Wired, and other news sources, have reported that a woman's lawsuit against a car manufacturer, that targeted her with an online marketing stunt that included barraging her with scary e-mails, will be allowed to proceed.
The carmaker, Toyota, alleged that the woman not only knew about the advertising campaign, she agreed to it.
A.D. sued Toyota in 2009 due to a scam called "Your Other You". D.D. claimed that she received several e-mails, from a man she didn't know, over the course of a few days.
In the e-mail correspondence the man told her he had her address.
He also told her he would come and stay with her as he had to hide from the police, and, he would be bringing Trigger, his pit bull with him.
Court documents read that S.B. sent A.D. a page from his MySpace account that showed that he was 25, had a love for soccer and a problem with alcohol.
S.B. told her he would arrive at her home after a few days journey.
Then, in another e-mail, S.B. claimed to have some trouble at a motel. A further e-mail, from someone that claimed to be the manager of the hotel, presented her with a bill for a television set that S.B had allegedly broken.
A.D. grew very upset about the onslaught of e-mail correspondence sent to her. Then a final message arrived: She had been "punked" by Toyota.
All would be revealed in a video she was directed to view.
The video explained that the punk campaign was to advertise the Toyota Matrix vehicle and that S.B. had been a completely fictional character.
Saatchi & Saatchi, the advertising firm that came up with the approach, did so as it appealed to the demographic group that allegedly enjoyed being punked: 20-something males.
A.D. claims that she did not sign up for the Your Other You campaign - someone else signed her up.
The marketing campaign included advertisements in print, online and billboards - all directing people to their website if they wanted to punk someone. Once a person typed in the name of the person they wanted punked, they were directed to chose one of five different false characters, including S.B., that they would like to go after the person via several types of text, phone, e-mail and video messages.
The punking would take five days before the scam was to be revealed.
A.D. sued both Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi - as well as fifty other people that were involved in the campaign - for $10 million for compensatory damages. The suit cites intentional infliction of emotional distress, unfair, unlawful and deceptive trade practices and negligent misrepresentation.
Toyota moved to have the suit dismissed. They argued that A.D. clicked on an online terms-of-service agreement and authorized the company to send her e-mails.
Also included in that click was a provision against disputes pursuant to any campaigns - succinctly disallowing any arbitration.
A California Appellate judge ruled that since Toyota enticed A.D. to click the agreement under false pretenses the arbitration provision was invalid.
A friend had signed A.D. up to participate without her knowledge, and she just thought she had clicked on a personality test.
Contact a personal injury lawyer if a person, or a company, has caused you harm. Oftentimes monetary awards are made for damages incurred.