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  Geebo 10:06 am on June 6, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Backpage ( 69 ), Carl Ferrer ( 15 ), Human trafficking ( 100 )   

  Guest Post: 36 Hours For Removal: Why does Backpage get a pass when Facebook doesn’t? 

  

  (Guest post from crime blogger Trench Reynolds)

  43-year-old Jennifer Streit-Spears was recently stabbed to death. Her boyfriend and alleged killer, 45-year-old Kenneth Alan Amyx, posted a picture of her dead body on her own Facebook account. Members of Streit-Spears’ family tried to get Facebook to remove the photo off of her profile but the photo remained on her profile for 36 hours. Facebook offered the following explanation….

  “Facebook has long been a place where people share their experiences and raise awareness about important issues,” a rep told the newspaper. “Sometimes, those experiences and issues involve violence and graphic images of public interest or concern.”

  While Jennifer Streit-Spears’ murder is indeed tragic and the length of time it took to remove her photo unfortunate, Facebook was at least able to provide a somewhat reasonable explanation as to why it took them so long to remove the photo.

  Recently ABC News’ Nightline did an expose on Backpage and their CEO Carl Ferrer. In case you haven’t heard, Ferrer was called to appear before the US Congress to explains his website’s role in online prostitution and human trafficking but Ferrer refused to appear. Not only has Congress held Ferrer in contempt but they’re currently suing Backpage in order to compel them to turn over records that may show Backpage’s complicity in the sex trade.

  During their investigation of Ferrer, Nightline placed an ad on Backpage, with police assistance, that was blatantly advertising a prostitute who was underage. Here’s how it was reported by Nightline…

  Det. Lincoln posted an ad for an 18-year-old escort, adding in a line that said she had “a younger friend” who was available as well. Minutes after he posted the ad, calls and texts started streaming in. The ad was up and running.

  The ad remained up for about 36 hours, leading to dozens of phone calls, texts and even an arrest captured on “Nightline’s” cameras. The ad was only taken down after “Nightline” sent an anonymous email to Backpage’s dedicated email address for suspected child trafficking. It took eight hours to receive a response, which said to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC. The ad was taken down shortly after Backpage’s email response was sent.

  Backpage later told “Nightline” in a statement that even though they thought that the ad did not clearly advertise that a girl under 18 was involved, their moderators did take it down and they say they banned the account. They also reported the ad to NCMEC.

  So according to Backpage an 18-year-old prostitute who says that she has a younger friend isn’t advertising a girl who was under 18. Either they have no concept of the term ‘younger’ or they have abysmal math skills.

  Facebook provides a reasonable explanation as to why a murder victim’s picture stayed up for 36 hours and the media is all over it. Backpage gives what can be best described as a half-hearted excuse as to why an ad for child prostitution stays up on their website for 36 hours and barely anyone bats an eyelash.

  Granted that the child prostitute in this case was fictitious, but how many girls have been peddled on Backpage without them even taking a second look at the ad once they have their money?

  These two stories are equally egregious yet only one of them got the media attention that they both deserved. How many women and children have to be sold into sexual slavery in not just our country but most of our cities and towns before we finally decide to speak out about it? There’s been too many victims of Backpage already.

  ---

  Thanks Trench. Please also watch the following report from Nightline about Backpage’s involvement in the sex trade and the victims it has left behind.

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  Geebo 9:45 am on June 3, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 182 ), real estate ( 139 ), salt lake city   

  Off Topic Friday: Like us on Facebook or be evicted 

  

  An apartment complex in Salt Lake City recently found themselves in hot water after giving notices to their tenants that they were required to like their Facebook page or possibly face eviction. As should have been expected, the tenants did not care for this and fired back at the apartment complex. Not only did they rate the apartment complex badly on their Facebook page but they also took to the media which in turn made this into a national story. The apartment complex has since revoked this requirement and has said they were doing this to make sure that pictures from a community pool party would be allowed to be posted on their Facebook page.

