There seems to be an unsolicited email (spam) currently being sent out to AdWords advertisers, inviting them to take part in the recent class action suit against Google.
The email starts off:
This court-ordered notice may affect your legal rights. Please read it carefully. If you purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present, you are a class member in a class-action lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice is to inform you of the Court’s certification of a class; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement. Please read the attached notice.
Not sure which brainbox decided to resort to spam to get people’s attention. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of attention this campaign attracts…
It took a while to load up, but here’s the text from the website homepage (clicksettlement.com):
Welcome to the Click Settlement Website
Please come back to this website between June 19, 2006
and August 4, 2006 to file a claim form.To view & print the Notice please click on the link below
Click Settlement Notice
To view & print the Frequently Asked Questions please click on the link below
Click Settlement FAQ’s
For more information, please call (800) 899-6701
Google’s made an official announcement on this topic. You can check it out here:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/05/lanes-gifts-v-google-settlement.html
Thanks for the heads up, Adam.
I have received this a few days ago and I thought as soon as I read it that it was some sort of hoax. Why don’t people try and use their time in a meaningful way rather than messing around sending out silly e-mails like these. Ohh and just for the record I don’t need a penis enlargement, any kind of sex drug or dodgy software.
Thought I should get that one off my chest
Thankyou
Thanks for your thoughts, Gary!
One of the newsletters I’m subscribed to referred to this discussion and I think it reflects a lot of what people think about the email i.e. it looks like a phishing attempt, but if it isn’t then… Well, it looks like a phishing attempt!
It just strikes me that if it had been better organised and if we could have had an official announcement from Google (by email) first then we wouldn’t be wasting so much time wondering whether or not it’s genuine.
Pah!