This past week, I received two invitations to join what appeared to be a new social network called Quetchup from two people I really like and respect. I declined simply from social networking overload – there’s just too much new stuff to experience it all and still maintain a productive work life and happy home life, and I hadn’t heard any buzz about Quetchup from anyone. So I deleted.

As it turns out, my 60 hour work weeks saved me from extreme professional embarrassment. The invitations to Quetchup were not issued with the permission of my friends and colleagues. Rather, when they gave Quetchup access to their contacts lists upon signup to determine if anyone else they knew was a member, the site retained the data and used it to send out unauthorized invitations (and so on, and so on…)

Rod Boothby has a more detailed post about Quetchup as well as a list of the firms’ executives and officers (amazingly, it is apparently a public company).

So don’t be fooled – and if you have, talk to Rod. I think he’s thinking class action, and rightly so.