Your classmates aren’t looking for you

Classmates.com told Anthony Michaels that former classmates were looking for him. If only he would upgrade to a premium membership, they would put him in touch with his school buddies. So Michaels paid the money. Then he discovered that no one was looking for him. Now he's brought a class-action suit against classmates.com for deceptive advertising.

There's a fine line in advertising between what's legal and what's not. "Puffery," which is defined as making exaggerated claims that the average consumer would never take literally, is legal. Example: "You'll love it!" However, making specific, factually misleading claims is illegal. For instance, you can't claim that a product regrows hair if it doesn't.

Classmates.com seems to be on the illegal side of that line, so I predict they'll end up paying out money in this suit.

Advertising Law/Police/Crime

Posted on Thu Nov 13, 2008


Comments

I got a similar notice from classmates.com. The reason I knew it was fake/spam? I was homeschooled and didn't HAVE any classmates in the usual sense. Oops.
Posted by Seamyst  on  Thu Nov 13, 2008  at  08:46 AM
I've seen these too, and they have to be over the line. They make it look like someone has entered a search for your name. (I've never fallen for it.)
Posted by JoeDaJuggler  on  Thu Nov 13, 2008  at  09:42 AM
About ****ing time. I have gotten increasingly sick of them.

They're really the bottom of the barrel as far as internet advertisers go. Unlike the 'click the monkey to win a million dollars, a PS3, and become the messiah', or the flashing 'virus alert' ones, these guys have the wantons to hide behind the veneer of being a respectable, legitimate company, while at the same time doing *exactly* what the other click-farmers are doing..

May they burn in the fires of sweet justice.
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Thu Nov 13, 2008  at  01:50 PM
Do me a favor, will you? If any old classmates of mine come looking for me, please don't tell them how to find me. They're probably up to no good (just as in the old days).
Posted by Big Gary  on  Thu Nov 13, 2008  at  05:15 PM
Big Gary, it's worse than that!
I've actually had old classmates look me up. And always, they're no longer the rowdy party animals of old.

Now they always have something to try to sell me!
Insurance, condos, memberships in clubs...

I'd rather have the drunken and/or stoner types from my well misspent youth, not these Stepford clone yuppies!

So since the last time I moved, I just ignore any correspondence from that ol' gang of mine.
Posted by Captain DaFt  on  Thu Nov 13, 2008  at  09:12 PM
hmmm well if the email he is referring to in the lawsuit is similar to the ones along the same line I have got from classmates.com and reunion.com . They are very careful to say someone has searched your NAME not specifically for you but for someone with your name. On the other hand I have had classmates.com tell me there are emails in my mail box on their site from old classmates and that if I pay i can receive and reply to them, but when i checked the email box there was nothing there. (i didnt pay you can full up your mailbox for free just cant open any emails in it if their are some there)
Posted by Tim  on  Thu Nov 13, 2008  at  10:03 PM
If nothing else, classmates.com is amazingly persistent. I went there once about two years ago and to this day, I get at least one email from them per week, claiming that a classmate of mine has posted a note to my mailbox, searched for my profile, etc.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Fri Nov 14, 2008  at  02:43 AM
"If nothing else, classmates.com is amazingly persistent. I went there once about two years ago and to this day, I get at least one email from them per week, claiming that a classmate of mine has posted a note to my mailbox, searched for my profile, etc."
Posted by Cranky Media Guy on Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 01:43 AM

Online dating sites use the SAME tactic's to get you to join or upgrade a membership... "Find out who has a crush on you", "You have a secret admirer", "You have 5 NEW friend requests", Blah, blah, blah...
Posted by Christopher  on  Fri Nov 14, 2008  at  04:05 AM
Heh except on the dating sites you actually do have new messages, friend requests, etc. they just dont tell you that they are from employees of the dating site lol
Posted by Tim  on  Fri Nov 14, 2008  at  12:30 PM
I hope Anthony Michaels takes them to the cleaners! But shame on him for believing it. Classmates is annoying.
Posted by Charles  on  Fri Nov 14, 2008  at  12:47 PM
The thing is if they weren't speaking to Anthony Michaels directly then he is responsible for interpreting the message. If they say "Your classmates are looking for you" Who is "you"? Could be anyone and not Anthony. If someone yells in the street "Hey you stop!" Who are they talking to? There needs to be more details here to really judge this case. I
Posted by Franklin  on  Sat Nov 15, 2008  at  07:11 AM
The thing is if they weren't speaking to Anthony Michaels directly then he is responsible for interpreting the message. If they say "Your classmates are looking for you" Who is "you"? Could be anyone and not Anthony. If someone yells in the street "Hey you stop!" Who are they talking to? There needs to be more details here to really judge this case.


If they send stuff to your email,it IS addressed directly at you. Hope he takes them to the cleaners.
Posted by Tobester  on  Tue Nov 18, 2008  at  07:26 PM
I even emailed them, "go to hell."

-_-

And then they spammed me EVEN MORE!
Posted by ClassmateHater  on  Wed Feb 04, 2009  at  09:11 PM
The Quoting: "I predict they'll end up paying out money in this suit."

Hardly. Most likely the court will be tightened for long time. The defeated party will appeal etc. Not the first similar case.
Posted by trumbullcity  on  Wed Sep 09, 2009  at  06:39 AM
Fast forward 2012, the website ended up losing the suit and had to pay a few millions in reparations. That left every participant with approximately 5$ - they'd have made more money going to work that day.
Posted by D.  on  Fri May 24, 2013  at  02:12 AM
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