TODO - I have this email archived as subject: "PSN-SOE-Canada Settlement" and I should post it up here for completeness.
I lot of people have been getting a "PSN-SOE-Canada Settlement" letter.
People are saying it's legit.
They're full of shit.
[edit: Yep, it was a hoax]
- According to The Supreme Court of Canada, case numbers are five digits. The supposed "CV-11 425487-00CP" from the settlement agreement is fake.
- According to The Supreme Court of Canada, there is no case filed under either Maksimovic or Sony.
- The claim form is to be sent to a motherfucking PO box. The Canadian Supreme Court is in Ottawa, not Toronto. (301 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0J1)
- Sony doesn't have my email address. Who sent that email?
-
The claim form is undated and mostly-unsigned. Is that the proper document to even be listing? Why does it look like a fax?
Are people so used to shitty spelling and grammar in spam that something well crafted flies under their radar?
OH MA GAWD TEHR WEBSIET HAZ FRANGLAIS ITZ LEGIT!
Give me a proper link to a proper government website's actual docs, or shut the fuck up.
- Natasha Maksimovic may or may not exist. How can I learn from a more legitimate source?
-
pcworld re-posts an article from gamepro.com but their source link is broken / redirects back to pcworld, who doesn't have the article anywhere. Is their search feature broken?
Re-posted articles
Last updated 2018-07-05 at 19:18:06
"Possible Reasons:
The case or document you are searching for may not yet be entered into the database. Because of the volume of the material filed with the Court, it can take up to a week to open a case and documents in a case will not necessarily be entered in the database on the date that they are filed with the Court.
The database has not been updated. The internet database is updated each evening, which means that entries will appear the day after they are entered. Entries related to judgments by the Court, however, are generally updated by noon the same day the judgment is issued.
The case predates 1988 when the Court launched its automated case management system. Older cases have very limited information entered in the database. If you would like information about an older case, please contact the Registry Office.
If you are looking for a case summary, these are posted on average four weeks after a leave application is submitted for decision or four weeks before an appeal is to be heard.
If you are looking for a factum, these are posted within two weeks before an appeal is to be heard."
Straight from the website. Learn to read. Or rather, learn to take the time to absorb information.
1. Note that the Supreme Court of Canada isn't involved here, but rather the Ontario Superior Court. Not that I can find any reference to this case on the latter's website; decisions can be searched for at http://web.archive.org/web/20130407140608/http://www.ontariocourts.ca:80/scj/en/about/scj-en.htm but maybe this case hasn't been decided yet, strictly speaking.
[blog owner edit]
That link is dead. It's archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20130407140608/http://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/en/about/scj-en.htm
Perhaps see https://web.archive.org/web/20150707212029/www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions_index/2013.htm
Perhaps see https://coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/nav_date.do (( was [[archive:https://www.ontariocourts.ca/coa/decisions_main/decisions-2013/|]] ))
2. See 1.
3. Agreed, a PO Box seems fishy. But again, the Supreme Court is not involved so an address in Toronto isn't unreasonable.
4. Have you ever signed up for any Sony service? Could someone have ever signed up for any Sony service using your email address? Ok, the latter case is reaching a bit...
5. Faxes are depressingly rather common for these sorts of things. Something about the legality of a document sent by fax having been well established... So a fax-quality document might not be a sign of a scam.
The closet thing to anything official I can find which is not on the settlement website itself is on the websites of the plaintiffs' lawyers:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221130074819/https://www.mcst.ca/ClassActions/ClassActionsHome/SonyPSN/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110510015310/https://www.merchantlaw.com/classactions/playstation.php
https://web.archive.org/web/20220811080822/http://lblavocats.ca/en/class-actions/responsibility/active/Sony.php
None of which have been updated with information about the settlement. I agree that some reference on a Government of Canada website would be much more trustworthy.
It would be rather amusing if the alleged settlement of a class action involving privacy issues and identity theft turned out to be fraudulent and used to collect personal information for more identity theft...