Why Yaari Is Not A Good Friend: Serves Spam For Guests

Amit Chowdhry | Monday August 6, 2007 | 7,484 views


Yaari LogoI’d never want to join any kind of social network that forcefully sends email invitations to everyone in my contacts list.  For example, in my personal GMail account, I have tons of confidential contacts such as former managers, corporate HR representatives, university professors, and many others.

Just imagine if they received an e-mail from me asking them to join Yaari.  My credibility would fall faster than Who’s Your Caddy’s ratings.  I believe that this marketing method is simply unethical and I’d strongly encourage people to reconsider joining this website.  I found this out by reading an article on StartupSquad[1].

“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,” wrote Vivek Puri, founder of StartupSquad.

If I was Yaari.com, I would strongly reconsider their marketing method if they desire to gain any kind of positive press.  For this article, I refuse to even link to them to make a statement.  If the social network is actually good, it should speak for itself by having a high number of users (and not forcing anyone to join).

[1] StartupSquad: Yaari.com – If nothing works, SPAM your way to social networking stardom

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Comments

  1. Anonymous

    what have social networks become. hacking into email accounts is ridiculous.

  2. AB

    This type of scam on unsuspecting people is absolutely absurd and must be stopped.

    All those who got scammed by these guys please send a complaint to google, yahoo and hotmail asking them to stop sharing address books with yaari.com

    I have also reported this to ftc.gov

  3. Ronald Wopereis

    http://www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldwopereis

  4. Ronald Wopereis

    hi there,
    same happened to me
    joined Yaari
    6,000+ email addresses from my gmail contact persons
    including three invitations to myself ( i own about 30 email addresses )
    so no Yaari for me
    i deleted my account
    now i hope they stop sending emails on my behalf
    best regards Ron

  5. Mohit

    They clearly copied hotornot.com.

    It is not the innovation they keep bragging about on their blog and at other places.

  6. Shine With Grace: Yaari Hijacked My ID and Spammed My Friends!!

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  7. jack

    Hi! Nice site!

  8. Mayura

    Yaari.com must be boycotted and exposed. I recently had the same experience, where everyone in my address book, including senior executives at a Fortune 100 company I am interviewing with, received a spam email from Yaari.com. I was in the precarious position of having to send an apology email to everyone in my address book. They are in the business of phishing and must be shut down.

  9. Watcher

    LOL – how dumb do you have to be to give yaari – or any portal for that matter – the password to your PERSONAL email account?
    Quit complaining like sooks and grow some brains!

  10. Amit Chowdhry

    Ha! You think I’d let yaari.com get a hold of my password? I created a fake account to test the waters first like I do with every other non-mainstream social network.

  11. Chuishite! Yaari.com? « Ctrl + Alt + Delete

    [...] Boycott yaari.com – “Spam 2.0″ Say “NO” to Yaari.com Why Yaari Is Not A Good Friend: Serves Spam For Guests [...]

  12. joe

    Hi, same thing happened to me.
    I’ve sent the usual complaints about this.

    also the owner as a profile at
    http://hi5.com/friend/97540091–Prerna–Profile-html

    so you can leave her a message to let know what you think of her.

    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.

  13. Chuishite! Yaari.com? |

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  15. Stay Away From YAARI.COM

    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

  16. cris

    hey, thanks for this article! I just recieved such an invitation from a journalist with whom I happened to have a little conflict about an year ago, and I understood it was something fishy about it… So I googled about Yaari and I found this. Thank you for warning people about it, I haven’t even opened the e-mail, and I’m really glad :)

  17. gmoorman

    TWO YEARS LATER AND THEY ARE STILL ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH THIS – THIS IS CRAZY…..AND NEEDS TO BE STOPPED.

  18. sam narain

    I am reporting to FBI about this, this is definitely illegal.

  19. sas

    ok, Yaari sucks, BUT why did you gave your passwords?????????? You can always create secondary account for things like this.

  20. Anonymous

    If you’re unhappy about this (I sure am,) send the founders an email:

    prerna@yaari.com
    parag@yaari.com

    In addition, Parag Chordia is a professor at Georgia Tech (paragchordia.com) so you can send him an email at:

    ppc@gatech.edu
    parag.chordia@coa.gatech.edu

  21. Anonymous

    Please sign the class action lawsuit:

    http://www.liamscanlan.com/yaariclassaction/

  22. Frustrated

    I am so very upset and mad with Yaari.com. In last 2 months they have send 2-3 invitations on my behalf to all my gmail contacts. How do I stop it?

    S

  23. Anonymous

    How do we make it stop? I’ve deactivated my account and changed my email’s password, and people are still getting Yaari invites from me.

  24. ML

    I didn’t register. But I did receive the invite from someone who obviously did. So now Yaari has my email addr. Am I screwed?

  25. Rajesh Garg

    Hi,

    I went directlt to the CEO and got following response. She never admitted any guilt or tried to change their sneaky policies.

    They are scumbags and destined to fail.

    From: Prerna Gupta
    To: rgarg_1@yahoo.com
    Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:11:33 PM
    Subject: Explanation from Yaari

    Dear Rajesh,

    I just read the message you left me on Yaari. Please accept my sincere apologies for any miscommunication regarding our process. We have deleted your contacts from our databases, so they should receive no further emails from us. I would be happy to send an apology email to your friends, if you will pleas send me a csv list of the email addresses you would like me to contact.

    Best,
    Prerna


    Prerna Gupta
    Chief Executive Officer
    Yaari.com

  26. CDB

    I have not joined the Yaari website, but I have recently received an e-mail invitation (one of my friends must have joined the site).

    If I may, I would like to express some thoughts, in regard to the concerns raised here. Keep in mind, though, these are only personal opinions.

    To those concerned about joining the website, exercise extreme caution. Never give your personal password out to anyone, for any reason. In doing so, you grant them full permission to use it. Further, their Terms of Service seem to express that they will send out e-mails and use your personal information for commercial purposes.

    To those who have joined and want things to stop. Change your e-mail passwords, block the Yaari site from sending you e-mail and make a formal request to the parent site (Yaari.com) to remove your information (as per their Terms of Service and your best judgment).

    For those concerned with receiving spam e-mail, simply block the site and report any e-mail from them as spam.

    Lastly, if any website requests such private information as passwords or access to other information which you normally would not give out, there is nothing wrong with saying ‘NO’ and reporting such suspicious activity.

    Peace, love, and hang-ten, web surfers!

  27. Update on the Yaari.com Scam « The best way to have a good idea…

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  28. snemax

    Even I was duped.

    Yaari is totally useless spam social networking. I feel like giving the maximum punishment to the CEO and the management involved.

    How dare they violate my privacy. They sent emails to from any1 to every1 including my clients and professors.

  29. anonymous

    Yes, really its ridiculous,everyone has so many important contacts in their list, howcome a site send a cheap mail to all those contacts…it affects the prestige..This site should be baned.

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  31. simin

    This is a really abusive site. please some one should stop them. They harmed my name badly. I was not a member and did not accept the invitation.they did so by invading one of my friends mailbox.

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