2nd
January
2008

In August of 2005, I put some money into the new Ask sponsored listings program, and after a couple of months of practically no activity, I completely forgot about it.
Today, over two years later, I received an email telling me that I may be entitled to a refund for failure to prevent fraudulent clicks, directing me to a website with a claim form to fill out.
Can this be for real? Did anyone really get enough clicks of any kind from an Ask sponsored listings campaign to pursue a lawsuit?
Here’s a copy of the letter -
Re: Legal Notice of Class Action Settlement Affecting Your Rights
Legal Notice:
If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively “Ask”) between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.
You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.
The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court’s certification of a class for settlement purposes; 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 or object to the settlement.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I got a same email from Ask.com but I’ve never put my ads on Ask.com. However, I did put my ads on “google+search network” and sometime I see my ads appears on Ask.com.
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 am
I got the same notice. I find it strange that they would notify via email. Email doesn’t strike me as an “official notification”.
Naturally, they want your Ask.com account number.
If you do a WhoIs for the AskSettlement.com domain name that they direct you to, you will see that it’s got a private registration through “Domains By Proxy”. What law firm would do that? You would think that they would want you to find them.
I think it’s a scam. They already have your email address and other information that is public about your firm. Armed your account number, all it would take is a call to ASK requesting an email address and password change.
My click fraud losses weren’t substantial, so this goes to file-13.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Yeah, I saw the proxied domain info too, then read it on Sphinn - http://sphinn.com/story/21074
I actually do suspect that it’s a scam, but the poster there was right, it’s not a very good one…
January 13th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I do not think that this is a scam email. It could really be a lawsuit against Click Fraud.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:43 am
[...] Via: AskSettlement, Search Commander [...]