  Have Facebook likes become the new metric when it comes to business? Have they become more important than actual customers? Instead of focusing on Facebook likes maybe companies should focus on better products or services then the likes will follow. Trying to generate false or forced likes tends to make you look like a corporation of phonies.

   
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  Geebo 10:15 am on June 2, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 182 ), Gawker ( 8 ), Peter Thiel ( 13 )   

  Thiel to remain on Facebook board amid free speech concerns 

  

  In a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Peter Thiel and the Gawker lawsuit, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said that Thiel can and will remain on the board of Facebook. Thiel has been a long time member of the Facebook board and there were some concerns about his standing after it was made public that Thiel was personally funding his alleged vendetta against Gawker. Not only is Gawker a media partner with Facebook but Facebook has had their own issues with supposedly manipulating featured news stories.

  At the Code Conference, held in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Ms. Sandberg stated that since Mr. Thiel did not use Facebook resources in his fight with Gawker It’s not a Facebook issue, but isn’t it? What if Facebook all of a sudden decides that Gawker is no longer a featured media partner? How could that not be seen as anything but a conflict of interest? If anything it feels like Facebook is not only condoning what Thiel is doing to Gawker but protecting him as well.

   
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  Geebo 10:06 am on June 1, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: First Amendment ( 4 ), Gawker ( 8 ), Hulk Hogan ( 2 ), journalism ( 8 ), lawsuit ( 48 ), Peter Thiel ( 13 )   

  Gawker needs to beat Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel for all of journalism 

  

  Everyone wants to root for the good guy. Even more, everyone wants to be the good guy.

  Take Terry Gene Bollea, more famously known as Hulk Hogan, for example. For the better part of his professional wrestling career Hulk Hogan played the good guy against the series of villains who always fell to the power of Hulkamania. Behind the scenes Hogan wasn’t all that much of a good guy. Due to his success he had massive political pull within the World wrestling Federation. He often used his clout to not only protect and promote his friends but he would often also refuse to work with up and coming stars who he felt threatened his position at the top of the company.  As most of you may know Gawker.com leaked a sex tape of Hogan and his best friend’s wife that was recorded without Hogan’s knowledge. A second leak of the tape showed Hogan talking to his bedmate about his daughter’s singing career and during that conversation Hogan let a few racial epithets fly. Because of the second leak Hogan lost a very lucrative ‘legends’ deal he had with World Wrestling Entertainment and has been persona non grata in the pro wrestling business. In interviews Hogan still tries to portray himself as the good guy who was victimized. Hogan sued Gawker on the grounds of privacy invasion and was awarded a $140 million settlement. That amount is being appealed by Gawker since if they have to pay that amount to Hogan they’ll essentially be out of business.

  Recently it was made public that Silicon Valley investor and big-wig Peter Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit to the tune of $10 million. Thiel feels like Gawker’s sister blog Valleywag outed him as being gay in 2007. By most accounts Mr. Thiel had only told a number of close business confidants and friends but didn’t advertise his sexual preference, although it was said to be known to most movers and shakers in the alley.  SInce then he’s been allegedly ‘helping’ people who have been supposedly wronged by Gawker Media. Thiel seems to think that he is the good guy by trying to shut down this supposed media menace in Gawker Media.

  In reality neither of the above mentioned entities are the good guy. So who is? Much like in pro-wrestling storylines the good guy has to face what seems like insurmountable odds before triumphing over the man or men that wronged him. The underdog good guy in this scenario is the First Amendment.

  While what Gawker did may seem distasteful, Thiel is continuing a dangerous tradition that harkens back to WIlliam Randolph Hearst. Thiel is using his money and influence to strong-arm Gawker Media out of existence simply because he doesn’t like them. You may say that Gawker deserves it but where does it end? Say that there’s a strangely coiffed billionaire running for federal office and a large media outlet that has a large influence in the country decides to endorse his opponent. In theory that billionaire could buy that media outlet and heavily influence what stories they report about him. Before you know it other billionaires get into the game and have the news skewed in their favor. If you don’t think that will happen you may already be too late. While he has yet to commit any egregious overreaches of journalism Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. A better example might be Las Vegas business magnate, Sheldon Adelson, who bought an entire newspaper that was often critical of him in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Reports have said that Adelson is squashing any story that may be critical of him. Before you know it most media will be skewed one way or another, not necessarily by political view but by how it can benefit their billionaire owners.

