Company Accused of Selling User Data Shuts Down After $104 Million Settlement (bleepingcomputer.com) 35
Catalin Cimpanu, reporting for BleepingComputer: The Federal Trade Commission has shut down the operator of a large network of online loan sites that promised to find people the loans with the lowest rates, but actually sold users' data to third-parties, most of which weren't even lenders. The target of FTC's ire is a company named Blue Global Media, LLC and its CEO, Christopher Kay, against which the FTC filed an official complaint last Monday, July 3. According to the FTC, since 2012 Blue Global Media operated a network of 38 websites that promised users to match them with the best payday, personal, or auto loans using Blue Global Media's proprietary technology. Hoping to find loans with the smaller interest rate and friendlier terms, users entered a slew of personal details on Blue Global Media's websites, such as names, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, financial and banking information, driver's license, state ID numbers, income data, military status, home ownership info, and many other more.
They should have been a bank? (Score:3)
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Or an information broker like Acxiom. That company, and its competitors, do exactly what this company does.
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Re:No rock large enough to hide under.. (Score:4, Funny)
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Sounds like the company is just filing for bankruptcy and will only pay a small amount of the fine. They should also seize personal assets from the CEO, high likelihood he is skating with millions of dollars made from this illegal behaviour over the past 5-years.
They did go after him. It says so in the summary. The official complaint (link in the second paragraph) lists him as a defendant (as well as the company). He is personally liable here.
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>He is personally liable here.
That's all well and good, but the sucker should be held to answer criminally. He should do five years or so in prison with the kind of people that actually use payday loans and such not some Club Fed with his fellow embezzlement artists and the like.
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They should also seize personal assets from the CEO, high likelihood he is skating with millions of dollars made from this illegal behaviour over the past 5-years.
IANAL, but this is why both sleaze-bags and legit people alike incorporate, to avoid personal exposure. So unless there was calculated fraud that lead to actual losses, my *guess* (again, IANAL) is that creditors and wronged folks alike are SOL except for the lawyers perhaps, Everyone else will get a cupon for $1 off a Whopper at your choice of locations.
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Incorporation only protects you from personal civil liability, it does nothing to insulate you from criminal liability. Further, if there is fraud or certain other types of crime, incorporation does not protect you from prosecution or recovery by victims.
However, you may be right in that the feds will confiscate all of his assets, but it will only amount to a few bucks per person he defrauded.
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Incorporation only protects you from personal civil liability, it does nothing to insulate you from criminal liability. Further, if there is fraud or certain other types of crime, incorporation does not protect you from prosecution or recovery by victims.
However, you may be right in that the feds will confiscate all of his assets, but it will only amount to a few bucks per person he defrauded.
You know, I think that in addition to investigating and pursuing these types of companies the FTC should have a "How to" guide for filing in small claims court and using their settlements as evidence. I do not know if the FTC actually pays the victims of these sort of scams so I do enjoys the thought of thousands of default judgments chasing these assholes for the rest of their life.
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Criminal prosecution is better. If they are not criminally convicted, they can often declare bankruptcy, shield their assets offshore or with other shady methods and those they stole from are SOL. If they are criminally convicted, I don't think you can get rid of judgments against you through bankruptcy, though IANAL.
Death Sentence for a Corporation (Score:2)
I approve.
As long as we maintain good unemployment benefits and job placement programs for the displaced workers, that is.
As scummy as this company was, most of the employees were regular people who did nothing wrong.
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As scummy as this company was, most of the employees were regular people who did nothing wrong.
Except "follow orders". I swear there is a historical reference for this type of defense...
We really need to get out of this mentality that a company or corporation is "someone", or anyone, besides the people who run it/work for it.
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I get a couple of calls a week from the IRS and Credit Card scammers... I wonder how many of those people think they are actually doing legitimate work?
None
They are known spammers. (Score:2)
They have been hiring spammers to advertise for years. They have been sued for illegal spam.
Why would anyone provide such confidential information to a spammer?
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he submitted a request thru lendingtree to find out rates and downpayments and such.
no good/real offers came of it, just a bunch of scammers/bad deals.
according to some data brokers, he bought that house and lived there when they do an 'identifty verification' online, which typically asks you a few questions that only you should know.
10 years later he still gets scam calls trying to refinance a house he never bought.
Sure, $104M settlement, but how much did they make (Score:1)
I bet they made 10x that, so it was still no real deterrent.
Who's going to jail in the CxO level of that company? If there were VCs funding them, which ones, and are they being fined as well enough to make it hurt?
Are any of the other parties that bankrolled them being punished?
And is the $104M actually going to do to people who might need those loans, or to rich lawyers?
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