by Nick Taylor

If you’re like me, you get at least an email a day from MyLife.com. It says: “You May Have a Personal Review.” It goes on to say that an “old friend, colleague, relative or ex may have reviewed you. See what they had to say.”

Then there’s the news that I’ve had one review and my personal rating has changed. How it changes based on one review is anybody’s guess. MyLife makes it clear they have my name, address, phone number and age, as if to prove how vulnerable I am.

I never click on the “View Details Now” window because from what I read of consumer reviews that’s a route to being scammed. For example, after looking at the MyLife website I got an email that thanked me for visiting, and told me, “We may have found at least 1 negative record on your background report . . .” Which I can access for $1.

Not one review I’ve read says anything with MyLife stops at $1. You’re invited to join at an introductory monthly rate, but if you give your credit card info you’re charged for a year. Refunds are hard to get, say the reviews.

Okay, so MyLife has the same information anybody could have gotten from an old phone book. It tells me I’ve had one review, shows a rating of 3.5 of 5 stars, and tries to push my worry buttons by telling me somebody else may have reviewed me and that my rating has changed.

I’ve also been invited by email to make millions by helping the children of Nigerian princes to relocate their money to the United States using my bank account information.

But today’s MyLife emails were worse. They invited me to write reviews about people I know. One of them was a friend I see in person fairly often. I also correspond with him from time to time by email, and we are Facebook friends. Facebook is surely the exposure culprit here.

And if I reviewed him, MyLife undoubtedly would pepper him with incessant prompts to find out what his new reviewer may have said.

The second email asked me to review my neighbors across the street: “Write a good review about your neighbors and they’ll probably do the same for you.“ Maybe so, but why would either of us care? So home shoppers on my street would be more or less eager to move in? No, this invitation to invade my neighbors’ privacy is a first step MyLife’s route to their credit card information.

I’m going to write one review today. MyLife gets zero stars.

We emailed MyLife for a response, and so far we haven’t heard from the company.