Friday, April 9, 2010

Is spokeo.com a scam?

The concept of spokeo.com is simple – aggregate all publicly available info and sell it to any person with paydayloans no fax to pay for the data. Some are claiming spokeo.com is a scam, but others are arguing that it is merely a service. The answer is … type of. What Spokeo does could possibly be considered shady, but Spokeo.com isn’t a scam.

What spokeo.com claims to do

Spokeo.com itself is a search engine that aggregates social networking details. Most social networking information – from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or any other website – is aggregated by the Spokeo.com search. Email addresses are used as identifiers to match different profiles to one another. You are able to get access to anybody’s details if you get nofaxing payday loans or any other financing to pay Spokeo.

Spokeo.com scam?

There have been many allegations that Spokeo.com Scam could be a better name for the company. In the privacy policy, Spokeo.com claims to only gather publicly accessible information. Independent tests by snopes.com and some other news websites have found the opt-out process can be a bit questionable. Some whistle-blowers saying spokeo.com is a scam claim the billing process can be iffy. Spokeo.com has answered the scam allegations with a statement that they’re “just launching a new version and are reviewing policies”.

Keeping your Spokeo search safe

The spookiest thing about Spokeo.com, scam or not, is that it aggregates info on the internet you may or might not want shared. What you choose to share on social networking is one of the most important thing. Set all the privacy settings on your social networks to levels you are comfortable with. Spokeo.com is an aggregator – so make sure to remove information you do not want public from the original web site where the data was accessible. Beyond safeguarding yourself from the potential Spokeo.com scam, it is just good practice in safeguarding yourself online.

Sources:

Snopes.com

Pandia Search Engine News

Spokio.com blog



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