Possible new coercion technique?

This is the first time I have heard of the "Alcoholics Anonymous get your mugshot off the web for free card", but it is a very profitable business. I wonder if Matthew Creed is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous in Kansas?

Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again

By David Kravets August 2, 2011 1:52 pm

...... Exploiting Florida’s liberal public-records laws and Google’s search algorithms, a handful of entrepreneurs are making real money by publicly shaming people who’ve run afoul of Florida law. Florida.arrests.org, the biggest player, now hosts more than 4 million mugs.

On the other side of the equation are firms like RemoveSlander, RemoveArrest.com and others that sometimes charge hundreds of dollars to get a mugshot removed. On the surface, the mug-shot sites and the reputation firms are mortal enemies. But behind the scenes, they have a symbiotic relationship that wrings cash out of the people exposed.

Florida.arrests.org is the brainchild of a computer-savvy Florida ex-con named Rob Wiggen. The 32-year-old served three years in federal prison for participating in a small-time credit-card-skimming operation (.pdf) out of a Mexican restaurant in Tallahassee.

When he got out of jail in 2007, he was looking for more legitimate opportunities. Last year he seized on the idea of repurposing the booking photos that Florida police departments are obliged to make public under the state’s sunshine laws.......

Read it all:http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/08/mugshots/

That's your primary fear? What about extortion? This guy is going to get himself killed by presuming to be judge, jury and cashier. Evidently he's not good for anything except siphoning money off people who are already down. Sound a little like your nemesis Bill Wilson?

Would you say he's doing anything illegal here? These are public records, but the demand for money is a shakedown. Is he within his legal rights to do this? I'm not even talking ethical or moral here; that obviously is not part of his language.

Due to a group of individuals negative light about BlabberMouth, we have removed the link for our charitable donation out of respect for the family.
The donations will be made and we will repost the link once we contact the family.

http://www.blabbermouthkc.com/

BlabberMouth
(913) 888-BLAB
P.O. Box 860313
Shawnee, KS 66286-0313

So, you got our letter about your Profile on our site?

BlabberMouth believes in running an ethical and moral business, which is why we mailed you a letter letting you know that your Profile is being featured on our site.

We are NOT in the business of "removing mugshots", as the primary focus of what we do is to notify the public-at-large of those whom have been released from jail and convicted of the charges in which these people have been accused of! However, due to the State Laws of Kansas and Missouri, we do have to offer an option to those individuals who are truly innocent of their charges, and to those that wish to voluntarily "opt-out" of our Notification Services, in order to protect the reputation of themselves and their family with the community in which they live.

We would prefer to NOT offer this option, however, we understand and believe that not everyone is guilty of the crimes/charges in which they have been accused of, and that your arrest can be embarrassing to you and your family and damaging to your personal and professional life.

Unfortunately, we do have to charge a fee in order to remove those profiles that that are eligible in order to discourage those who have been convicted of their crime from having their Profile pages removed. Once you are found innocent or all charges against you are dropped that are listed on your profile, the fee in which you paid is 105% refundable (see our "Refund" page).

Additionally, to give back to & better the community, we make monthly donations of 10% of the money we receive from removing profiles to the charities/organizations of our choice, such as: Fox 4 Love Fund for Children, Children's Miracle Network of Kansas City, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City, Law Enforcement Victim Services, M.A.D.D., and Toys for Tots (exclusively during the months of October-December). Once we make these donations, we will create a seperate "Charitable Donation" page to let you know who we donated to, and how much!

Source: http://www.blabbermouthkc.com/profile-removal.html

I hope that Matthew Creed of Shawnee, Kansas is an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) member. www.blabbermouthkc.com is breaking AA Anonymity Tradition 11 "Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films" in Johnson County, Kansas and will post on the website if you choose the "free" AA option ......

Free Removal Options
By selecting any of this option, we will note so on the page so others can be made aware that you are actively perusing one of these options.

Nickel Option:

Available only to those arrested for their FIRST or SECOND Driving Under The Influence charge.

We will remove your Profile at no charge after the attendance of 90 Alcoholic/Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

Source:http://www.blabbermouthkc.com/profile-removal.html

For those concerned about Matthew Creed of Shawnee, Missouri breaking the Anonymity of Alcoholics Anonymous members online, you can contact the following places or Alcoholics Anonymous at the Interchurch Center in New York:

SALINA KANSAS A.A.
Kansas Area A.A. Central Office
Salina KS Telephone: 913 823-3058

TOPEKA KANSAS A.A.
Topeka Area A.A. Answering Service
Topeka KS Telephone: 785 354-3888

ULYSSES KANSAS A.A.
United Service A.A. Intergroup
Ulysses KS Telephone: 316 356-3003

WICHITA KANSAS A.A.
A.A. Central Office
2812 E English
Wichita KS Telephone: 316 684-3661

is located in Shawnee, Kansas.

Registered Agent address is 6526 Noble Street, Shawnee, KS 66218

https://www.kansas.gov/bess/flow/main;jsessionid=FB25B0957C3EAB4D2A2BDBF...

In Oregon, we have .pdxmugshots.com. I believe the site owner charges $29.99 to 'remove' an
individuals entry. Then we have .thepotshot.com, where notable subjects are lambasted and slandered... for fun?

Smugness and serenity are not the same thing.

