[ewjordan]

Did you see the actual advertisement?

Illegal, maybe not...but malicious? Certainly. An advertisement just doesn't come out accidentally looking like it's an invoice from the Yellow Pages (the real ones), that takes effort. The intent is crystal clear, it's not to convince someone that they would gain something from your service, it's to trick them into thinking that they already owe the money.

Really, now - can anyone honestly imagine any plausible scenario by which this "business model" could have been devised other than "Hey, I've got a great idea, Yellow Pages is not a trademarked term, let's print up an ad that looks like one of their bills and send it to millions of small businesses, some of them probably won't read the fine print and they'll pay up, thinking that they'll be removed from the Yellow Pages if they don't!"

If you really think this was more innocent than that, I've got a bridge to sell you. Even if it's legal, this is some shameful shit, and that Hashrocket is associated with (let alone founded by) these douchebags casts a long dark shadow over its image...

[lesterbuck]

An advertisement just doesn't come out accidentally looking like it's an invoice from the Yellow Pages

Of course not. They sent out almost 20 million pieces of email over the years, so what were they doing?

Testing all the f*cking time!