Is this some kind of new scam?

[Firestormalpha]

Just got this through my email. I've never heard of a legit Class-action suit going through the email before so I post it now for your review.

I altered the addresses to prevent accidental clicking. I haven't visited the sites and don't know the nature of their content.

SUMMARY EMAIL NOTICE To: ------------- From: Settlement Claim Administrator Subject: Notice of Creative Hard Disc Drive MP3 Player Class Action and Proposed Settlement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY EMAIL NOTICE If you purchased in the United States between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 from a retail store in the United States (including Creative's and others' on-line retail stores) a new Creative brand hard disc drive MP3 player (“Creative HDD MP3 Player”), a proposed class action settlement may affect you. A hearing has been scheduled in United States District Court, Central District of California to approve the settlement. Under the settlement, you may have the right to make a claim for a discounted MP3 player or a discount certificate. You also may choose to exclude yourself from the settlement. Alternatively, you may file written objections to the settlement or seek to intervene and appear (or have your own attorney appear) at the court hearing. If the settlement is approved and you do not exclude yourself, you give up the right to sue for the claims the settlement resolves, and you will be bound by the terms of the settlement. To learn more about or exercise any of your rights, please read below and visit -ww-w.creativehddmp3settlement.com-. The lawsuit is Talwar v. Creative Labs, Inc., United States District Court, Central District of California, Case No. CV 05 3375 FMC. In the suit, plaintiffs allege that in the sale and marketing of its hard disc drive MP3 players Creative stated that purchasers of the drives would receive approximately 7% more usable storage capacity than they actually received and misrepresented the number of songs and number of hours of music the players could hold. Creative has denied and continues to deny each and all of plaintiffs’ claims, and denies that anyone has been harmed or deserves compensation. The Court has not made a decision on the merits. You are a member of the plaintiff class if you purchased in the United States between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 from a retail store in the United States (including Creative's and others' on-line retail stores) a new Creative brand hard disc drive MP3 player. As part of the settlement, Creative will make certain disclosures regarding the storage capacity of its hard disc drive MP3 players. In addition, if you submit a valid claim, you will receive either a 50% discount off the price of a new 1 GB MP3 player, or a discount certificate good for 20% off the price of any single item purchased at -ww-w.us.creative.com-. To receive the discount player or discount certificate you must submit a claim form available at -ww-w.creativehddmp3settlement.com- by August 7, 2008. You may submit a claim for each Creative HDD MP3 Player you purchased. If the settlement is approved, plaintiffs’ counsel will apply for an award of attorneys’ fees and expenses not to exceed $900,000, plus incentive awards for the two representative plaintiffs in the amount of $5,000 each, to be paid separately from and in addition to the relief available to plaintiff class members. All claims of plaintiff class members which were or could have been asserted in the litigation, based upon the facts alleged in the litigation will be released. This means that if you do not exclude yourself from the plaintiff class, you will give up the right to sue for the claims the settlement resolves, and you will be bound by the terms of the settlement. You need not take any action. If you wish to exclude yourself from the plaintiff class, you must submit an exclusion request to plaintiffs’ counsel: Brian R. Strange/Gretchen Carpenter, Strange & Carpenter, 12100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1900, Los Angeles, CA 90025. If you exclude yourself, you will not receive the benefits of the settlement, and you cannot object to the settlement or intervene. If you wish to object to the settlement, intervene or appear (or have your own attorney appear) at the hearing, you must file your objection with the Court and serve it on the parties’ counsel, as follows: Brian R. Strange/Gretchen Carpenter, Strange & Carpenter, 12100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1900, Los Angeles, CA 90025 (counsel for plaintiff); and Daniel K. Slaughter, Stein & Lubin LLP, 600 Montgomery Street, 14th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 (counsel for Creative). To exclude yourself, object or request to intervene, you must follow the detailed instructions set forth in the Long Form Notice at .-ww-w.creativehddmp3settlement.com-. All objections, requests to intervene and requests for exclusion must be received by June 9, 2008. DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT OR CREATIVE CONCERNING THIS NOTICE OR THIS LAWSUIT. If you would like more information about this notice or this case, please visit -ww-w.creativehddmp3settlement.com-. If you do not have internet access, you may request additional information by mail from counsel for plaintiff, as set forth above.

That the message says "From: Settlement Claim Administrator" but gives no name or contact info I find fishy, or was it phishy?

Then they say, "DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT OR CREATIVE CONCERNING THIS NOTICE OR THIS LAWSUIT" They give an internet address which no doubt will lead to something that looks official. And then they close this EMAIL with "If you do not have internet access, you may request additional information...."

Are they getting more creative or has this been going around for a long time?

[Bungleau]

The fact that the end date of the class is today is highly, highly suspicious. I call it a scam... *real* class action suits will go for 9-18 months before this kind of letter is sent out.

If I get a chance later, I'll see who the domain owner is for that web site. May be informative....

[Firestormalpha]

haha, wow, didn't notice that. But yeah, all other factors aside that's more than enough to raise an eyebrow.

[SpiritWarrior]

They seem real anal about people contacting court about it when you can actually talk to the claims desk in most states to at least get the general detials of the suit. And there is no phone number or contact (other than a made-up address for the attorneys). Usually their numbers and/or a company hotline are available for anyone with any questions who may not even know what kinda drive they have or mp3 player they bought.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Your answer is "yes." Your answer was "yes" before I looked at the thread. "Yes" is generally the only correct answer to "Is this a scam?"

And hey, what's with that last line? Of COURSE you have Internet access- how else would you get that email?

[Bungleau]

Googling and looking a bit more makes it appear like it's legit. More googling would be required, in my mind, to be sure...

[Firestormalpha]

Also the email address I recieved it from was: support-bve1hcwazvk6y1axscas3br4w2ky10@em ail.creativelabs. com

anything sent from a seemingly random combination of letters and numbers makes me go hmmm.

Some elements seem legit, there is a lawyer in San Francisco names Daniel K. Slaughter. But the document that turned up was a public record for a bankruptcy case.
The address they try to send me too in the email, (www. creativehddmp3settlement. com) doesn't seem likely. And as I've said in my first post I've never heard of a class action suit notification going by email. I would expect something like that to go by a more easily tracked method of shipment like registered mail.

[T-D-C]

Hmmmm found this on Slashdot today

Dorkz brings news of a class-action settlement from Creative Labs over the capacity of their HDD MP3 players. Evidently they calculated drive capacity in base-10 (1,000,000,000 bytes per GB) instead of base-2 (1,073,741,824 bytes per GB). The representative plaintiff is entitled to $5,000, and everyone else who bought one of the HDD MP3 players in the past several years gets a 50% discount on a new 1GB player[PDF]. They can also opt for a 20% discount on anything ordered from Creative's online store. Creative has made available all of the necessary legal forms. Seagate lost a similar lawsuit late last year.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article...28239&from=rss

[Firestormalpha]

It raises the plausibility factor. I still find it odd that they'd send this kind of notification via email.

[Bungleau]

I looked on the site, and email is one of the avenues they're using to communicate the info. I've seen it just published in newspapers, so email isn't too outlandish... at least, not as one of several means.