  For those reasons the $140 million settlement awarded to Hogan should be denied on appeal. If not it will set a dangerous precedent where those with the money can buy any kind of news coverage they want. While some of us were worried about the government possibly curtailing the free speech of journalists we should have been paying more attention to the financially elite. Sometimes a bad guy needs to win so the good guy’s triumph is more impactful.

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  Geebo 10:31 am on May 31, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hacking ( 32 ), identity theft ( 130 ), MySpace, security ( 46 )   

  The MySpace hack could cost you 

  

  Do you remember MySpace? You know, the sparkly animated background plagued social network of the mid 2000s. Admit it, you had one but you abandoned it after the advent of Facebook. Recently it was made public that the former king of the social networking world had been hacked and hundreds of millions of usernames, email addresses and passwords have been compromised.

  So what does this mean to you? Well, that depends. Are you still using the same password that you were using with MySpace? If you use the same password on multiple websites or apps you are in danger of having all your information compromised. Internet security experts often say that you should use different passwords for all your different accounts and to aid in doing so you should use a password manager like Lastpass or KeePass to keep them all straight and passwords should be changed routinely.

  Even if you’ve abandoned your MySpace account and haven’t logged into it in years there still could be personal information attached to the account that could potentially lead to identity theft. If you no longer use a service you’re better off deleting the account than letting it sit out there as a potential target for identity thieves.

   
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  Geebo 9:52 am on May 27, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Candace Payne, Facebook ( 182 ), star wars ( 2 ), viral video   

  Off Topic Friday: Mom in Star Wars mask breaks the internet 

  

  You can never predict what goes viral on the internet. This past week Texas mother of two Candace Payne took the internet by storm after she livestreamed herself on Facebook Live trying on a Chewbacca mask from the Star Wars franchise of movies. This video is as follows…

  Candace’s video shortly became the most watched video on Facebook exceeding 134 million views. The lighthearted four-minute video led to a star-studded whirlwind tour in Ms. Payne’s life. Not only did she get a tour of the Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California but she also received a tour of Lucasfilm Studios and got to meet new Star Wars head JJ Abrams and Peter Mayhew who portrays Chewbacca in the movies.

  What do you think of the ‘Wookie Mom’? Are you happy for her, totally jealous or both? Please leave your comments below and have a great and safe Memorial Day Weekend.
   
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  Geebo 10:22 am on May 26, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: healthcare ( 44 ), insurance ( 8 )   

  Healthcare coverage that leaves you feeling sick 

  

  The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was designed to bring affordable healthcare coverage to US citizens who previously couldn’t afford it. Even with Obamacare there are still a vast number of Americans who can’t afford health coverage. Many of those desperate for some kind of coverage may respond to one of the many ads for discount healthcare coverage that they may have found online, on TV, or even on a roadside sign that promises great benefits at a cut-rate price. As is the norm in many of these cases, the promises of great coverage for your family go largely unfulfilled.

  A lot of these healthcare plans aren’t insurance but they’re what’s called discount programs. In some cases these programs make a deal with a local or national PPO network and will allow you to see doctors at the same discounted rate that fully insured people get however the plan doesn’t actually pay any money on your behalf to your doctor. You only get a discount and still have to pay the majority of your bill to the doctor’s office. Many healthcare professionals may be in-network with the PPO plan named on the discount card but a great number of them won’t even accept any patients using only a discount plan. That’s not even mentioning that these discount plans don’t fulfill the Individual Mandate requirements of Obamacare that say those that don’t have sufficient health coverage will be fined by the government.

