Are you listed on a commercial “mugshot” site? If so – there is a way to get off in Florida.
The parent company of Mugshots.com, a website that pulls arrest photos from local police departments, publishes them on the internet and then attempts to charge a fee to have the images removed, was sued in a Broward County court, after extorting the man for money in order to remove the image.
This is just one of a long line of cases in which the company has been sued. More bad news for the owners; they’ve been charged with extortion in California and two are already in custody.
In the past few years, a new business has emerged; online companies who post embarrassing information, such as arrests, and then charges victims a fee to remove them.
In 2018, the Florida legislature enacted a new law that says:
34 (2)âA person whose arrest booking photograph is published 35 or otherwise disseminated, or his or her legal representative, 36 may make a request, in writing, for the removal of an arrest 37 booking photograph to the registered agent of the person or 38 entity who published or otherwise disseminated the photograph. 39 The written request for removal of the arrest booking photograph 40 must be sent by registered mail and include sufficient proof of 41 identification of the person whose arrest booking photograph was 42 published or otherwise disseminated and specific information 43 identifying the arrest booking photograph that the written 44 request is seeking to remove. Within 10 days of receipt of the 45 written request for removal of the arrest booking photograph, 46 the person or entity who published or otherwise disseminated the 47 photograph shall remove the arrest booking photograph without 48 charge.
This law goes into effect.on July 1, 2018.
That means, beginning this July – you can write to the website owner and demand that your information be removed from their site.
We are still determining whether the law will impact sites such as http://www.bustedoffenders.com/, https://www.homefacts.com/offenders.html, whose business model is not to charge for removal, but to charge for a background check service or notifications.
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http://www.bocanewsnow.com in Florida needs to be shut down also. They operate as Metro Desk Media. They are a majority mugshot website and the rest is public shaming. I had them served. Their response is that Florida Statue 901.43 does not apply to them. Itâs a $1,000 dollar a day fine to not take it down. Letâs let it marinate to a nice six figures, maybe a year, and then I will see this guy in court. I will win as his site clearly is mugshot driven and the pages create profit with ad space and he sells advertising. Itâs a no brainer win. Others have lost just like he will.
If he is a halfway decent person just take it down now/before when asked and we forget about it as thatâs what anyone wants from the start. I guess the upside is if he plays for a year I may indeed cash in and look to maybe seek further damages. $365,000 could be nice compensation for ruining my name. Maybe more?
Anyone else harmed I suppose could go class action. I actually have the money to take it to trial which many people turned down may not. It would likely shut him down and break him financially. Thatâs honestly fair due to the harm he causes. What kind of human has no compassion even when served with the statute to comply?
Florida Action Committee please look into this website. They are just horrible and make money hurting people.
Ps. My situation is just arrest mugshot related, not any registry related. I was not aware of the greater concept of the organization here.
Anon, thanks for visiting and I hope that now that you’ve become aware of the greater concept you’ll spend some time on our site learning more about the cause.
these are evil people end of story. its not only none of their business but its a violation of publicity and privacy rights!! its also a due process violation and the county or state in which the jail or prison is at can also be sued for failure to both document those who get or request these records but failed to keep that agencies website secured in blatant violation of this states compact agreement it has signed and ratified with the Federal govt. FDLE is big time liable in that state for not overseeing this and allowing these sights to republish and charge for removal. so is every county with an open website for people to browse and copy criminal records. they are all in violation….more to come….
Do not give your id to them beware of signatures.get a notery public to enhance your id mugshots com has no such address for letters
I have started a petition to try and at least get Bing.com to remove jailbase.com from the search results. Google has done this and 0 mugshots exist for people’s names in their search engine, and after contacting Apple they removed the jailbase.com app from the App Store.
Please sign the petition here: https://chng.it/yvrPw5nyTP
I will then be tweeting and contacting Microsoft’s largest advertisers and asking them to pull advertising until Bing removes these harmful sites. They are fraudulent and racists.
