Extortion - Harassment as a business model WTF?

Never trust a guy with eyes that close together. Did he get stuck in his Mom's birth canal? He looks deformed in the face.

"Originally Posted by zef View Post:

I saw on another forum that people have downloaded the contact info for all of the criminals he has listed on his site, and they are sending his name and address to all of the criminals he is trying to extort money from."

Actually yes the site is easily downloadable and someone pointed out that the above could be done. Would take some man hours so probably noone is doing it.

Just do the smart thing and fold the site

Lots of muscle going out from GFY lately EVERYONE reads this site hehe

And his ears and haircut. I vote sped.

Someone needs to teach them about WGET

Is anyone wagering on how long it takes his face to get busted after a posted criminal sees him out and about? That is not a face easily forgotten and is one only a mother could love.

I would totally date her, btw:

Exactly. He's picking a segment of the population that is capable of that.

Maybe I'll go DL 5 mugshot sites and they can also realize how vulnerable they are to having an army of thugs after them from one batch mail drop.

Might as well take out all mugshot/arrest warrant sites too while were at it.

Johnny Law is in town latelty. You can smell the mace in the air

Bad boys, bad boys, whacha gonna do...

He's going to be infamous soon.

I just got an email from the Kansas City Star. They already had a reporter investigating this guy. I sent his name to the columnist that writes about workplace issues. She said a staff reporter was on it. She said it creeps her out.

Bet he ends up front page or front page metro, as newspapers love these kind of expo stories. I'll post the article soon as it comes out.

Disgusting just as said above.

Suing this guy will blaze a trail into areas not very well trod before. There are some really dreadful cases that say there is no constitutinal liberty interest in one's good name. Case arose when police circulated a sheet with mug shots of "known shoplifters" to stores during the holiday season and at least one innocent guy's picture was listed.

This operator is taking awful and unfair advantage of a principal in our American way of doing things that booking information must always be public and open to the press etc. in order to prevent the police from the kind of secret arrests that caused all the trouble down in South America with people missing - missing forever - at police hands.

Ten to one he's staffed this model of business out with an attorney, that he knows the risks, and that he thinks it's worth the risk to make some serious money. Many lawyers would love to take the smile off his face and I'm one of them.

Well hopefully someone takes you up on that offer!

False Arrest Warrants

So you want a client with "standing" for false arrest warrants? I seem to have "an warrant outstanding." It could be a reason hot to hire issue.

That is a horrible thing to do. Hopefully some sadistic ex-con will murder him and his family.

wishing murder on an obvious dickhead is a bit much, but 'and his family'? don't be such a cunt...

Okay, you're right, I don't want to wish death on anybody - that's just asking for bad karma. Maybe just invade his home, tie him up, and rape his wife while he watches.


Edit: I thought the English "got" that kind of dry, ironic humor...

I'm not English, I'm reptilian.

My apologies, went totally over my head

A cogent post, as always sir....




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QFT

Apparently the local news is going to do a story on this scumbag.

Just saw at kcsr that it is supposed to be on our local ABC affiliate (KMBC - 9) at 10 tonight.

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The news story seems to think this guy is doing a community service.

Yeah, showed up on channel 4 our local fox affiliate dontcha know.

From his facebook page:


I haven't watched the interview yet but have already heard it was pretty soft soap.

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agreed positive spin on it but expected from Fox

He just jedi-mind fucked everybody.

Put all of his own dirt out there on TV...

Bravo to him.

The Star did an ok article on him. http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/28...formation.html

Love this part:

And This
Lol.

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Front page.

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This is still going on over at the KC forum. They really have this guy running scared. He changes his entire business model about twice a day.

Yeah, he just keeps dancing and dancing.

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Blabber boy just posted on KCSR that he is throwing in the towel and killing the site. Good stuff.

Let's see if he sticks with it:

He obviously didn't think this all the way thru. Probably just added the number of profiles he put up, divided by 2 (i'm sure he was certain he'd get 50% to pay) times $200 and thought he'd make enough to cover his drug and hooker tab.

7 days... The internet pwns.

LOL!

I need to change my biz...
Gonna start a startup here in Portugal based on that biz model...
Do they franchise it for Portugal?

From KCSR...Man, those guys were thorough...



Owner shuts down Blabbermouthkc.com, citing huge backlash

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/05...outhkccom.html

Owner shuts down Blabbermouthkc.com, citing huge backlash
BY CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star

Owner shuts down Blabbermouthkc.com, citing huge backlash

A website that published addresses and photographs of people arrested in Johnson County and offered to remove the embarrassing information for a fee shut down Thursday after a massive backlash.

Matthew Creed of Shawnee said the site would remain down indefinitely. He said he was working with possible investors and might restart it with a different focus and different name.

Creed, 30, said he received death threats and had to relocate his family, which includes two small children, after news spread about his website. Many people objected to his business concept and thought he was trying to profit off people already down on their luck.

?This guy is just a bottom-feeding vulture,? said Jay Norton, a lawyer in Johnson County who had clients featured on the website. ?The idea that he was trying to help the community is a total farce.?

Many people also questioned whether the site violated state laws. The Johnson County District Attorney?s office said Thursday it still was investigating.

