Sorry about the Hi5 Scam

Hi Everybody:

There was a batch of emails sent out under our name that invite you to join hi5 Network.

First of all, we’re really sorry if you trusted us and chose to join this hi5 thing- Michele made the mistake of doing the same from someone we trust and this is what happened:

they actually tagged our entire address book and sent out invitations to everybody, almost like a worm. First of all, how the heck did they get all those addresses?  Our address book is on Yahoo, what does Yahoo have to do with this? I do NOT suggest you join hi5, or anybody who conducts business like that- if you did sign up I strongly suggest you cancel, easy enough to do. It is NOT a virus, it’s a business using borderline virus techiniques, some precarious combination of virus and legitimate business. They seem like a normal enough networking service, but if you sign up they will take your entire address book and send out emails that give the appearance that you stand behind what they do. They do this unless you carefully tell them not to. Who knows what else they will do unless you carefully tell them not to. Amazingly, they actually have a shingle on the street:

hi5 Networks

455 Market Street suite 910

San Francisco, CA, 94105

415-404-6094

I called them and demanded that they delete every address they took from me, I’ll do what I can to see that they do that. And I let them know I was not pleased. They didn’t get back to me. They’re a faux business, with no accountability, getting away with it for as long as they can. They trash my business in order to propogate their own.

If you haven’t opened it yet, it says “Hey Steve Dwelley ;) ” ( or whatever your name is) and then has a link with either Michele’s name or the Ashtanga Yoga Shala. I suggest you press the delete button firmly. Again, we’re really sorry if this got you, cyberspace is fairly intense these days and we were caught sleeping at the joystick.

We didn’t collect all your emails to send out stuff like that, and it won’t happen again.

Our humble apologies,

Steve and Michele

Ashtanga Yoga Shala Santa Barbara

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Ashtanga Yoga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Sorry about the Hi5 Scam”

  1. somac Says:
    May 8th, 2007 at 5:36 pm

    social networking sites like myspace and hi5 always lend themselves to scams and hacks. I guess it’s each individuals responsibility to protect themselves.

  2. Jazzbaby Says:
    May 22nd, 2007 at 2:36 am

    Just to let you know you’re not alone – a bunch of us in a community theatre group just got the Hi5 ‘sting’ today as well and most of us are pretty computer-literate and careful about viruses and things. Hi5 does NOT make it clear what it’s going to do (harvest and then spam your email list) and you do have to be very alert to say “no” to this option. Sorry if your business suffered because of it – YOGA RULEZ!!
    Love & peace, jazzbaby

  3. Gabriel Says:
    May 22nd, 2007 at 11:51 am

    You have a beautiful site ;)

  4. Jack Says:
    May 20th, 2008 at 6:59 am

    Hi5 is a spam site which grabs, without permission, e mail addresses from your address book when you sign up.

    It happened to me and several people I know.

  5. Al Says:
    May 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am

    This just happened to me as well.

    They were just supposed to check if my address book included any matches to current members. I deselected all of the names when I got the screen about inviting others. Despite this, they sent it to my entire address book. This has been a huge waste of time as well as quite embarrassing, as personal invites to be my friend went out to tons of people I barely know but are in my address book because my address book automatically keeps track of people even if I only send them one email. Hi5 is a terrible operation. I have asked them to send a retraction to my entire address book.

  6. John Says:
    May 25th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    I have better than that…….last night my girlfriend accused me of trying to communicate with girls from all over the place, because Hi5 had gone out and sent invitations to everyone, including her, then I received an invitation back from my girlfriend. She does not understand Hi5 and I am having a hell of a hard time explaining all this. I have canceled the bloody thing, it’s been nothing but a pain in the arse.

  7. HI 5 Says:
    October 29th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

    I created the hi5 account 4 years ago, but didnt go there since, but 5 days ago I went and checked it for the first time since ages. then out of no where, I started recieving messages from all my friends inviting me to join hi5…
    yesterday I was with my friends and they told me… what is wrong with you and this Hi5 sh**!!!
    I told him: I thought you sent me the invitation!!!
    it was a big scam… the stupid Hi5 even sent invitations to my father!!!!
    I was so embarrassed cause of the bloddy pictures

  8. Margaret Says:
    January 7th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    Absolutely horrific, last May I was diddled by the hi5 scam. They got hold of my email addresses and sent lots of requests to join to everyone without permission. I got out of hi5 and after complaints to them was told that they had ended any connection with them.
    Spent days sending apologies to everyone…
    Now…. horror of horrors, they, 6 months later have sent invitations to people including a photo stolen from my computer (made in August)long after I had stopped any connection with them.
    Identity theft? How did they get hold of the photo?
    Sorry, put up a false email address, too nervous to give out my real one.

  9. hokya Says:
    May 18th, 2009 at 2:21 am

    is it really scam?

    aarrgh…

    the avg link checker doesn’t give any danger sign…

  10. Shaun Says:
    July 6th, 2009 at 6:50 am

    Thanks everyone for the heads up. I just received an invite from a friend when I decided to do a little research before I joined…and found this blog. Excellent job at getting the word out. Thanks so much:) S

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