Tagged Stole Identities of 60 Million, Cuomo Says

Social networking site Tagged.com stole the identities of 60 million people and may have spammed even more, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.  He announced that he plans to sue the site that claims to be the third largest social networking site in the country.

This is how the email and identity theft allegedly worked, as described in the Christian Science Monitor:

Tagged sent 60 million emails to people saying they’d been tagged on the site in a photo. In many cases, no such photos existed, but users were apparently tricked into providing the company with access to their personal email contacts. Cuomo says Tagged then reached out to those contacts, asking if they’d like to join the site.

Tagged made their invitational emails appear to have been sent directly from members’ personal email accounts, instead of from Tagged.com. The emails falsely stated that “[name] sent you photos on Tagged.” If a member had added a personal image to the website, Tagged also included that picture in these fraudulent email solicitations. Many consumers were unaware that Tagged accessed their email contact lists, stated blog Pogo Was Right. 

It was also reported that in order to see the photos, Tagged required you to create a Tagged account, which would grow its membership list.  Under the right circumstances, Tagged could then access the new member's address book and repeat the cycle.

"Consumers had their privacy invaded and were forced into the embarrassing position of having to apologize to all their email contacts for Tagged’s unethical – and illegal – behavior. This very virulent form of spam is the online equivalent of breaking into a home, stealing address books, and sending phony mail to all of an individual’s personal contacts. We would never accept this behavior in the real world, and we cannot accept it online,” stated the Attorney General's office.

Tagged offered an apology on its blog site and stated:

"When our company tested a new registration process, we discovered that our “invite your friends” language was confusing. The registration drive generated some complaints and as a business that succeeds or fails based on word of mouth, we took every complaint very seriously. We immediately stopped using this registration process, before being contacted by the Attorney General’s office. In no instance did Tagged access a person’s personal address book without their consent and no emails were sent without the person giving us permission. We realize that some were confused and accidentally agreed to invite their friends. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience or frustration that these people experienced.”