Thread: is mcat or valuemd selling people's private information to caribbean medical schools?

Ever since I finished my mcat six months ago, I started to receive more mails from caribbean md schools than ever before and even my own email account had started to receive spamms from caribbean medical schools. Am I the only one who is experiencing this trend or is this the norm? Does this mean that mcat is pawning exam takers' personal information to ad companies?

Originally Posted by eastern2western

Ever since I finished my mcat six months ago, I started to receive more mails from caribbean md schools than ever before and even my own email account had started to receive spamms from caribbean medical schools. Am I the only one who is experiencing this trend or is this the norm? Does this mean that mcat is pawning exam takers' personal information to ad companies?

yeah its kinda wierd, i recieved a email from a "student" from SGU telling me how he loves his choice, and that i should check it out and he gave me all the numbers and website.
strange thing i have never applied to sgu or spoken to any students from there, it was out of the blue and no one has my email. it was strange

As far as the question regarding VMD selling email addresses, I can answer that for you ... NO, VMD WILL NEVER SELL ANYONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS as per our privacy policy.

The only way any third party can obtain your email address via VMD is if you post it or if you email another user (rather than PM). For this reason, we recommend against posting your email address and we recommend using VMD's Private Message (PM) system rather than email.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Doc

As far as the question regarding VMD selling email addresses, I can answer that for you ... NO, VMD WILL NEVER SELL ANYONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS as per our privacy policy.

The only way any third party can obtain your email address via VMD is if you post it or if you email another user (rather than PM). For this reason, we recommend against posting your email address and we recommend using VMD's Private Message (PM) system rather than email.

Hope this helps.

The thing is that I started to get post cards and brochures from sgu and ross in my mail. From my recollection, mcat required personal addresses for proper registration. Does this mean that mcat is making money from exam fees, prep courses and also selling information to telemarketting companies?

Originally Posted by eastern2western

The thing is that I started to get post cards and brochures from sgu and ross in my mail. From my recollection, mcat required personal addresses for proper registration. Does this mean that mcat is making money from exam fees, prep courses and also selling information to telemarketting companies?

If the only thing you have done was sign up for the MCAT and NOTHING else, it can be inferred that they gave out the information to third parties. If I was you I will check their privacy agreement and see what does it say concerning the release of e-mail addresses to third parties for marketing purposes.

Hope that helps,

Good luck!

Max

i'm pretty sure the mcat gives out info to whoever will buy it. after i took it, i started getting emails and calls from schools both in the US and the caribbean

Originally Posted by kemper6036

i'm pretty sure the mcat gives out info to whoever will buy it. after i took it, i started getting emails and calls from schools both in the US and the caribbean

Thanks for the report. At first, I though it was just my own paranoia but it seems to be a norm for people who have taken mcat. I know for sure valuemd is not involve into the selling of information business, despite its major income is from ads. However, I am very sure mcat sold my information to the highest bidders because it required test takers to give out their email address and home address for proper registration.