Toughest Lesson Learned
By By David Volk November 24, 2010
There are just some things you shouldnt do in this life. As
Jim Croce put it, You dont tug on Supermans cape, you dont spit into the
wind, you dont pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and, apparently, you
dont send a deceptive e-mail to Anthony Michaels, as Classmates.com learned
earlier this year when it had to settle a class action suit for $3.5 million.
Michaels filed suit after he received an e-mail from
Classmates.com telling him that he had friends trying to get in touch with him
through the site and the only way to find out who was to upgrade to a Gold
membership and pay $15 for three months.
Like many people who fall for the spam scam, Michaels
quickly discovered that he was about as popular now as when he was in high
school and no one he knew was trying to reach him. (Apparently, theyre all on
Facebook instead, where joining is still free.)
So, he sued, won and got $2,500his share in the $3.5
million class action settlement that Classmates.com has to pay.