http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/technology/internet/20shortcuts.html?hpw

NY Times article

"...That’s when I started doing everything wrong. I obligingly typed in my e-mail address and a password to see those photos. Well, the photos didn’t exist, but I had unwittingly given the site “permission” to go through my entire e-mail contact list and send a message to everyone, inviting them to see my “photos.”

I found this out only when I started receiving e-mail back from people agreeing to be my friend. I quickly realized what had happened and shot off an apologetic message explaining why I inadvertently spammed them.

As friends’ responses started rolling in, I heard from some who had received similar e-mail. Others told me about the same problems with Web sites like MyLife.com and desktopdating.net..."

"...Mr. Tseng said Tagged was the third-largest social networking site after Facebook and MySpace, with 16 million active users and 80 million registered users. And guess what? I’m counted as one of those registered users now.

A colleague, Tom, received a similar “invitation” from an acquaintance inviting him to join MyLife.com about a month ago. He clicked on “yes,” and started receiving e-mail from people on his contact list thanking him for inviting them.

'At first it was amusing, but when I realized that it was mining my address book, it wasn’t so funny anymore,' he said. MyLife.com was formerly Reunion.com, another site that stirred up numerous complaints regarding contact scraping..."