Be Aware of WAYN.com, 'Where Are You Know? Ltd.'

Please be warned when you receive an invitation from WAYN. "Where Are You Now?" or WAYN.com is a travel and lifestyle community. Below is how the invitation looks like in Gmail. The red dots represent the first and last name of a possible e-mail contact of yours.

When signing up for the WAYN service, I was given the option to import contacts from my online Gmailaddress book by providing my username and password and invite those contacts to join WAYN.

Criticism on WAYN (from Wikipedia):
The "Skip this step" can be overlooked, making some users believe that importing addresses is a requirement rather than an option.

Just like in other online communities (such as LinkedIn) you might expect to get a list of users you might know and with whom you could connect. Unfortunately. WAYN got me and sent an e-mail to my Gmail contact list. OUCH. Even though I warned other people for phishing in the past, dislike auto invitation reminders and ask people not to use my emailadress for contests or anything. Hard lesson.

Please note WAYN's privacy policy and terms and conditions.

My apologies to everyone who got an invitation.

I will send an email to remove[at]wayn.com to ask for my information and my contacts information to be deleted from their database. Please be aware of: wayn.com, wayn.net, wayn.org, wayn.co.uk, wayn.eu, whereareyounow.com, whereareyounow.net, whereareyounow.org, whereareyounow.co.uk, whereareyounow.eu, waynlist.com, waynlist.net, waynlist.org, waynlist.co.uk and waynlist.eu.

Comments

[Huub Koch]

I knew WAYN through another contact, so everythings fine here!

[Tom]

Hi Huub. Glad to hear so. It's no wonder they have so many members.. it spreads like a computer virus. Literally. I just sent an e-mail to remove@wayn.com to insist on having info removed.

[Jeroen Mirck]

Earlier today I deleted my WAYN account which I once activated because I'm trying all kinds of social networks for professional purposes. The mails I got from WAYN were very spam-like and seductive. Fortunately, I did not let them send my Gmail contacts an invitation.

[Tom]

Thanks for your support at http://comicbase.livejournal.com Jeroen.

[Philolin]

am on it - not any issue with it but I suppose its typical of any social network - they all have an import contact method - nothing unusual here really?

[Larrygig]

hum...
You should set up your account by following the steps above. This will enable you to benefit from the unique WAYN features available. You can skip these steps at any time but we don't recommend it.
WAYN will not email anyone without your permission and we do not store your username or password

Seems fair and clear. I am on Hi5 more these days and got the exact same process funny enough. All big communities rely on contact scanning to grow, its a known fact

[Tom]

@Philolin and @Larrygig

Thanks for your comments.

"You should set up your account by following the steps above. This will enable you to benefit from the unique WAYN features available. You can skip these steps at any time but we don't recommend it. WAYN will not email anyone without your permission and we do not store your username or password."

@larrygig

Exactly like you say. It SEEMS fair and clear. That is why people enter their login and press continue. Like I did. However, as soon as you continue YOU AGREE WITH THE SMALL LETTERS that says in other words "WE WILL SEND ALL YOUR CONTACTS AN EMAIL NOW AND KEEP DOING THAT. WE WILL ALSO COLLECT THEIR INFO FOR ALL KIND OF COMMERCIAL USES."

I talked to other people yesterday that also confirmed and now the same thing happened to their whole contact list. Imagine:
Previous employers, ex-boyfriends etcetera... even people of the company where she will start working for the first time next week. Imagine her reaction!

My advice: Stay far away from WAYN!

[Tom]

Check also:

http://www.misterorange.com/2005/11/wayn-warning.html

http://n0comment.wordpress.com/2007/03/09/stay-away-from-wayn-wayncom-bad-practices-fraud

[Philolin]

Yeah I know where you coming from - sorry, was simply playing devils advocate here...So I went away and did a bit further research into all this.

Assuming you heard of Facebook? :) SO this is exactly what appears on their page, in small, with the onus on the user to really go through their contact book: this is after all, the basics of communities: the value is in for you to have all your friends into one place:

"You should set up your account by following the steps below. You can skip these steps, but we don't recommend it"

Seems very familiar doesnt it? :) And guess what, very hard to see the bloody thing. Now, you are 100% right...there is always a risk in downloading contacts you dont really want to invite...I did that myself with an ex girlfriend on Friendster! (oooops!:) but the fact is all you need to do is untick the people you dont want to invite - thats how I did it on Facebook and exactly how it works on WAYN too so I think it seems a bit harsh to draw allegations here.

Now the links you point seem rather old...But this is what I also found on other SNS:

* SPAM Machine Facebook: http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=266
* http://internetducttape.com/2006/09/24/internet-address-book-web-anonymity-down-the-drain/
* http://www.awadallah.com/blog/2007/05/10/need-a-lawyer-to-sue-facebook-for-spam/

Here is another interesting one on Hi5 and other SNS:
http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=54379

Try something else: name of a social network + SPAM in Google...And see what happens. Quite interesting.

The reality of all this, from my findings and experience is that they all based on the same model. And what happened to you also happened to other users but there is some truth in people not taking the time to read and I am sure had you unticked who you didnt want to invite, this would not have happened. I am not trying to defend WAYN either here as I am personally sicked of Social Networks but I think you need to be careful before making quick accusations here.

As per your quote on Wikipedia, I also found the following on WAYN who seemed to have address their privacy issues so there is some positive to the story ;)

"WAYN has however relaunched a new layout of their site in April 2007 with enhanched privacy functionalities and providing users with a more intuitive navigation throughout the registration process and whilst browsing online"

[Tom]

Dear Philolin, I would certainly have agreed with you if there had been a possibility to select invitations. Unfortunately this choice is not given. No list. WAYN just sends all contacts an invitation. That is the whole point.

[Philolin]

Very strange - I just tried 4 times over just now and I can clearly see the contacts and I can select the ones to invite...may be there has been some sort of a bug? Happy to send you a screenshot if of any help or I can may be copy and paste one into here but dont know how to insert this into the comment box!? There is no way a site like WAYN or any major communities would do this as THAT wouldnt be legal for sure. But the process is very straight forward: you put your username, password, and the next page shows you friends and then you invite or not. Just like every other SNS. May be the time you did it there was a server issue? Did you hear back from them? I am sure they will be able to provide you some explanation - Good luck nonetheless but I really think based on what I just saw that this is a temporary bug you may have suffered - Let me know if you need some more help - I can send you a screenshot from what I can see my end

[pauline]

something has happend to my wayn account??
i cant log on and........im a premium memeber
ive tried in vain to get some kind of response from them but it's been days now and no one is replying ive been hacked and no one wants to know now they had my money!!

[WAYN Victim]

As a fellow victim of this kind of SPAM, I concur completely with the admonition: "Beware of WAYN!"

I'm also fond of the venerable: "ForeWAYNed is Forwarned"

I would also like to proprose that the acronym be colloquially understood to stand for "Why Are You Nagging?".