Internet Mafia Extort Money from the Arrested

11 posts / 0 new
Login or register to post comments
Last post
#1
Top
akai
Offline
Joined: 29-09-06
Feb 22 2013 16:14
Internet Mafia Extort Money from the Arrested

This is one for the American comrades. I just learned about something I didn't know existed, I am furious and am wondering if people have any experience with this or advice.

It turns out that my niece (from the US), has a bit of a problem. She's had a few run-ins with the police and it turns out that some websites publish the mug shots of people with information about their crimes. And, if you want to remove the information, you are supposed to pay these bastards 200, 300, 400 dollars of more. My niece is on at least a half dozen websites.

I am completely furious. I suppose that using access to public information, a few scumbags are making money off this. I can imagine how hard it is for the victims of this shit to get a job or anything and essentially they are ruining people's lives. It is bad enough this information is in the system, but these extortionists are really shits.

Does anybody know if people are fighting this outrageous shit?

Some examples:

http://www.justmugshots.com/ Wants to charge 437.99 to remove the mugshot.
http://www.bustedmugshots.com $98 to apply for removal (not clear if additional costs for removal)
http://www.mugshotsworld.com $200 for removal
http://mugarchive.com price unknown
http://www.mugshotsonline.com price unknown
www.arrests.org

#2
Top
akai
Offline
Joined: 29-09-06
Feb 22 2013 16:35

I see that there is a lawsuit: http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2012/12/05/Web-sites-profiting-from-mug-shots-sued-fees-charged-to-remove-online-images.html
But I was wondering if activists are doing anything about this?

#3
Top
Khawaga's picture
Khawaga
Offline
Joined: 7-08-06
Feb 22 2013 16:43

This sort of stuff is what anonymous could do something about.

#4
Top
Kirk
Offline
Joined: 22-02-13
Feb 22 2013 17:38

It doesn't fit the definition of extortion at all. In order to have extortion you must have a clear and definite threat, be it physical or to reputation. Here there are no threats. These people are publishing public records and then people, without ever first being contacted, want these records hidden and contact those publishers to hide or remove their dirty laundry. It's as if CNN wrote something bad about you and you wanted it deleted. As they say, everyone has a price. CNN would gladly remove content if you pay a high enough price. Guaranteed.

#5
Top
akai
Offline
Joined: 29-09-06
Feb 22 2013 17:54

Fucking shit, what a crap answer. Wish we could get the real names and addresses of people like you and put them on the internet on some sort of reactionary idiot watch.

#6
Top
Tim Finnegan's picture
Tim Finnegan
Offline
Joined: 16-05-12
Feb 22 2013 22:48

Seems like a self-defeating business model to me. If this information is publicly access, then it doesn't matter if you pay off one site, another can stick it up again a week later, and another, and another. It doesn't seem like it should take that long before there are so many of these sites that nobody bothers paying any of them and the whole thing becomes redundant. (What happens then, I don't know; most shut down, the model becomes viable again, starting the cycle afresh?)

#7
Top
Kirk
Offline
Joined: 22-02-13
Feb 23 2013 00:38

Hey Akai, you don't have to like my answer, it's just the facts. I could care less either way.

#8
Top
radicalgraffiti
Offline
Joined: 4-11-07
Feb 23 2013 00:59
Kirk wrote:
Hey Akai, you don't have to like my answer, it's just the facts. I could care less either way.

fuck of you stupid tosser

#9
Top
Kirk
Offline
Joined: 22-02-13
Feb 23 2013 04:15

I bet your mugshot is on Mugshots.com or one of those sites. You sound like a criminal.

#10
Top
akai
Offline
Joined: 29-09-06
Feb 23 2013 09:38

This wasn't a question about whether the business model makes sense. This is about the lives of many thousands of people who get blacklisted from potential employment because of this. Obviously, this problem is most severe for poor kids who are disadvantaged for finding employment to begin with and don't have a few hundred bucks to pay off, even if they wanted to. Of course this is part of the reactionary asshole culture which seeks to permanently criminalize anybody who ran afoul of the law and punish them additionally by marginalizing them further in society. These sort of idiot "anti-criminal" asswipes of the system don't take into account that a good deal of those arrested are poor young people, for small crime such as shoplifting, possession,etc. This shit, combined with the reactionary mentality, threaten to permanently marginalize these people, increasing the likelihood they will be dependent on the criminal milieu for economic survival. We can also see the potential for blacklisting political activists in this way - imagine you have some felony property damage, rioting or something like that.

America is a truly horrible society and seems like instead of coming up with solutions for the poor and kids exposed to criminal environments growing up, they just extend the punishment industry, this time to profit a bunch of worthless scumbags.

#11
Top
Uncreative's picture
Uncreative
Offline
Joined: 11-10-09
Feb 23 2013 15:33
Kirk wrote:
I could care less either way.

You cared so little about what akai thought that you felt the need to log on to the internet, log into your libcom account, check this thread, read what they wrote, and then write a reply.