SAN FRANCISCO: A social networking Web site launched to compete with MySpace is turning into a spam generator, according to PEHub’s Connie Loizos. Tagged.com made it onto the Hub’s radar screen because it was funded by some high-profile investors, including a former CEO of PayPal and the founder of Linkedin. It was originally billed as a child-safe alternative to MySpace, which was under fire for drawing predators at the time. Tagged eventually welcomed all comers, and has evolved again, this time into a “full-blown spam machine,” Loizos writes.
She picked up the story from coverage in the Ventura County Star, which described how Tagged sends out e-mails inviting people to look at friends’ photos, imploring them that the person “may think you said no,” if the targeted person doesn’t click through. Once they do, however, their address book is mined and the message is again forwarded to all of those contacts. The Star reported that California Lutheran University blocked 1,500 Tagged emails between June 1 and press time for the June 14th article.
