A shadowy network of Arizona-based Internet companies that used public records to demand money from sex offenders and harass those who complained has imploded amid lawsuits, court hearings and new standards enacted by banks, social media and technology companies.
The websites, including Offendex.com, SORArchives and Sexoffenderrecord.com, in November stopped seeking payments from people in exchange for removing profiles, blaming the change on “many conflicts, threats, unreasonable requests and false accusations about this website.”
The move followed decisions by MasterCard, Visa, Discover and PayPal to stop processing transactions from what many describe as extortion websites. Google also changed its formula to prevent sites from using search-engine algorithms to increase viewership and monetize on public records such as police mugshots. Full Article
These guys ruined my life!
“Maricopa County Superior Court judge sets deadline to remove all posts about defendants “
Does this mean they have to remove my information?!?!?
“Sex offenders are sometimes removed from state registries because their crimes have been reclassified and no longer are considered serious enough to require registration. Some offenders are required to register only with law enforcement, and their names would not appear on public registries.”
This describes me!!! I was shocked when law enforcement told me I wasn’t on the states registry, but I was on this scum bags sites!!!!!!!
“The websites advertised records for 750,000 sex offenders. The sites promised to protect families from the menace of sex offenders in their neighborhoods by providing access to present and past criminal records.”
That’s just about every registrant in the US!!!!!!! Both on and not on the states website!!!
“In 2006, the demand for subscriptions to search public records plummeted. Oesterblad said he and Rodrick didn’t have another company together until 2011, when Rodrick approached him about a new website called Offendex.com to collect money from sex offenders. “
This is when my career exploded in mid flight!; in 2006. I had finally reached the top! I worked so hard and for years! I’ve lost EVERYTHING!; my house, standing among my peers, the ability to take care of my self; everything! I can’t even maintain my vehicles properly! They Destroyed my career! My life! Because of them I cant use the people associated with some of the best things I’ve achieved on a resume! I have to live with a family member and depend upon them for some of my most basic needs! I’ve been independent my entire life until these scumbags launched this scheme to extort money! Now I live in solitary confinement because I can’t get a job or afford to do anything most of the time!
“No criminal charges have been filed. “
I’m so ANGRY RIGHT NOW!!! I’M POUNDING MY KEYBOARD!!! Pretty sure there will be no sleep tonight unless I can get my head to turnoff!
I am a little confused… they suspended the extortion portion of their website (asking for money in exchange for deleting a profile from their list), but the web site itself is still up and running? And now everyone who is listed on that site with incorrect data, or those who should not be on a public web site, or those who are not even required to register will be so forever, as long as these guys pay for hosting and the domain name? Just without the option of paying for removal.
Regardless, much appreciation for all who participate in ridding the world of these parasites.
This is very punitive and harmful to registrants and their families. Wonder if these people can be identified and persued as they persue those on the registry both legally and illegally? In the ranks of those on the registry surely there are those that are computer and research capable. Sounds like a good way to organize and focus resources at these kind of problems and people.
I remember back in the late 1990s some jerk started publishing Megan’s Law stuff on a Website, and the State of CA forced him to take it all down. Back then, the way to look that stuff up was to go to the police station with ID, etc. Thanks to that scumbag Nicole Parra and her circus of idiots in the CA legislature along with Governor Terminator, once the state started publishing this stuff online, all bets were off, and then sites like these had a field day. They don’t care whose lives they ruin – even if it’s innocent family members of registered citizens. I guess the ideology “if it saves one child” doesn’t apply if that child is related to a registered citizen. I hope Nicole Parra and her minions along with these dirt bags burn in hell!!!! They make me sick!!!
Before Google changed it’s algorithm, a search of my name would bring up no less than five results from these sites on the very first page. Now, it takes going through many pages to find any of them, except for one…Homefacts.com, which is a cover for the same type of extortion site and is on the second page with a mugshot on the first page. Someone needs to go after them as well!
I think it was Loder I was thinking of. Quoted from Kilgore v. Younger, 30 Cal. 3d 770, but I’m not a lawyer and it may not be right on point.
See Penal Code sections 11075- 11081, 11105, 11140- 11144; ante, at pages 785-787, footnotes 2, 3 and 4. As this court noted in Loder v. Municipal Court (1976) 17 Cal.3d 859, 872-874 [132 Cal.Rptr. 464, 553 P.2d 624], these statutes were intended to control improper dissemination of criminal records. Also, they make criminal any unlawful disclosures. (See Pen. Code, §§ 11141- 11143.)
As this court acknowledged in White v. Davis (1975) 13 Cal.3d 757, 775 [120 Cal.Rptr. 94, 533 P.2d 222], the right of privacy amendment to the state Constitution was addressed, in part, to the unlawful dissemination and misuse of an individual’s governmental records. Therefore, the violation of these statutes has constitutional dimensions. When the Attorney General violates a statute by publishing confidential material, he cannot be said to have properly discharged his duties. Since Civil Code section 47, subdivision 1 relates to privileged publications, it is the unlawful publication which is not privileged.
Here, if the Attorney General knew or should have known that the publication of confidential material violated clear constitutional or statutory law when he published it, then he could not be said to be “properly discharging his official duties.” (Cf. Wood v. Strickland (1975) 420 U.S. 308, 322 [43 L.Ed.2d 214, 225, 95 S.Ct. 992].) He has no absolute privilege to do so under Civil Code section 47, subdivision 1.
Doesn’t Sentinel of Miami, makers of software used by MySpace and Facebook (Sentinel SAFE) whose CEO in 2009 was former NYC police office John Cardillo, fall into the same category… Unlawful use of the registry information?
Should not this company also be told to stay away from the registry information and should not the sites be ordered to block the software from accessing the registry sites?