Classmates.com User Sues; Schoolmates Weren’t Really Looking for Him As one of the commenters on this Wired.com article pointed out, this sounds like a headline straight from The Onion, but it’s not.

When Classmates.com told user Anthony Michaels last Christmas Eve that his former school chums were trying to contact him, he pulled out his wallet and upgraded to the premium membership that would let him contact long-lost fifth-grade dodge-ball buddies and see if his secret crush from high school had looked him up online.

But once he’d parted with the $15, Michaels learned the shocking truth: No one he knew was trying to contact him at all. Classmates.com’s come-on was a lie, and he’d been scammed.

I come across stuff like this and I’m not sure how to react… because I truly hate these emails from Classmates.com and Reunion.com. Of course not enough (apparently) to unsubscribe or spam filter them, but I only have a limited amount of energy each day. Still I do admit on those days where my defenses are down I actually wonder “Who in the hell is looking for me?” and then my mind goes off on a wild tangent about who it could possibly be and if it relates to me owing them money. Still no matter how curious I might be, I can’t see signing up to find out. Of course there seems to be more to the story in the full article, but I have to wonder if falling for the Classmates.com line is akin to clicking on the “punch the monkey and win an iPod!” banner ads that seemed to be so popular not too long ago. Sure, fraud is fraud and should be dealt with but what happened to a little “buyer beware”?