[gmcneill]

The following website was a topic of discussion at an employee personal protection safety training class recently: spokeo.com

The trainers reported that some disgruntled individuals targeted public service agency employees via this site.

We are all at risk.

Not all of one's personal info displayed on the site was accurate but that's not the point!

Many but not all name search results feature a close up picture of the front of one's home.

You can go to the site and block/delete your name from their search records.

[mrfixit]

Originally Posted by gmcneill

The following website was a topic of discussion at an employee personal protection safety training class recently: spokeo.com
The trainers reported that some disgruntled individuals targeted public service agency employees via this site.
We are all at risk.
Not all of one's personal info displayed on the site was accurate but that's not the point!
Many but not all name search results feature a close up picture of the front of one's home.
You can go to the site and block/delete your name from their search records.

WOW ...Scary is Right..I looked up myself ....my son....two sisrers and Four Friends. NONE ( and I mean NONE) OF THE INFO WAS CORRECT(current) FOR EIGHT SEARCHES. They have me at an address I have NOT lived at for SEVEN YEARS..(1225 mi from Villages and 2 Homes prior to the Villages)....My Son at an Address OVER 9 years old(and 680 mi from his current home). Picture of MY OLD HOUSE is of a Neighbors' Home a mile away.( but only 8 houses total in that mile ) Could it be a coincidence that the addresses for ALL eight are the last address where all eight last had a "land line" phone. MORE SCARY is that if you want to OPT OUT you have to give them your e-mail address. I am NOT that stupid. NOW who the heck would pay them $2.95 per mo. to get inaccurate info. I guess we BETTER not buy a house formerly occupied by a public service employee. LEST we be a target due to inaccurate info.

[katezbox]

You can (and in my opinion should) opt out of Spokeo....

[salpal]

Looks like spokeo is just an aggregator(sp?) of information that is already out there on other internet sites. See:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2010...o-com-scam.htm

[skyguy79]

In my opinion the opt out is a 50/50 proposition. Asking for the email address might be legit so they can verify your request to opt out, or it might be a hook so they can legally add it to their list for selling to commercial emailers!

Also, I looked up my late father on Spokeo and found that it had him listed as a Republican. That's a laugh since my father couldn't have cared less about politics other than to unbiasedly gripe about politicans! Don't many of us! Matter of fact I don't even remember one instance of his actually voting! The only hint I ever had to either of my parents political leanings was that my mother was in love with JFK... but I don't really think that had anything to do with politics!

[2newyorkers]

There are many websites that give this information including whitepages.com.

[Carla B]

Nothing is private anymore, public service employee or not.

A few weeks ago I innocently looked up my phone no. on switchboard.com and found out lots of infomation. Not only was that really annoying, but much of it was false. It had me living in towns I've never been to, and am related to people I never heard of. So I googled "removing phone listing from internet websites" and discovered that there are dozens of these sites selling your information. Getting out of all of them would require tons of work, while new sites are cropping up all the time. You can go to squidoo.com and search "remove personal information from Google and internet," for a good article on this.

Some sites will hide your info if you opt out. However, others are harder or impossible to get out of. Intelius.com requires you to FAX a copy of your drivers' license (with no. and photo crossed out) or submit a notarized form to prove identity.

Axciom.com seems to be the big player in information sellers. To get a look at your own report you must pay $34.95. Why shouldn't they be required to furnish your own info like the credit reporting agencies have to?

[batman911]

Carla,

Could be that there is more than on Carla B. You would be suprised how many people have the exact same name. That's one of the reasons we have Social Security numbers. Worse yet, some one could be using your name.

[Carla B]

Yeah, it stands to reason that out of 300 million people in this country many may have the same name. Think I'll change mine to Zrdminesjkovamunsleski. My apologies to whomever already has that name.

[gmcneill]

Originally Posted by Carla B

Yeah, it stands to reason that out of 300 million people in this country many may have the same name. Think I'll change mine to Zrdminesjkovamunsleski. My apologies to whomever already has that name.

So, let me get this straight...

...you go by the nom de plume Carla B but you are, in fact,
Carla Zrdminesjkovamunsleski.

I 'd be so confused if not for Groucho Marx...as the African Explorer
Geoffrey T. Spaulding...the T stood for Edgar.

[Tom Hannon]

Spokeo has my NY house address right but it is listed as worth than a million dollars. If I could get one third that price I'd jump in the air and clap my hands. There is no mention of the house I own in TV.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by gmcneill

So, let me get this straight...

...you go by the nom de plume Carla B but you are, in fact,
Carla Zrdminesjkovamunsleski.

I 'd be so confused if not for Groucho Marx...as the African Explorer
Geoffrey T. Spaulding...the T stood for Edgar.

Now THAT's funny!

Hugs for making me laugh this morning.
Gracie T Girl