I’ve been asked to bring to your attention the case of a trend that’s been going around for a while, faking news/stories/videos/pics/etc of people and posting it on the internet. Because I agree with the point of view being presented, I’m going to post about.

While in 99.9% of the cases its harmless and the fake work is clearly outlined and spotted, in other cases some people take this stuff seriously and cause real damage.

So while it may be funny to create a fake mugshot of your friend and an accompanying ‘news’ story about your arrest, it becomes less funny when you see that Google and other search engines are indexing these sites. For many people, if they read it on the internet it must be true.

What happens when (non tech savvy) friends Google your name, or when a secretary in HR is doing background check on a potential hire? Can you see the potential damage?

From the site:

This is a prank script written for the sole purpose of confusing, embarrassing, and angering your friends or enemies. Simply fill out the form below and it will create a link to a fake news story of your choice. You then give them the link to the fake story, which will look 100% authentic.

So you have found your name on this site and you are a little concerned about your faux arrest becoming an internet truth? The site has a ‘Remove your name’ option. Great! Except they expect you to pay $45.00 to have your name removed. For a prank. $45.00 for something you didn’t agree to! That only removes it from the site. It has no impact on existing search engine records.

The site also gives out their script for free to allow others to run their version of it. I doubt the $45 fee extends to any of these other spin off sites.

As a lone individual on the web you may not see the issue here. But if you are someone who is building their brand, you understand how important it is to protect your brand image and integrity. Getting slapped for $45 to opt out of something you never wanted any part of to begin with sounds a little like extortion to me. This site needs to take a little more responsibility and be more proactive about protecting people’s identity and/or brand. They certainly shouldn’t be charging $45 to have your name removed!

I’m not posting links to the site for obvious reasons. I’m sure you can find it on your own. Maybe if enough people contact them to demand they put tools in place to block your name/brand from showing up their site (free of charge), they will listen.