  Here’s a tip on how not to be fooled by these programs if you’re looking for real healthcare coverage. There’s one word you need to keep an eye out for and that word is ‘insurance’. If the ad does not use the word insurance then it isn’t healthcare coverage that you need. Back in the days when fax machines were more prevalent than the internet these plans would spam fax machines with these same promises but in very small print at the bottom, sometimes blurred out by poor quality faxes, would be a disclaimer that said ‘This is not insurance.’

  While these ads may use words that sound like they may be insurance, unless they use the actual word they’re not.
   
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  Geebo 8:49 am on May 25, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Scams ( 1,613 ), tickets ( 17 )   

  Online ticket sales are rip-offs 

  

  And I’m not even talking about the exorbitant service fees that legal ticket vendors add on.

  Anyway if you’re looking to buy tickets to that sold out concert, game or show you may have considered looking to online marketplaces in hopes for finding a pair of tickets at a reasonable price. Best of luck to you since finding tickets like that is almost like finding the Holy Grail but here are some tips to use in order to avoid being scammed.

  The first is being asked to wire the payment to the seller. This is a good tip to keep in mind with just about any online transaction. If someone asks you to wire the money to them through services like MoneyGram or Western Union it’s more than likely a scam. In cases like this the tickets never existed and the seller is almost impossible to track and you’ll lose your money and have no tickets. While those wiring services are legitimate services for sending money to people you know they are used heavily by scammers.

  Another tip to keep in mind is to never buy the copy of an e-ticket from someone online. There’s nothing stopping someone from buying an e-ticket with a stolen credit card then selling copies of the e-ticket to multiple victims.

  This last item isn’t as much of a tip as it is an explanation. You usually can’t defend yourself against counterfeiters. Once you’ve been sold a counterfeit ticket you’ve already lost and you have little recourse against the scammer. Counterfeits range from cancelled tickets that were charged on stolen credit cards to tickets that were printed on a computer that look so genuine it’s almost impossible to tell apart from the real thing.

  With the summer months upon us many of these activities will be in full swing. Don’t let yourself fall into one of these traps.

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  Geebo 8:22 am on May 24, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Colorado ( 8 ), marijuana ( 2 ), Washington ( 11 )   

  Can legal weed be sold online? 

  

  DISCLAIMER: This is not an endorsement for the use of or prohibition of recreational marijuana. This is merely the discussion of a topic.

  Whether or not you’re a fan of legal recreational marijuana use or not you can’t ignore the economic impact it has had on states like Colorado and Washington. This industry however, is tightly regulated by the state. Not just anyone can set up shop in these states.

  That hasn’t stopped people from trying to be the modern-day equivalent of street corner pot dealers. In Colorado specifically, police are patrolling online venues looking for illegal marijuana sales. While the recreational use of marijuana may be legal the recreational sale of it is not. Some people are using their medical marijuana cards to legally purchase it then turn around and try to sell it online for a profit. Others are growing their legally allowed personal plants and trying to sell them online. Both of those practices are considered illegal since the sellers are circumventing tax laws and we all know how seriously the government takes their tax money. That’s how the Treasury Dept. was able to apprehend Al Capone.

  Just because something that was previously contraband that has now been made legal doesn’t make the situation like the Wild West. If you use, please use in moderation and obey all local laws and ordinances.
   
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  Geebo 9:24 am on May 23, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BBB ( 22 ), Scams ( 1,613 )   

  Is this the ultimate scam busting tool? 

  

  Scams exist everywhere these days. Not only has the internet become a virtual goldmine for scammers and con artists but scams still persist in the offline world. What’s worse is that these scams often target specific geographic locations in the country at different times. If you want to keep tabs on probable scams in your area you definitely want to bookmark the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker. If you allow the Scam Tracker to discern your location it will tell you about both the on and offline scams that are occurring in your area. For example, in the Kansas City area there’s a scam going on where someone will call you pretending to be the IRS telling you that you have an overdue tax bill while they try to get some kind of payment out of you. For the record, the IRS never contacts anyone by phone.

  Even if you’re tech savvy or street smart you should still check out the scams going on in your community from time to time. You’d be surprised how often that your friends or family members could be targeted by scammers. With the help of the BBB you could be a potential protector of your community.