Yaari.com - If nothing works, SPAM your way to social networking stardom
By Vivek | July 30th, 2007 at 11:06 am ET
In the world of social networking there are couple of ways to grow fast. Either get a team of really bright people to build the initial platform and than deliver the API juggernaut n-enjoy, OR simply spam your way to victory. Ofcourse with the former route startups have the real user numbers to speak about, while in the latter startups get thousands of users up their ass for spamming their mailboxes. Since delivering THE real platform is easier said than done, more and more startups are looking to take the easier route. Newest to join the ranks is India focused social networking site - Yaari.com (Yaari = Friendship)
The spamming issue originating from Yaari was first reported to me by one of my readers, before I digged in myself. Basically all that familiar thing happened - the user started getting bombarded with Yaari invites. Little bit of digging revealed that Yaari recently started asking it’s users for their Gmail/Yahoo password with no clear reason. And all this happens at the sweet spot - while a user is through the registration process. Yaari’s registration workflow doesn’t let a new user proceed without giving out their gmail/yahoo password, if that is the email being used to register. And if you are not paying attention, in few seconds, Yaari goes out and spams your whole contact list.
If you are one of those you keep getting spammed and were thinking of going to Yaari’s blog to express yourself to the fullest, don’t even bother. It is long gone now.
on July 30th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
The question I’d like to ask - is it worth it? Do these invites actually increase the number of registered users?
I believe Tagged was also accused of this.
on July 30th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
It isn’t worth it. I’m a Digital Media banker based out of New York. Surprisingly companies tend to pull these stunts to increase valuation through a spike in Nielsen/Comscore thanks to pissed off phantom users. In the long run not only does it hurt their user base but it also kills their valuation.
Tagged also has been known to do this as was Invenster ->Xuqa-> Peanut Labs. They (then Iventster) used a Facebook script to spam a users contacts. Word has it that Facebook forced them to pull it down and then converted user email addresses to images. Yes their user numbers spiked, they were written about in various blogs and then had some strategic partnership with Myspace (I think), none the less in the long run they are still known as spammers, their valuation as their new name suggests is worth “peanuts” and worst of all they blemish the rising image of SE Asian start-ups.
Sad.
on August 6th, 2007 at 12:25 am
I blogged about this a few days ago. A lot of people have begun to take notice of this, but somehow I still get at least one or two Yaari invites in my mail box every day.
How can we stop this?
Besides adding a filter to report “is your Yaar!” as spam, that is!
on August 7th, 2007 at 11:26 am
I just went though this myself. It’s really rotten what they’re doing. I received what I thought was a legitimate invite from someone and decided to register, thinking, what the heck, why not?
What threw me off is that it didn’t happen immediately. It took a few days for the spamming to start. And I wouldn’t have known except Yaari.com sent invites to mailing lists that I was on, and I got the invites myself. What’s worse is it sent invites to important work contacts, college professors, and all the random people I had in my inbox.
I sent an email to their abuse line, abuse@yaari.com, telling them that what they did was incredibly messed up and bad business practice. This is the email I received in response:
I appreciate you contacting us regarding this matter. Please be advised that Yaari is opposed to spam and does not condone any spam-related activities. We will never email your contacts without your consent, nor will we ever store your email password. As per our terms of service, when you register for Yaari, we send a referral email to the contacts listed on your referral page. Please refer to our user policy for further information: http://yaari.com/policy.php.
Warm Regards,
Prerna Gupta
Luckily I hope no major damage is done. But it still pisses me off to no end.
on August 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
Just wanted to send an update. I received an email saying someone else has requested my friendship on yaari.com. It’s a different email than before, without all the HTML graphics. It’s a simple text email saying:
Hi
********** has sent you a friendship request on Yaari.
To accept or reject this invitation go to yaari.com
Thanks.
Yaari
I called my friend and left her a message to let her know…
on August 28th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
so this happened to me to. I got the invite to join yaari from a friend of mine who is indian, so i thought it was legit. I signed up and yesterday it sent the invitation out to my entire address book. (even though I signed up 3 weeks ago.) My question is how do I stop yaari from doing it again or is it a one time thing. I changed the password to my email account but is this enough?
on October 1st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
How about taking it up with Better Business Bureau or filing a bad business practices/privacy invasion lawsuit..
Can very well be done
Jay
www.eyaari.com
on October 18th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Her name is Prerna Gupta and she’s in Atlanta, GA. She graduated from Stanford 2004. I facebooked her and told her that she’s a jerk and should think twice before pulling a stunt like that. Her email is also Prerna@yaari.com
Enjoy!
on October 21st, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I received an invite from an Indian friend and thought it was legitimate. So I ended up making the mistake of signing up. I have reported this scam to gmail, yahoo and hotmail. The objective was to get their attention and stop them from sharing address books to any request from rogue sites like this. I will appreciate if all of you guys who got scammed by yaari lodge a complaint with their e-mail provider ?
I have also reported this at ftc.gov
on October 22nd, 2007 at 6:03 am
I am also burnt by this! All my work contacts/aliases are spammed by these Yaari.com folks! Worse, if you notice, they make you signup/register on HTTP (un-secured) and if you ask for forgotten password, they will send you in plain text!
