About Me 0093: Money Making Websites

It seems a high number of lonely-hearts are becoming the victims of malicious online fraud scams, according to the Guardian 200 000 Brits have been conned by fraudsters who claim to be on the lookout for love. This shocking statistic indicates just how much of a problem online fraud is proving to be. It seems con artists know no limits when it comes to getting their hands on some cash, using dating websites to sweep victims off their feet before asking for money or expensive gifts.

Although the number of people conned is already an eye-opener, it may not actually represent the full extent of the problem as victims of the online dating scam are often reluctant to tell anyone due to embarrassment. The con artists are scarily becoming more cunning and convincing in their methods as they “woo” their victims, declaring their love and making them feel special.

The scams aren’t necessarily a short-term process either; the longest dating scam allegedly lasted for five years. They take time to earn the victims’ trusts to the extent that handing money or presents over may not seem irrational. They forge a relationship with victims, often offering a virtual shoulder to cry on and share problems with. Some of the victims have reportedly even continued to communicate with the scammer after their cover’s been blown due to the “comfort” they’ve provided them.

Dating websites are aware of these scammers who are creating bogus accounts and luring in vulnerable people who are lonely and looking for love. Despite their awareness of the problem, it can take dating websites time to identify a bogus account and by this time the scammer has usually contacted multiple victims and moved them to anonymous messaging services such as Hotmail and Yahoo Messenger where new email addresses can be easily created.

How to Spot an Online Dating Scam

In order to reduce the numbers of online dating scams, it’s important for users of dating sites to be able to identify a scammer and report them to protect themselves and the rest of the online dating community. There are numerous ways to detect a dating scam, and although not all fraudsters are the same, their methods are typically rather similar.

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Because newspapers, book publishers and other media outlets all rely on earning money in order provide such information, they need an exception to these laws in order to be able to conduct business without asking for consent every time they mention anyone’s name.

So, a guy walks into a bar …

… and Facebook says it’s news. The crux of Facebook’s argument is that users are public figures among their circles of Facebook friends, and that such status makes their actions inherently newsworthy to those same friends. That’s a heck of a stretch, but social networking — a trend lambasted by critics as catering to Generation Y’s immense sense of self-importance — is a far cry from the types of situations around which right-to-publicity cases have historically been centered.

If it really is important for our followers or friends to read our every waking thought, then perhaps we all are celebrities among our peers (something the plaintiffs actually claim in making a case for economic injury), and anyone who mentions us is just indisputably just reporting the news.

Does that mean I can libel you ‘on accident’?

Finding that social media users are, indeed, public figures within those platforms, might force us to redefine other long-established legal tenets in response to the social web. If we’re public figures in the case of publicity claims, are we also public figures in the case of libel claims? Defamation and libel cases stemming from posts on social-networking platforms, for example, aren’t unheard of in the United States (and, in fact, have skyrocketed in the United Kingdom). But if we’re all public figures, at least within the limited scope of our social media circles, do we have to take the additional step of proving actual malice in order to prevail on our claims, just like celebrities, politicians and other more-traditional public figures?

I’ve argued before that the law and the web don’t mix, and finding social media users to be public figures presents a golden opportunity either prove that the law can be flexible, or to just reaffirm my theory. Facebook and Twitter aren’t traditional media outlets, the “public figures” are hardly public figures by any of the various legal definitions of the term, and the people disseminating information about them (usually) aren’t trained journalists. If courts are going to go down the path of using legacy language to define new platforms, then surely they need to establish a middle ground that protects plaintiffs from having to prove too much, and defendants from having to adhere to journalistic best practices.

All this being said, Facebook’s newsworthiness defense could very easily fall flat, but that wouldn’t diminish the importance of a judge finding social media users to be public figures within those platforms. If Facebook doesn’t prevail on that point, it will be because sponsored stories walk and talk like advertising. As the judge notes in her order, “even newsworthy actions may be subjects of § 3344 liability when published for commercial rather than journalistic purposes.”

I can’t say I saw Facebook as the vehicle for re-envisioning decades of law regarding the rights of public figures against libel and misappropriation, but it’s not too surprising considering the significant cultural and technological changes it has brought about in terms of how we exchange information. Now, it’s just a matter of waiting for juries and, more importantly, judges to tell us how far Facebook has really brought us.

Feature image courtesy of Flickr user Patrick Denton; fans-waiting-for-autograph image courtesy of Flickr user kthypryn.

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About Me 0093

Monday, December 26, 2011

Money Making Websites

So, a guy walks into a bar …

Does that mean I can libel you ‘on accident’?

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