A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation from my brother to become a friend on Quechup, "the social networking platform sweeping the globe." Despite the claim that it is "the social networking site to be on," I had never heard of it. I kept the e-mail in my inbox and decided to look into the site. Not long thereafter, I received an e-mail from my husband, who had accepted my brother's invitation. I was surprised that my husband would so quickly invite me to join, and I became suspicious. A Google search for "Quechup" resulted in a plethora of blogs warning people about this site. Text on the invitation e-mail states, "You received this because [name (e-mail)] knows and agreed to invite you. You will only receive one invite from [e-mail]. Quechup will not spam or sell your email address"; however, my brother did not realize that he agreed to invite me to join this social networking site.

When you accept the invitation, Quechup offers to check your contacts for friends on the site. Upon this action, Quechup sends an invitation to everyone in your address book. Both my brother and husband learned this the hard way. My husband received e-mails from friends asking him about the e-mail he had sent. My husband didn't realize what they meant right away, but figured it out eventually. Fortunately, the invitation went to an e-mail address that he uses infrequently, and most of the contacts in his address book were family and friends. My brother had many professional contacts who should not have received such an invitation. I am glad I did not accept my brother's invitation. As a g-mail user, anyone who receives an e-mail from me is entered in my address book. I have contacts ranging from close friends and family, to professional contacts, to people who I don't know well but were part of a reply all list. Apparently, a member of a library listserv joined Quechup, because an invitation was sent to the listserv.

If you receive an invitation to join Quechup, please be aware of this tactic. I did not accept the invitation, so I can only relate what I have read. One commenter writes that the site does indicate that Quechup will send invitations to your contacts. Another explains that you can prevent this, but the option is not in an obvious spot.