These are bunch of jokers trying pull out this stunt. I already reported to ftc.gov and will d oso to better business bureau.
on October 29th, 2007 at 5:07 am
What kind of moron gives out their e-mail password to a random web site?? If they’re spamming your address book, it’s YOUR FAULT for giving them access. Think -BEFORE- you type, people!!!
on October 30th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
One suggestion I have for stopping this spam is to go to your email account and change your password. That is what I have done, under the assumption that Yaari.com stores your email ID and password. Just did it an hour ago so it is too early to say if this does the trick.
My logic is that if they are storing the ID and password, then there will be a problem if their system tries logging in. And if the spam continues, then there must be spyware from them sitting on my computer.
on October 31st, 2007 at 3:32 am
Ravi,
I think they grab your contact list as soon as you enter you email/password. Yeah you can stop recursive scans, but most of your contact list is already exposed.
on October 31st, 2007 at 5:48 am
I assumed they would be storing the password when it is entered because that would explain why they are sending out mails a few days after one registers. But, if they are downloading the contact list right at the beginning, then there is no point in changing the password, though it might still ward off future access attempts.
In addition to changing my password, I also sent out an email to everyone in my inbox / contact list informing them that such mails for Yaari.com are not sent with my explicit permission nor on my request, and requesting them to ignore and delete the invitations.
on November 6th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Hi,
Yet another update.
I sent an email to abuse@yaari.com and prerna@yaari.com and requested them to take my name of their mailing lists, delete all my contact data from their systems and confirm. They have done so. Besides this, I have also deactivated my account on Yaari.com.
Hopefully this will be the end of it!
on November 8th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I am sure you have all heard of McAfee SiteAdvisor (siteadvisor.com). They rate websites on a number of parameters including user feedback. I recently posted my grouse about Yaari.com on their website. If you feel as strongly about their methods as I do, you could do the same as well.
on December 6th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
4 the past 48 hrs i still continue 2 hav probs with yaari
il b in the middle of returning a message on yaari an yarri simpl quites workin so i try 2 log bac on an it doesnt ewspond
wats up with this stupid site an why am i being inturpted every time im on yaari
its not even worth it if i get cut off from any2 chatt with me
on January 20th, 2008 at 10:12 am
hi
howa life
on January 25th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Thanks for posting about this crappy spamming site!
I found you via gogle after I got 5 emails from a supposed ‘friend’ from this dumb site. It turns out to be someone who mailed me ONCE (as gmail adds everyone to your contact list that you email!) and so they had started spamming me after getting the guys gmail password.
I hope they rot in hell. I also hope their website sinks without a trace.
THANKS FOR THE GREAT INFORMATION GIVEN HERE!
on January 28th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Yaari has embarrassed me to no end by requesting all names in my addressbook to join my network - without my permission!! These losers will hide behind legalese to protect themselves. If I meet any person who’s worked for the company, he/she’s going to get it from me.
Angry As Anything
on February 6th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
These guys are the most filthy unethical characters one can see. They have raided my yahoo mail and send out these arbid mails to all my customers. I was unfortunate as I also use yahoo for my business e-mail. This is a nightmare. Dont these guys understand how much of an embarrasment they are creating to the Indian community. Shame on them for having created such a ugly scam. For a person from Stanford, Prerna Gupta’s ethics suck. I hope she understands what a disrepute she is creating for the entire Indian tech community by creating such a sham site and stops this Yaari crap right away
on February 17th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I also thought it was long gone, but today I received another bloody yaari spam letter !!!
on May 17th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Regarding your stated two methods I think there are actually a few more methods. the most prominent of which being billboard your way to stardom.
Sadly however the ethical methods seem to be among the slowest paths to stardom.
In any case my personal opinion is that the underlying fundamental principles of the internet are based on ethics and morals. After all it’s roots stem from academia. Violating these unwritten laws might provide short term benefits. However in the long term these violations carry with them very heavy penalties. In any case as hard as it may be I prefer to walk the path less traveled.
Everything reflected in this comment, explicitly or implied is my PERSONAL opinion, and may be right or wrong.
on June 9th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Hi, I registered several months ago, and forgot all about it, then over the weekend they spammed everybody in my address book.
I’ve spent ages sending out apology emails
I’ve also emailed the owner and anybody else I can think of.
this is soo bad and immoral, I hope they rot in hell
on June 9th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hi the Federal Trade Commission has an email address where you can complain about this on.
About Spam & Phishing
* Email: spam@uce.gov
Forward unsolicited commercial email (spam), including phishing messages, directly to the FTC at spam@uce.gov. These messages will be stored in a database law enforcement agencies use in their investigations.
on July 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am
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
on July 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I was also taken. I signed up many months ago just to view photos from a friend and forgot all about it. My mails went out to everyone in my address book last night.
Is this not a form of privacy terrorism?
Dirty sl*t is from India, went to the University in the States and turns into the dirtiest invasive spammers. LOSER!
I hope I see the dark haired, head jiggling runt one day…Go rot in hell.
Anyone in Georgia reading this?
on August 11th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Hello All,
I am shocked to see this abuse/spam has happened an year ago and Yaari.com folks have not done anything.
I didn’t know about Yaari until couple of days ago.
A friend of mine sent an email. I looked at it. THought I will sign-up as we would do when a trusted friend recommends something.
The site asked for gmail account to sign-in (it promised that my email id/passwd will not be stored).
The moment my contacts list is brought up, I declined to invite anyone. But now I see so many spam emails to myself (in other email accounts) coming.
I was so P*SSED and FRUSTRATED. I checked in the web and stumbled upon this posting.
I am going to write to write to the CEO and see if it can be stopped.