Pfishing Scam: Zorpia
I apologize if you are getting emails from me asking you to join Zorpia or worse, see a message from me. I am convinced, after my bad experience with Zorpia, that this is a pfishing scam.
It all started with PickyKidPix who opened the first Zorpia email from her friend Devin. Devin had no idea that such an email was sent out. No one does. I then got an email from my daughter that I had a message from her. Given that it was 11:00 pm and she was asleep, I opened the email. The only way to see the message was to allow it access to my Facebook.
Big mistake. I realized pretty quickly that there was something weird about this site because it immediately started emailing my contacts. I shut down my account. Or tried to. Normally, when you delete your account on any social media, you get the message that it’s deleted and you can’t find your account anymore. This site had my account up for at least two days after I “deleted” it. I sent several messages via their contact email to no avail.
I deleted all the connecting apps to Zorpia for Facebook and Twitter. I changed the passwords to my email, Twitter and Facebook. Still the emails to my friends inviting them to join Zorpia at my invitation continued. This was three months ago. The emails, I’m told, continue to plague my email contacts.
My husband went through this as well. He finally deleted his Facebook account. It didn’t matter. Somehow Zorpia got his email addresses through Facebook and continue to email his friends even now 3 MONTHS LATER!
And then … the scam emails started. The ones where someone has lost his or her passport and needs money wired over. Or the big “lottery” I won if I click here. They have my email address from my daughter, and now they are trying to get me to do something or get further access to my account. Something is not right here.
Please DO NOT OPEN ANY EMAILS FROM ZORPIA!!!
Especially if they are from me at PragmaticMomBlog@gmail.com .
p.s. I never received any reply from my emails to Zorpia either. Not even an auto-reply.
p.p.s. My daughter says she is getting more emails from another social media site similar to Zorpia that actually rhymes with Zorpia. Beware of that one too. I’ll get the name from her today.
Capturing Your Kids’ Lives using Lifeables
Balancing Social Media To Actually Get Things Done
Just Another Manic Sunday
How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog
Oh no, sounds like a nightmare. Good to know.
mari recently posted…15 Neighbor Gifts: No Baking or Crafting Ideas
Hi Mari,
I tweeted this post to them directly and no response. They know they are a scam pfishing scheme. I need to get the Attorney General’s attention to shut them down.
Pragmatic Mom recently posted…Worst and Best College Majors
Looks like Wikipedia agrees with you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorpia
Dee recently posted…I am being #Retrofitted!
Twitter: HynesMom
Thanks for the link Dee! When I saw it a few months ago, it didn’t say it was a pfishing scheme but good to know that I am not the only one who thinks that. But how to shut it down?!
Pragmatic Mom recently posted…Worst and Best College Majors
Good to know. Thanks for the warning!
maryanne recently posted…Quirk Books: Home Economics, Bento Boxes, and Tiny Food
Twitter: mamasmiles
Hi MaryAnne,
I hope you don’t get any Zorpia emails from me. If so, PLEASE do not open!
Pragmatic Mom recently posted…Worst and Best College Majors
i wanted delete my pics but i dont find any setting to can delete and neither my account zorpia doesent delete.HELP!!
Twitter: edenyevish
Hi Eden,
Contact their customer service center to get your account deleted. Here is the email address: support@zorpia.com . Good luck!
Pragmatic Mom recently posted…Best Books for Kids Blog Hop
Hi Mia,
Good day! My name is Walt and I am authorized to speak on behalf of Zorpia.
First of all we appreciate your interest in us for writing a blog which gave us a way to address your problem with Zorpia. We hope that we have properly addressed your concern.
As stated in our email, Zorpia is not a phishing site and we did not violate any email privacy. It is definitely against our policy to access people’s email contacts without prior authorization.
Our site gives users the option of inviting their friends to join the site and this is an action which is only undertaken with the user’s explicit permission to us to access their email contacts. Zorpia’s process is standardized and employed by all leading social networks to help new users find and add their friends on the site.
Zorpia’s mission is to help and provide the easiest way for people to make new friends from around the world. We are concerned to see that the content you posted is untrue, harmful to our company and bound to negatively influence some of our potential users. It also damages our reputation.
We would like to know if there is anything we can do to remove this blog entry about Zorpia?
Hi Walt,
Zorpia has REPEATEDLY emailed my contacts without permission from me. Your site is deliberately designed such that one can not view a message without giving Zorpia access to Facebook. Then, when you try to delete the Zorpia account, it takes more than two days. In fact, you have continued to email my contacts for months AFTER I deleted my account at Zorpia AND sent in emails to your support group asking for my account to be removed and for Zorpia to stop emailing my friends using my account.
You should read your own Wikipedia on Zorpia which confirms my own personal experience:
Zorpia is social networking service, popular in India and China, that uses unethical methods such as spamming, scamming and phishing to recruit users.
Zorpia is infamous for sending repetitive “private messages” to people who are not users, referring to fake senders who never sent any message, “inviting” people to read those “messages” by joining Zorpia by providing their private data.
The site metric data (like the number of users) has not been verified by external parties and it has been suggested that the site is using phishing techniques to gather private user data.
People have been reporting that the account deletion requests are not honoured and their data is continuously used for outbound invitations, and their – supposedly deleted – photographs being shared with others.
As for taking down my post, how about INSTEAD you and your company issue a statement of apology and stop doing unethical phishing activity? You should also investigate all the claims similar to mine. Obviously, I am not the only one and if you truly believe your company is legitimate, you need to do your research.
Pragmatic Mom recently posted…Best Bedtime Books to Read Aloud