Yes, like the plague. DO not sign up (if you value your privacy) , do not go there or try to use that horrendous service. For those of you not victimized yet, Shelfari is a funded startup aiming to be a book sharing site.

During sign up, a very dodgy page asks you for your an email ID and its password (bells should start ringing now in your head). In good faith, given that the site looks ok, lets say you do it. Now, it gets interesting…

In what looks like a sincere page, it scans your email address book (by this time you should be closing the window but you dont, so oh well lets go on…)and it asks you to select users you may want to invite what Shelfari. It doesnt matter if you select one or none or three. What it actually does is that without any consideration for your choice it goes into your email account, gets everyone’s email id and sends them emails -repeatedly– pushing them to join Shelfari. So they ask you to select, but its not really sincere cause they just spam everyone anyway. Think of it like someone asking for your cellphone on the street and then calling everyone in your address book asking them to buy stuff. Yeah, its that bad.

And this means that everyone in your email account from you Aunt Shumi to your boss gets weird unsolicited spam emails every few days asking them to join Shelfari.Aunties you can manage but imagine how pissed you boss would be…especially if it keeps coming up on his/her blackberry while he/she’s talking to other high-up-theres. Ouch.

This is exactly what has happened to 2 people who signed up for it separately. And yes, because I knew them I too got spammed by Shelfari. Shelfari might sound like a good service, but it is a terrible first date, especially when it looks into my email account without asking. bad bad bad! I dont like to use any service that breaches my trust in the first 5 minutes…

For another nightmare shelfari sign up experience, go here: http://table4five.net/?s=shelfari

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