Erica
You go girl. You are a force to be reckoned with. The World needs more Ericas.
Erica wow so good to know. I am sure some of the procedures have changed but years ago I had the same battle with this same guy that takes em down then puts them back up. I even found a guy who had a very nasty site here in Florida the guy it seems passed away but his domains and website had been on auto pilot. I got in touch of the Trustee Attorney of the Estate and got proof of death. Then I use that to show a Violation with his Domain provider I think it was godaddy. Since they couldn’t reply the domain was shut down. I have heard many good stories of how people removed stuff simply by asking or setting up violations of the terms of service. I think in some cases its automated when enough people submit. Would love to know or be part of a collective effort on these matters. Nextdoor is the one I have not seen any luck with. I also believe some loophole was in the mugshot law about charging for removal. Some sites simply wouldnt let you pay anymore. If you look to see who owns all these domains I believe its all this 1 idiot here in Florida.
Does anyone know who owns Jailbase.com? I found an owner, or at least the person who used to own it and where he lives/works. However, he lists that he does not own that business anymore but the website still remains.
It is the LAST website I can find in Bing/Yahoo actually ranking still. It is a scam however, for years all contact forms and the “free opt-out” have been intentionally broken. I found the mail server but it is entirely non-responsive so you cannot actually opt-out in any way.
What can be done about this? Isn’t there a hungry plaintiff’s attorney in Florida who wants to sue this company? It is hosted in the US by a US-based company. With the new law in Florida, it is clearly in violation as there is literally no way to contact them.
Elisabeth
Don’t waste your money trying to sue these sites. One gets shut down and 5 new one’s pop up with new names but the same owners with fake names. You can make a complaint but law enforcement seems to care less. You can hire a lawyer, but like I said, most of these sites are like viruses, they just keep duplicating.
If you are still stern on doing so, you can use the F.A.C contact form and they may be able to refer you to a lawyer who handles those cases. As for a class action, most do not want to raise funds for those kinds of websites as the registry dissolvement is our main focus for now.
the problem isn’t the web sites!!! its the states that are allowing the wrongful dissemination of criminal records in violation of constitutional law. states like Florida need to be held accountable for wrongfully allowing the dissemination of these records to be disseminated outside its own borders!! they are in violation of their compact agreements, the 1974 privacy act!! this is a serious violation of due process rights and Florida acknowledging that charging to have records removed is its own admittance that they are allowing criminal records to be hoarded by private persons for commercial benefit in violation of both privacy and publicity laws….not to mention the nature of these websites is to harass and embarrass those with records which by its very definition constitutes criminal harassment as well, and the state of Florida has indeed has allowed this which is why these sites are not afraid of any repercussions!! David Grant the owner of public police record.com whom started that site in Florida flat out said,”the police and the states can stop this at any time” file lawsuits against Florida!!!
@Elisabeth,
Apparently it’s based overseas now in Bangkok Thailand, as per whois.com:
https://www.whois.com/whois/jailbase.com
Cheers
Iâm pretty sure that is just the private who is service anyone can purchase as part of a domain.
There has to be a way to contact them. Apple banned them from the App Store recently and removed their app. I have written to Google and made the complaints as the app violates basic privacy regulations set by them.
Also less and less of these are around after all of these laws have been passed and this is one of the last ones. If anyone has any information about jailbase.com please respond.
@erica can u please post what u wrote to Google? I want to try that method for a few other sites that ignore opt-out requests and just seem to linger
I sued them in Pennsylvania for False Light Invasion of Privacy. You may also have a legal claim if your name was listed in their inmate directories. Details at http://www.isuedbailbondshq.com
good for you!! im getting ready to file lawsuits against the florida dept of corrections and publicpolicerecords.com
i’ve done some research and it would appear that the florida dept of corrections is in violation of the criminal records communication act! just like what we heard about in pennsylvania! for allowing the public police record.com to download all inmates in the doc system this is highly unethical and immoral. working on a lawsuit against them and public police.com. publicpolicerecord.com is purposefully not responding to request based on new legislation that was passed? basically they are not responding to request because they want you to pay sister company’s to remove your urls! that qualifies s a deceptive business practice meaning fraud in the state of Florida which could put these owners in jail on felony charges! bottom line these websites all need to be removed! its dangerous and i have had more than my share of harassment not too mention job opportunities destroyed.
