Email from Facebook, is it a scam? (Beacon Law Settlement)?

[Edward]

I just received this email:

Facebook is sending you this notice of a proposed class action settlement that may affect your legal rights as a Facebook member who may have used the Beacon program. This summary notice is being sent to you by Court Order so that you may understand your rights and remedies before the Court considers final approval of the proposed settlement on February 26, 2010.

This is not an advertisement or attorney solicitation.

This is not a settlement in which class members file claims to receive compensation. Under the proposed settlement, Facebook will terminate the Beacon program. In addition, Facebook will provide $9.5 million to establish an independent non-profit foundation that will identify and fund projects and initiatives that promote the cause of online privacy, safety, and security.

For full details on the settlement and further instructions on what to do to opt out of, object to, or otherwise comment upon the proposed settlement, please go to http://www.BeaconClassSettlement.com.

Please do not reply to this email.




The email is from <root+f_6csj=c@facebookmail.com>
Is this some sort of scam or spam? Is this legit? How will this affect me?

[Eric]

I just received this email as well, and I think it's a scam. I've never received an email from facebookmail.com before, and there's not the usual Facebook address and phone number tag line on the bottom. Until we hear better news, don't go to that website.

[seoul]

Beacon was a part of Facebook's advertisement system that sent data from external websites to Facebook, ostensibly for the purpose of allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends.
Certain activities on partner sites were published to a user's News Feed.
The service was controversial so facebook shut it down in September, 2009.

The mail sent to you is a valid one and it implies facebook has informed about the shut down of Beacon.........

It won't affect you if you were a member of Beacon.......If you were then follow the link facebook has given you ( http://www.beaconclasssettlement.com )


In my opinion, you can ignore this mail because it's just an information from facebook, nothing else


***********************

How i know it:
video Downloaded from youtube using this site: http://www.watch-and-download.info

[Willow]

I received this email as well. I went to Facebook and changed my password. I got an email a minute later informing me I had, in fact changed it, and the email address from the password change was the same as the one from the Beacon email (the weird facebookmail.com one) and so I'm assuming it is legit. I'm still not going to click on that link though... just in case.

[leah the librarian]

I also received the email and was critical of it's legitimacy. There are a few articles though referring to the case on CNET, a legitimate website: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10409034-93.html

To me, it does seem like a real email about the case. Especially since they are not asking you for any personal information, I don't believe this is a phishing attempt. However I cannot be sure, other than the news articles written on the topic.

[Zack C]

I just got the e-mail too and like all of you guys was extremely critical. I happened to click on the link and I browsed around, and this is what I came up with:

You have three choices:
1) Opt out (which requires you to mail something to the courthouse with your name and address requesting your name be removed)
2) Voice opinions (why would we do that?)
3) Do nothing. A Class Member has been defined as follows:

However, when they say you can do nothing, they do mention that you will be legally bound to whatever the settlement is (which scares me slightly, I am only a college student), and you can't sue Facebook in the future regarding this or any other issue.

I asked someone with some law experience, and she said that unless the court physically serves you papers (mails them to your house), that the e-mail shouldn't be taken seriously. Honestly I'm quite torn over whether or not this is legitimate, there are some good sources that do talk about this lawsuit, yet my source also said that if you do decide to opt out and mail the request in, you could be charged an amount for the lawyer's services, and that is not what we want to hear.

In my opinion I'm gonna say keep the e-mail but don't do anything. Try to ask around and see if any action on your part should be done. My best bet would be to ask a lawyer with hopes he'll give you some free advice.