Quechup. Or why I spammed 1758 people this weekend.

I hate SPAM. I hate SPAM’ers even more. But what I really hate is sites that dupe me into spamming everyone I know.

I got about 7 or 8 invites from people to check out a site called Quechup (no, I don’t intend to link to that @#$!%!#@ site). People that I knew, trusted and respected. I looked like another social networking site, so I signed up for it. I wasn’t that impressed, but many sites aren’t impressive until you immerse yourself in them (like twitter). So I tried to find a few friends to link up to. I couldn’t find too many people, so when I saw that it would check for friends based on my Gmail account, I jumped at it.

Oops.

You see, many social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) provide you a chance to put in your email account information, whereupon they will scan your address book and provide you with a list of people you know that have already signed up for the site. Then you can add them as friends. You’re also given the chance to email invitations out to people who aren’t currently site members. It works pretty darn well and on the whole I’ve used that feature quite often and loved it.

Then along came Quechup. I put in my username and password, just like the other sites. I saw a couple of names, added a few friends, and then quit the site. I didn’t think about it again until Friday, when I started getting a few emails. Quechup was sending invites TO me from other people I knew. And then people started emailing me and saying things like, “Thanks for telling me about the site! I’ll go give it a try.” And then the emails starting coming in by the hundred.

Essentially, Quechup raped my address book. It sent invitations to join to every single contact in my address book. I started getting emails from people I sold exercise equipment to on Craigslist three years ago asking who the heck I was and why I was recommending that site. I got emails from technical support websites letting me know that my email had been logged and would be responded to in a few days. I got emails from people that I barely knew thanking me for turning them on to a new site.

YIKES. It was out of control. I logged in and canceled my Quechup account, but I dare say the damage has already been done.

So I decided that I should probably email everyone I know and warn them NOT to sign up for that cursed site, lest they get into the same trouble I did. I logged into Gmail and clicked to view my entire contacts list. 1758 contacts. Phew. I selected them all, pasted them into an email and tried to send out an apology letter. Unfortunately I got an error saying that I could only send emails out to 500 people at a time. Fine, I copied them out into a word document and started breaking it up into several emails. I got about 1/3 of the way through my list of 1758 when Gmail kindly told me that I’d hit my cap. I can no longer send emails for 24 hours.

Huh? Have you ever heard of that one? It seems as though to prevent spam, GMail wouldn’t let me send out my emails to people, warning them against the dangers of the spam site! Ironic, doncha think? I guess I’ll try again tomorrow, or from some other email account.

The interesting side effect of this has been that it has put me in touch with dozens of people that I have lost contact with for one reason or another. People that I haven’t communicated with for years are coming out of the woodwork and we’re getting reacquainted! It’s actually been rather pleasant! Makes me think that I should go through my address book more often and reconnect with people.

So I guess it’s a little bittersweet, but it’s left a pleasant aftertaste to a very bitter experience. I can’t wait to email those people back…… once Gmail lets my account send emails again.

8 Comments

chris hunewell
9/10/2007

Don’t be so hard on yourself, Steve. When I got the invitation from you, I thought it really odd that there was no mention of Quechup on either Teach 42 or your Digital Passports site. So I figured something was amiss. I bet other readers did too. Thanks for sharing your story!

Casey Hales
9/10/2007

Well, I thought I was so special getting an invitation from you, now I found out I’m just one of 1757 other special friends.
I, too, have some folks that would like to tan my hide! I’d like to know how you got to cancel your Quechup account. They don’t seem to make that too easy, either.

harry confort
9/11/2007

Even if you cancel your Quechup account, and change your gmail password, Quechup will still send invitations out to all the contacts it has grabbed from your address book.

Marsha Cruce
9/11/2007

thanks for the heads up – think I will avoid that one!

Jeff Branzburg
9/14/2007

Hi Steve – after getting your invitation I joined, let them access my gmail, and same thing happened. I use an online fax service, and so they also sent these invitations to email “addresses” that were actually fax machines. So now Allstate thinks I want them to join Quechup, because they got a fax saying so! To add insult to injury, I pay for each fax sent …

All in all, a very humbling experience. I think many people immersed in the tech world (or at least more immersed than the general population) may at times develop a degree of hubris regarding technological prowess. Experiences like this, as distasteful as they may be, are grounding.

Rich Platts
9/15/2007

Well Steve, I should thank you for the invite — it was nice to reconnect with old friends. Still, I would have preferred not to spam the president of Carnegie Mellon University & most of my professors and one of my school board members. Who knew that Gmail hoarded so much of my incoming contact information!

Anyway, I caught it in time to avert most of the damage thanks to your responsible follow up email. Thanks!

And no hard feelings.

Rich Platts
9/18/2007

hi steve, it took me only a couple of my precious, weekend hours to undo my own quechup mess after responding to your invite. my first truly horrifying, internet adventure, and you were right there with me. you probably heard me cursing all the way from 60035. Of course all is forgiven now that i see you’re a big-shot, featured speaker at FETC. the big question is, will I still be one of your 1758 friends now that you’ve hit the big time?
“…
Cheryl Lemke, Metiri Group
Jenelle Leonard, U.S. Department of Education
Alan November, November Learning
Gary Becker, Copyright Law Consultant
Steve Dembo, Discovery Education …”

Dave Kootman
9/24/2007

Same here. I did the same thing you did and ended up sending apologies to my contacts as well. Doh!!! I do kinda wonder if Quechup has ill intent or is just stupid though. Either way, it’s not cool.

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