I am concerned with all the people on here who said they have given these sites their social security #, Driver’s license # and other personal information. We already know these sites are con artist, scammers, selfish, vile, and seemingly untouchable.
So why are God’s Earth are you handing over money and personal information when you are likely being scammed? Even when someone hires a lawyer and you spend untolds thousands, another site with a new name pops up and there you are again.
I applaud you all for fighting but be careful, mindful and take a deep breath and think this through. Getting a law passed to stop these sites from making money off of us should be the right way. Some say it is already illegal but seems law enforcement has this as a “0” on the importance scale from 1 to 10000.
Arre.st is another website that also extorts people and doesnât remove arrests unless you pay up $$. The guy who owns it goes by the name is Jason Watson.
I’m having an issue w/ freemugshots.com. They have charges with my name and mugshot that are the correct charges. I have no issue with that. My issue is that my girlfriend sent me a link with my name/dob/arrest location but it said it was for statutory rape/ true bill of indictment. I was blown away as to it’s completely false. Of course there’s no mugshot bc it’s not me. What can I do?
I hear that Kyle finally having legal problems. Have the scams stopped? Soon itâll be his mugshot plastered everywhere.
Itâs not just in Florida. I want retribution. Class Action lawsuit warranted. Any attorneys out there? Please contact me.
Found innocent and mugshot ruining lives. Freedom of information act goes both ways. Paying money to remove mugshot after you had day in court and found innocent is EXTORTION.
I agree
To really get justice we should all pursue this avenue and reopen the case. These conmen were supposed to go to court but fled like cowards. See court proceeding:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/18/this-site-will-remove-your-mug-shot-for-a-price-now-its-owners-are-charged-with-extortion/%3foutputType=amp
FYI, itâs extortion by our own local government. I read the general statutes for my state and it says all you have to do is contact clerk of court.
Contact the Clerk of the Court in a Florida county to ask for the booking site to be removed from their database?
How did you hear it where is the law .
where is attorney general of FLORIDA, THE GOOGLE , THE GODADDY .
SUPPORTING
ORANGEPUBLICRECORDS.COM
the records are expunged , factual innocense, mistaken ID, & STILL THE DEFAMATION CAUSING LOSS OF CUSTODY, LOSS OF WORK ,
If you do your research, these sites use fictitious names, hold mugshots for ransom money, and have no phone number. The true websites remove your mugshot for free. These other ones are cons. This scam is a booming business. Kyleâs fictitious character Cary McCormick is made up from McCormick Rd in Maryland. See links.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/081316/should-you-really-pay-erase-your-name-internet.asp
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/1_-_complaint_1.pdf
I recently passed intensive background check and nothing showed up. DONâT PAY.
For example unpublisharrest.com that was forced to be taken down, all they did was change website to unpublishrecords.com
Please pass along to everyone and join me in class action lawsuit.
Also known asâŠ
Cs@unpublishrequest.com This is ridiculous!! Something has to give. I know itâs been a while since anyone replied but has anything further happened to get the mugshot OFF of Orange public records? Itâs literally the first thing that pops up when youâre name is googled
I had the same experience and made the mistake of emailing Cary McCormick. If you have a response from “Cary” asking for $248.00, remove the listing. Save that email and provide it as proof to Google:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9172218?hl=en
It’s a billion dollar industry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/your-money/haggler-trying-to-minimize-the-misery-of-mug-shots.html
I think we can all agree itâs a scam, now whoâs willing to do something about it? Complain or take action.