Good news, bad news for Intelius |
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Good news, bad news for Intelius
Bellevue-based people search engine Intelius was flying high last week after winning a DEMOgod award and receiving tons of press attention for its DateCheck iPhone app.
This week, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington -- an old nemesis of Intelius -- came after the Naveen Jain-led company with a sharply-worded story that called into question the company's business practices and a recent partnership with Friendster.
But what caught my eye was a press release issued today by the law firm of Finkelstein & Krinsk, citing a class action lawsuit against Intelius.
The suit describes how Intelius and its affiliate, Adaptive Marketing, automatically bill consumers' credit cards for unrequested "memberships" and then "intentionally frustrate victims' ability to recognize and dispute the charges."
What's interesting is that the suit was filed over a month ago. So, why a press release today?
William R. Restis, an attorney for the plaintiff, Denise Baxter, said they simply wanted to notify potential members of the class. It had nothing to do with the TechCrunch coverage, he said.
Restis declined to speculate on how many California residents may be part of the class, but he said it has been a "peculiar case" given the complex tactics employed by Intelius and Adaptive Marketing.
"When I first started looking into it, I expected it to be some company in Nigeria," said Restis. "When I found out that it was a company about to go public, that was a bit of a shocker."
Restis said they may expand the class nationwide as the case develops.
Jain has been the subject of other critical reports related to customer complaints and billing practices, most recently this cover story in The Seattle Weekly. And legal troubles have followed the former InfoSpace CEO for years.
You can see a copy of the suit here.
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