RSSNew York State Sues Free iPods Site
By the Betanews Staff | Published March 23, 2006, 4:20 PM
Calling the case the largest intentional breach of Internet privacy ever, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued Gratis Internet for selling personal data on millions of consumers who signed up to receive a free iPod music player by referring friends.
Gratis runs a number of such sites, including FreeiPods.com, FreeCDs.com, FreeDVDs.com and FreeVideoGames.com. The company promises not to share user data, but Spitzer says it sold 7 million e-mail addresses to three companies, leading to millions of unsolicited messages. The lawsuit specifically accuses Gratis owners Peter Martin and Robert Jewell of fraud and privacy violations during 2004 and 2005.
Crap, and i didn't get mine!
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|Its actually pretty easy to 'scam' yourself one of these without having to do the whole 'referral' thing.
Check it out:
http://www.quicksilversc...cam_the_free_ipod_refer
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|these sites are pretty bad. they still have sites offering a free playstation 3. yea, like that will ever get you one.
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|Eliot is kicking some @ss and taking no prisoners! It'll be interesting to see what he does if he's elected governer.
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|I'm sorry, but if you have ever signed up for on one of these sites, you're an idiot.
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|you are right. In this world if it is free there is always a catch....
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|Has anyone ever actually received a free iPod from one of these things?
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|I got my free ipod from the Gratis company, prehaps I can get extra cash for the spam lawsuit, LOL
I made sure I used one of my spam emails when I signed up though, it gets so much spam I don't know if I got more
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|Yes jshurst, it does work. There is plenty of proof around the net as this system works the proper way - except selling private info (of course). This dude has explained how exactly it works and shows some proof:
http://freebieinfo.blogspot.com
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|I'd be willing to bet that they had no plan of selling this information when the company these site first started, but when they got huge and they saw they could make big $$, they cashed in.
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
- 1 Timothy 6:10
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|preach your religion somplace else
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|He was not preaching, merely quoting.
And next time, before you go accusing, please make sure that you spell your words correctly. Assuming that you didn't know, it's "someplace" and not "somplace."
*cringe*
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|I hope they get sued into extinction. These scumbags shouldn't be allowed to get away with this invasion of privacy. Thankfully, I've never bought into these fake schemes so they're not selling my info.
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|I hope this lawsuit will be more successful than the one the MPAA leveled against the torrent sites... they're STILL waiting for offical notice that they've been sued. One of them the MPAA clearly spelled their url wrong in the press release.
(Not that I'm complaining about the torrent sites not really being sued... ⌐_⌐)
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|now thats funny.
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|Good job!
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|While I'm well aware that spam is a consequence, no matter WHERE you sign up for something online, the free iPod site does state that it will not give your email out to 3rd party companies without permission. Therefore, selling those addresses is an illegal breach of privacy and of contract. They deserve to be slammed.
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|Alot of cases I blame the user but everywhere I go someone is trying to get me to sign up for one of freeipod referal things.
They are EVERYWHERE!
I'm glad someone is sueing them
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|Duh.....
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|"Privacy...New York..."
Coincidence? LOL I'm kidding of course, but NY does seem to be the biggest Privacy advocate in the US...
...yeah, they should be sued, but only if the terms and conditions said they would not sell the email addresses. Dumb users or not, they violated their own agreement and should be fined.
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|Isn't the attorney general there running for something or presumed to be running for something
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|Yes, Spitzer is running for Governor. But, it's not like he hasn't done other high profile things. He's done a lot of things... some I agree with and some I think he's an idiot for doing. In this case it was obviously a scam from the beginning. Give away some iPods and they made their money back with the sale of the email addresses. I'm glad they're having the hammer dropped on them.
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|i can't beleve people still beleve they can acoully get free stuff from these crappy ads
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|Most of the "free" offers are tied to credit card applications. Others insist that we buy a whole $hi+ load of crap; just to get their fee IPod, X Box or another booby prize.
Elliot Spitzer is running for governor in New York. I don't really care, as long as he wants to crack down on these DECEPTIVE advertisements. Go get em...
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|I just got a kinda free iPod 5g 60gig from marketsurveygroup.com. All I had to do was sign up for some trials, probably paid about $30 total. Plus I got some really awesome weight loss pills... It took a few months though.
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|hey nothing is "free"
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|If you sign up for one of those sites and seriously believe that they aren't going to share your data, then spam doesn't bother you, you are to disconnected with reality to realize what spam is.
Besides, sites like that cause alot of kiddies to start posting links in forums trying to get referrals, they deserve the spam.
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|"Dumb users or not, they violated their own agreement and should be fined."
kudos for an informed and sensible reply. I completly agree. Regardless of the shady-ness of such sites, they violated their own agreements. We all want something for nothing, but I really hate these pyramid scheme sites. Before a average user realizes what they have got themselves into, they have already given away all their information.
-Stray
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|hey i want a free ipod... just use an email address that you dont mind getting spam at... everyone has one
http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=11949143
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|Glad to help! :P
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|LOL!!!! go F yourself...
"hey i want a free ipod" why dont u go get one then.. how long have you been waiting for it? 120 years?
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|Just use DodgeIt.com.
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|Dont be quick to judge these sites
I have received the following items from from gratis
1 original ipod, 1 ipod nano, 2 lcds (samsung 710n), 1 dell pc, and 1 fendi handbag
I have the following on the way from other companies (yfdirect and Nuitech)
Bowflex motivator 2 (already received from nuitech)
Sony S style vaio laptop (will be here in 45 days)
Though they may be a hassle and end up costing you a bit of money per site it is worth it in the end
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