up for thier 3 month "Trial" account. However, I used as a payment source one of those prepaid visa cards from the local supermarket. They took out their initial 15 dollars for 3 months. I then gave the rest of the card to my sister-in-law to spend on groceries. I got to see who had looked me up No fuss, no muss, no account to keep pulling from.

Thanks Everybody !
I was just getting ready to apply for a job @ Reunion. After reading this thread, NO WAY !

Oh, to the site host and his P.I.C. Ivan : did you guys know Rich Weir, or Bruce Levitt, or Dave Devine? (old roommates of mine)

I checked out Reunion.com over a year ago, and I think I gave them some basic information (God only knows what they've done with it), and they usually send me at least one email a week telling me someone is looking for me. I never read them, but just hit delete. Today their email said two people were looking for me, and I could "click" to find out who they were. I bit on the click, and it took me to a subscription form. I clicked "cancel" and a box pops saying, "are you sure? You can get it FREE if you try or buy ONE product from our list." I'd recently heard some bad news about them, and was somewhat leary of this "great offer". So I stopped and googled your site. I'm glad I did! I agree that a class action lawsuit is in order to stop these vile parasites.

Another good idea is to write/email/call major television networks. I am sure John Stossel could spend at least 15 minutes on the subject during "Give Me A Break!" The other networks would be worth a try as well. It would really get it out to the general public, and perhaps get some serious attention.

Some time back, I received a notice in the mail that I had won a MAJOR amount of money, and had to SEND money to get it. It stank. I made a lot of phone calls, and was finally put in touch with, believe it or not, the U.S. Secret Service! It seems they have a special department set up to investigate these scams.

It might be a good idea to check with them (as I intend to) and see if this particular type of scam is covered by their office (they may only deal with mail fraud). If not, I'm sure they could direct you to the appropriate person(s) or department. I live in Virginia, and contacted the office here about the prize scam. I was told to mail them all the notices I had received (about 3), along with any other information I had about it, which I did.

So, why not give it a shot? Can't hurt, might even help resolve this mess. The Virginia office is:

U.S. Secret Service
Washington Field Office
Criminal Division
Communications Center
P.O. Box 6500
Springfield, VA 22150
202-406-8000 OR
202-406-5000 (Financial Division main#)
(These are D.C. phone #s.)

(There may be Secret Service offices throughout the country, I don't know.)

I hope this information is of some help to all of you who have been so angered and frustrated by Reunion.com. LET'S GET 'EM!!!!!!!!!

(PLEASE DON'T PRINT MY EMAIL ADDRESS. I ONLY GAVE IT BECAUSE YOUR FORM HAS A "REQUIRED" FIELD. TX)

One thing this post alludes to, but doesn't delve into fully, is how the "someone is looking for you" message can affect someone in a vulnerable state. A friend of mine, looking for her birth mother, found the woman on Classmates.com and sent her an email. Once she started getting the Classmates.com emails with subject lines suggesting the hunt was mutual, she was falsely hopeful. It is CRUEL to do this and assume we're all savvy enough to know it's an exagerration.

Sadly reunion.com is a Google sponsored website.
Most of these posts are about phony memberships.
They're also into phony virus software. When I
went to reunion.com, I got a popup telling me I had a virus. Of course they had a product available to get rid of it.
I hit cntl-alt-delete, exited everything and ran
my virus software but messages like these are scary and expensive for novices.
How do we get rid of these guys?

OK!!!!! I am a man of action. If Reunion.com will not make themselves available to us the we'll go through their neighbors. Here is a list of companies that share the building with them.....
Drake Capital Mortgage
2118 Wilshire Blvd, Ste 974
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 828-0503,

Harvest Home Inc
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 452-1223,

Inc Vocalocity
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 526-8896,

Ita Productions
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 281-7772,

NU Image Inc
2118 Wilshire Blvd,
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 887-6365

Post Tel Business Center
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 828-8645,

Project Human Rights
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 281-7825,

Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 452-2450,

Vocalocity Inc
2118 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 526-8894,

O'brien & Company
2118 Wilshire Blvd 692
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 313-7285,

What I am going to do is get the fax number for all of these companies and send them printouts of all the comments from here and other similar sites where there is hatred for these fraud mongers!!! I suggest everyone join me in this campaign. Write on the cover sheet "Beware! There fraudulent company running from this address. Do not do business with them! Seek their eviction!" Or something like that. This will indeed make things uncomfortable for these theives! ;-) Not just there neighbors, but what do you think Mr. landlord will think when he finds out he has criminals in his building?!?! Vengeneance is sweet! Everybody JOIN ME!!!!!!

Jimmy

Happy to have found this page! These stories have been very enlightening. I got one of those 'someone looking for you' messages that I clicked on. Then it told me that I had a downloader that was trying to put porn on my computer. Luckily the IT guy at work had warned us about it, so I didn't bite.

Then I got another message this week to another email account with a person's name that was trying to find me. I have already been communicating with her, and became suspicious.

Now I'm off to warn my classmates about it (I'm one of our reunion committee people, and I keep the database). Thanks for sharing!

Hey Mike. I wish I had seen your blog before now. My address book was snarfed today before I knew what was happening--as part of a reunion committee who had delegated the task of compiling classmates.

Please let your readers know they can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Mine was filed this am at 12:15 EST, as well as the Southland BBB. I am going to find every blog I can in the next 6 months and report them on it, to get search engines to register the complaints at the top of the search return. For more information, please review the wiki on this company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion.com

This is an obstruction of privacy and this company needs to be held accountable to the general public.

I to have had reunion.com e-mail me several times. I was looking for a lost love and decided what the heck. So I signed up and they took the money from my account. Then when I went to log in it said that I need to pay for a subscription. Funny the money was already taken out of my account(Two days prior)!! These people need to be STOPPED!!! Several people have mentioned a class action suit well I'm all for it. By the way thanks for all of the addresses I will be using them.