Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Joe McCloskey, Irish vigilante thug, sued for posting personal info on sex offender

If only the US would remove the registry from the public eye...

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/facebook-vigilante-accused-of-posting-rapists-address-30616202.html

Facebook 'vigilante' accused of posting rapist's address

25 SEPTEMBER 2014

A man who denies running a Facebook witch-hunt against p*****s is to be asked to reveal whether he posted a rapist's exact address, the High Court heard today.

A judge also heard claims that the campaigner was hiding material that could aid the lawsuit brought against him by a convicted child m*****er.

Mr McCloskey and Facebook are being jointly sued for damages by the s*x offender.

The man, who cannot be identified, is claiming misuse of private information, harassment and breaches of the data protection act.

Proceedings were launched after his photograph and details appeared last year on 'Keeping our kids safe from p*****s II', a Facebook page administrated by Mr McCloskey.

He alleges that amid abusive comments on it others were inciting violence against him and trying to find out where he lives.

One user called for him to be hung while others endorsed shooting him.

The man claimed he was then threatened with being thrown off a pier during a fishing trip, hounded out of a cinema and had to use a supermarket trolley to fight off another tormentor.

Mr McCloskey told the court he has "named and shamed" 400 s*x offenders through the page set up to monitor p******s.

He also claimed his site has helped secure seven convictions.

But he denied being responsible for a witch-hunt or hate campaign, stressing that he included a disclaimer opposing any violence of intimidation.

In evidence he said he would remove any exact addresses for offenders if they were put on the page.

However, lawyers for the plaintiff have now challenged his assertion based on material discovered during a Google search.

The court heard postings attributed to Mr McCloskey were referred to on a website for s*x offenders.

In one he comments on a rapist "living in flats near...". Other parts of the posting have been blanked out.

As legal submissions got underway in the case, Mr Justice Stephens said the potential inference to be drawn was that the defendant does provide addresses.

He told Barry McKenna, appearing for Mr McCloskey: "Your client can find out what the un-redacted posting is."

The barrister confirmed that he had asked him to do that.

Peter Girvan, for the plaintiff, also pointed to other references to hammers despite Mr McCloskey insisting he never incited violence.

"It seems he was deliberately hiding materials from the plaintiff that assisted in his case," Mr Girvan added.

The hearing continues.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Kids Live Safe: Oh look, another get-rich-off-sex-offenders scam!

This isn't quite on par with Offendex, but another company has sprung up to make money off Sex Offenders. It is called "Kids Live Safe," yet another company scaring people to buy their private registry. They have been quite aggressive in campaigning; it is not uncommon to see their Facebook posts on comment sections these days. But hey, if some dumb fuck wants to pay $30 a month or $60 a year to see registry info, more power to them. They deserve to be scammed!

It seems they've also been responsible for the email spam alerts that have been popping up with regularity as of late.

http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=1105819#.VDLeSMRDuUY

Making money off sex offender information
by Garrett Bergquist
Posted: 10.05.2014 at 7:50 PM
Garrett Bergquist

NEW BLOOMFIELD -- How much money would you pay to know if any sex offenders live in your area?

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Kids Live Safe charges its subscribers $29.97 per month, or $59.88 per year, to tell them where registered sex offenders live in relation to their houses, schools or other places they frequent. Users can set up email alerts for up to four addresses, install filters to monitor their children's online activity, and create profiles of their children to give to law enforcement if their children ever disappear.

Here's the catch: The sex offender information Kids Live Safe provides at cost can be accessed for free through the Missouri State Highway Patrol's website.

Detective Tom O'Sullivan, of the Boone County Sheriff's Department, said state and federal law require anyone who commits a sex crime to register as a sex offender. The registry includes a description of the person and their vehicle, where they live and work and what crime they committed. Missouri law requires the Highway Patrol to make such information available through its website at no cost.

Kids Live Safe representatives turned down multiple requests to speak on the record for this story. A company representative reached by phone said the subscription pays for tools government-run online databases cannot provide, such as the email alerts and filtering software.

O'Sullivan said charging money for publicly available information is not illegal.

"If it's available for free, you ought to try and explore that avenue before paying some money," he said.

Kids Live Safe has a B+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and has been accredited by that institution since September 2011. BBB records show 28 complaints have been filed against the company in the last 3 years. Complaint details on the BBB's website showed complaintants wanted to stop emails from the company or had billing issues.

Columbia residents Alex Holloway and Michael Lilien said they saw no point in paying for information they could access for free even if the fee brought additional services.

"If somebody's a sicko, you need to know," Holloway said.

Lilien, who has two young girls, said he checks the area around his address on the Highway Patrol's website every few months.

"I would be willing to spend quite a bit if it wasn't something I would be able to get from a free site or to go on some sort of government website," Lilien said.

http://kfor.com/2013/10/15/in-your-corner-suspicious-email-no-amber-alert/

In Your Corner: Suspicious email, no AMBER Alert
POSTED 10:05 PM, OCTOBER 15, 2013, BY SCOTT HINES, UPDATED AT 10:14PM, OCTOBER 15, 2013

OKLAHOMA CITY – The In Your Corner team recently received word of a suspicious email circulating around the metro.

It has the words “Amber Alert” in the subject head and claims “…sex offender activity has been detected in your area.”

Gene Thaxton and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety issue AMBER alerts in our state.

amber
Email from Kids Live Safe
We alerted them to the email creating the stir.

Thaxton said, “Nothing that Oklahoma, that I would issue, is going to look that way.”

The link takes you to a website for a company called Kids Live Safe.

They claim to protect families from registered sex offenders and offers a number of web-based services, including a sex offender monitoring service.

You sign up for a trial run, then the company charges your credit card on a monthly basis.

Our complaints though aren’t with the product, but the way it’s being advertised.

A Kids Live Safe spokesperson sent us this statement:

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention and providing us with a copy of the email.  As our attorney explained, Kids Live Safe contracts with 3rd party marketing organizations to distribute its marketing messages. Kids Live Safe has never authorized anyone to send emails as an “Amber Alert”, to use the phrase “Amber Alert” or to imply any connection to a government entity. We are diligently investigating this issue and as soon as we identify the marketing organization responsible for this we will take appropriate action to ensure this does not happen again.  Please tell your viewers that if they receive any further messages like this to please forward to us at support@kidslivesafe.com or let us know through the “contact us” form on our website.

 Kind regards,
The Kids Live Safe Team

Here’s the In Your Corner bottom line.

As of now, the state will never notify you of an AMBER alert by email or text.

To verify an AMBER alert, check with law enforcement or a media outlet.

DPS will also post an alert on its website.

Keep this in mind. You can always access the national and state sex offender registries for free.