This is clear-cut extortion and blackmail:

Creed’s letters, sent to some of the arrestees, said that if they didn’t pay up they would risk having their neighborhood flooded with fliers — complete with mugshots — announcing their arrests. Letters started arriving in mailboxes Saturday.

I trust that the offender Creed will himself be in a mugshot by week's end.

For complete and very local coverage of the BlabberMouthkc. com see the "Kansas City Forum" at:

http://www.kcsr.org/showthread.php?p=1822670

See complete copies of the letters considered blackmail by some, replies by someone appearing to be the owners of BlabberMouth or their agents and the replies to them by the citizens. NOTE about the "Kansas City Forum" and its widespread use: Most users ever online was 4,886, 2011-11-30 at 08:36 AM. Threads: 412,297, Posts: 5,914,788, Members: 29,899

Hopefully Creed will "not be in Kansas anymore."

The yobs from the EU are conspicuously silent. Why? Because of the Data Protection Directive, soon to be Data Protection Regulation. Everyone, that means everyone is entitled to privacy and human rights.

If the US of A implement similar legislation or enter in the EU framework, 99.99% of all Orange Papers Forum blog and forum postings would not be allowed.

However, there have been exceptions to the rule:
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/23/11354339-olympian-outs-s...

If they have a criminal record in there past, you can "blitz" them and make sure they don't get that job instead of you! And it's FREE, just like if you go to Alcoholics Anonymous and want your picture taken down that we will append with the fact you are going to AA. If you aren't mandated and don't have a court card to sign, we will also provide one for you for $5 to prove you have been to AA!

Found someone on the site that was convicted of their crime you want us to Blab about?
All you need to do is give us a call at: (913) 888-BLAB and speak to one of our Public Notification Officers to get the process rolling!

There is no cost to you, and we will never store or reveal any of your personal information, allowing YOU TO REMAIN COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS!

There's no need to go door-to-door telling your neighbors about someone on our site! Don't get the reputation of being the "BlabberMouth" of your neighborhood... because that's who we are, and that's what we like to do!

How it works:
When we put up a new profile, we give that individual an exclusive 28-day "blackout" window, in which they can remove their "Profile" (intake picture, name, date of birth, and charges) from our site, IF the charges that are brought against them are eligible. We HAVE to offer this option because of State Laws in Kansas and Missouri.

After this "blackout" period has expired, and if the Profile is still active on our site, we then make our Public Notification Services available by request. Each profile lists what Notification Services are available on that person (not all services are available on everyone), and each service is only available once on that individual.

Not every individual is eligible to get their Profile removed, in which case there is no "blackout" period on that person's Profile. For those Profile's that are not eligible to be removed from our site, we immediately lift the "blackout" window as soon as the Profile is placed on our site.

How to request a Public Notification:
To request us to perform a Public Notification, you first have to call us at: (913) 888-BLAB. When you call us, we will request your basic information in order to comply with the State Laws of Kansas and Missouri to document that we didn't initiate the action to perform the Notification on that individual. Don't worry, this information stays internal and we will NEVER sell your information or release it to anyone... we believe in being up front and honest to the citizens and criminals of the community in which we serve, and one of our policies is to ensure that you remain completely anonymous!

There is no charge to you for having us to perform most of our services! We do request that a small donation be made on each of the services you request in order to help us cover our costs for performing these services to the public, and we accept any amount you wish to give. Once we get your request, we will begin to process the Notification internally. Unfortunately, not all Notification requests are approved for various reasons, including the severity of the charge brought against an individual or the status of the case, including expungement.

After we perform the Notification, we will update that person's profile to show that the Notification has been done!

Source: http://www.blabbermouthkc.com/notification-services.html

At BlabberMouth, you can buy a profile that someone has paid to have taken down for $2.99! It's till there and you can buy it! (NOTE: that they may also sell it to "other" websites to post so they can make money also!)

GHOST PROFILE

Even if a person has paid us to remove their Profile from our site, we still make a "Ghost Profile" available for purchase at any time. This Ghost Profile is a cached (saved) version of the Profile that was featured on our site that we will provide to you via e-mail within 24 hours of ordering.

We require the Name and Address of the individual, OR the full Profile ID number.

What YOU choose to do with this Ghost Profile is up to you... we simply provide you the information and you with full rights, and you can share it with who you wish!

$2.99 per profile.
To order a Ghost Profile, call us at: (913) 888-BLAB.

Source:http://www.blabbermouthkc.com/notification-services.html

Yelp Extortion: Sacramento Man Tries To Blackmail Restaurant With Bad Review: It's common knowledge that Yelp is often the vehicle for lengthy rants by angry restaurant patrons, but for extortion? That was the case earlier this month in Sacramento, when a Yelp user threatened to post a damaging review of Red Rabbit Kitchen and Bar and report it to health authorities unless the owner, Sonny Mayugba, agreed to pay him $100. The man alleged that he came down with a case of food poisoning after dining at the restaurant. Mayugba told The Sacramento Bee that although there was no way to substantiate the man's claim, he had initially offered the user a $60 gift card to a restaurant of his choice, at which point the man demanded the greater amount. Mayugba ultimately did not pay up, and it remains unclear if a negative review was ever posted. "I was so upset," Mayugba told the Bee. "He was taking something that was inherently good to use it as a tool to extort a restaurant. It was just so wrong." According to the paper, other restaurants even have a name for the practice: "Yelp extortion."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/yelp-extortion-sacramento_n_15562...