Legal Question in Technology Law in Florida

I live in Florida. I was contacted on Tuesday 6/22/10 at around 6pm EST via a "message" on Facebook (from a person who gave only his alleged name, not his company, law firm or wherever he is employed) that reads as follows:

"We have been contacted by various complaint sites, and independent advertising sites regarding "personal malicious intent, and what they communicate with as falling under "libel incident."

We have reviewed MANY posts, and ads traced back to you which are in fact violations of criminal statutes. You are advised to immediately (upon opening this communication) go to each account, and each site and REMOVE each post. Failure to do so will result in criminal prosecution. We will only give ONE warning.

In common law jurisdictions, libel refers to any form of communication such as written words or images. Your jurisdiction allows criminal legal actions, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism. Related to defamation is public disclosure of private facts, which arises where one person reveals information that is not of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. Also, be advised truth is not a defense for invasion of privacy."

I wrote back to find out what's going on, and received these further messages:

"Thank you for confirming receipt of my message. Your full cooperation is expected as you indicated. We've done our job by notifying you. It is YOUR responsibility to know what you have posted.

Contrary to your statement, you have in fact not stated the truth, which has been evidenced by confirmed facts. EVEN if you HAD stated the truth, you did not read the information I sent you.

Public disclosure of facts, arises when one person reveals information that is NOT of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. Truth is NOT a defense for invasion of privacy. Computer defamation is dealt with as a crime, not a tort."

I did not answer. I then received this additional message:

"I suggest you do a search on various search engines for the names of the victims you have targeted.

1. Immediately log into each account and remove the information you posted.

2. Upon clearing all posts and ads directly at their source, you must then contact all search engines who are holding the information in their searches and instruct them to remove the information. You will have to admit to them that you posted the information and have been instructed to have it removed or face criminal charges.

I will instruct my team, to follow up tomorrow after 6:04pm EST to confirm removal which gives you 24 hours."

Who the heck could this be, and what is going on here???

I greatly and sincerely appreciate any help you could give me.


Asked on 6/22/10, 5:40 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

It sounds like a scam to me. I see no evidence that the author knows who you are, where you live or what you supposedly wrote. It's not even clear that they read the messages you sent them. Their messages read like the sort of boilerplate that con artists send millions of people on the web in order to reach a few suckers who willene taken in. Don't be one of them.

An actual law enforcement officer would identify herself and her agency. She would also tell you specifically what you had done wrong and to whom. And I doubt she would warn you to stop instead of arresting you.

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Answered on 6/22/10, 9:11 pm


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