When Creed started the site, Blabbermouthkc.com, in May, he said he thought he had found a legal way to publish mugshots and ask arrestees for up to $199.99 to delete the information. He sent letters to dozens of people arrested in May and June in envelopes with their mugshots printed on the outside next to the words: ?We know ??

The letters congratulated recipients on their recent release from jail and noted their arrests were ?obviously embarrassing to you and your family.?

?We have already started blabbing to the world about your release from jail, and we want to make you aware of our services, as we kind of have a big mouth,? the letters said.

If the recipients didn?t pay up, they risked having their neighborhoods flooded with fliers about their arrests, his letter said. The so-called ?blitz notification? would be triggered by a request from the public. No fliers were ever distributed.

He said he thought the system was workable but wondered whether people would gripe about it too much.

?And people griped about it way too much,? he said.

Creed said he knew he was delving into gray areas of the law but thought he remained on the right side of the legal line. If he restarts a similar business, he said he would ensure the model stays ?a lot farther away from the line.?

Creed posted a note admitting defeat Thursday on kcsr.org, a local message board. Its members had united against Creed after a member who had been featured on Blabbermouthkc.com posted the letter he received from Creed. The members said they thought Creed?s business model amounted to blackmail.

?You win,? Creed wrote. ?I?m sincerely sorry to have pissed so many people off, caused the trouble I did, and for everything else. ? Can?t change what?s been done ... the past is the past, and I apologize.?

He also asked kcsr.org?s owner to take down photos and personal information posted by message board members about Creed?s family members who had been arrested. Creed said he didn?t care whether the message board left up the information about his own 2010 DUI arrest, but he asked it not to punish his relatives.

?No hard feelings on my side ... sometimes an initial idea doesn?t pan out and needs to go back to the drawing board, and you guys made me realize that,? he wrote.

Creed said he intended for his website to deter crime by notifying the public about people who got arrested. His site allowed users to click on a map to check on their neighbors.

At one point the site featured more than 900 mugshots of people, most of whom had not been convicted. Many had been arrested for DUI, but some were arrested for failing to show up for court for simple traffic tickets.

One person said that her face was posted on the website after a charge against her had been dropped. The 43-year-old woman said the charge came about after she locked herself out of her home over the Memorial Day weekend and broke a window to get inside. Prior to breaking the window, she pounded on her door to awaken her boyfriend, and the ruckus caused a neighbor to call police.

She was booked into jail for criminal damage to property, but a judge dropped the charge within 12 hours.

Still, her mugshot was posted and remained on the website until this week. She was one of dozens of arrestees who received letters from Creed.

?It really did scare me when I got the letter,? said Stacie, who didn?t want her last name published because she didn?t want to be linked to a criminal act she hadn?t committed. ?I thought, ?I?m being blackmailed.?

?I know these are public record, but he made me feel like some sort of criminal. ? I didn?t think it could be legal.?

The letter recipient who posted his letter on kcsr.org said he wasn?t overly concerned about his DUI arrest being publicized. Instead, he was concerned that it felt like he was being blackmailed.

?It didn?t seem like he was doing it for the community,? he said. ?I didn?t need someone telling me I messed up. I already knew I messed up.?

As the firestorm about the letters grew, Creed pledged to send retraction letters to clarify that he wasn?t threatening anyone. But Creed never sent any retractions because he did not know everyone who received the first letters, he said Thursday. He said that a hacker corrupted all his files on Tuesday and that he had to buy a new laptop computer.

Creed initially planned to revamp the website to focus only on DUI, drug and sex offenders. He registered his website as a nonprofit organization and removed the neighborhood service, and made other changes. But this week he decided to pull the plug entirely.

He declined to say how many people paid him to remove their personal information. But the map on his website ? before it was shut down ? indicated people at seven addresses had paid.

Creed said he didn?t make any money off the website. Any funds received went to offset the start-up costs, he said.

He?s now considering a member-based ?safety-watch? type website, he said.

?Everything?s up in the air for now,? he said. ?There are so many different avenues that this thing can potentially go before I go back and brave the firestorm I did.?

Meanwhile, the owner of kcsr.org, Erik Razdins, remained cautious.

?If it (Creed?s website) truly is down, I think it?s a great victory,? he said.

To reach Christine Vendel, call 816-234-4438 or send email to [email protected].

He may have shut the site down but according to Kansas law he has some liability!

From the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) FAQs

If I want to use a record that has names and/or addresses on it, so that I can contact the people listed in order to sell them something, may a public agency deny me access?

Yes. The public agency cannot provide you with those names and addresses if you want to use that list in order to contact those listed in an attempt to sell them a service or product. K.S.A. 45-230 prohibits giving or using information contained in public records for that purpose.

http://ag.ks.gov/legal-services/open-govt/kora-faq

May God have mercy on his miserable soul. The people he hurt can't be expected to show any mercy. This guy makes the worst of the worst that we've each encountered in the adult Internet look like Boy Scouts. He went out of his way to hurt people.

I get the feeling though that he made his and his family's life a miserable hell with all the threats they got and having to move. I bet he was afraid to even venture out of the house and it just got to the point where he had close it down and hope people would leave him alone if he apologized.