I own http://fakesend.com , and since I've had it, I've been contacted by a bunch of different law offices, including those of very prominent companies, with notarized letters and other legal documents. So far, none of these people have blamed me for the actions of the users of my website, they all say something like "someone misused your system", but what I want to know is if I can get in trouble for it. Basically, the website allows you to impersonate any email address, the website doesn't add a mandatory footer saying the email is fake, so the only actual way to know the email is fake is by checking the headers or hoping your email client catches it. Anyone know anything about this topic? Thanks in advance, AR
Legal or not, but ethical? And all your examples at http://fakesend.com/email-pranks.php look like phishing types of emails.
It is clearly indicated in one of your samples. You used paypal. As you may know. This can be used as spamming and can be abused by your users. This can be used to send fake invoices.
I've seen some of these type of sites and scripts. I can't speak to the legality of it all, but I can say there is danger involved. You could definitely get dragged into a lawsuit if someone does misuse the system, depending on what happens, and who is involved (some people might want to sue you just for the heck of it.) The real danger though is your examples. You are basically saying "here's a good template for a phishing email to get into someone's eBay or PayPal account." I don't think eBay would appreciate your site...
Well, those templates are purely for pranking purposes, and they are total jokes and not really for phishing. Anyone who actually wanted to phish/scam wouldn't actually use a template, they would use something that requested login info or something. Anyways, I only added those templates for more content, and I didn't even write them myself. I really can't afford to be dragged into a lawsuit. I've seen a few sites like this one, and really hope I don't have any problems.
Here's the thing... You're providing a conduit and a suggestion for people of how to break the law by phishing or spamming. Whether or not that is your intent, if your question is could you be in trouble, the answer is yes. The problem is not the one company or one individual who is sending you a letter about what one of your users did. The real issue is what regulatory agencies are going to do to you if one of your users goes (as I like to put it) "crazy go nuts". Regulatory agencies like the FTC and the individual state's Attorney's General offices are not nice to play ball with. They come in, freeze everyone's assets and ask questions later. Even if you're found not to be liable, it could be a hundred thousand dollars in legal fees before they come to that conclusion. What I would suggest if you want to continue with this business is that you spend a little bit of money and have a knowledgeable attorney take a look at your site, your business setup and your terms and conditions before you have a problem. Just my $.02.... If you have other questions, let me know. Deena ___________________________________________________________________ Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
Fair point Deena, but at the moment I can't afford to do that (I'm 19 and living paycheck to paycheck). Internet lawyers seem hard to come by as well as incredibly expensive, so its tough :/ I'll figure out what to do soon, or maybe test my chances and do nothing.
The site lists an LLC at the bottom of the home page and I notice your terms of service say California law applies. Do you own the site though an LLC? If not, why is that information on the bottom? Are you in California? If not, why would you subject yourself and the contract to California law? Lastly, since you say you have already been contacted by several companies and law firms, that is a pretty good sign that you are headed for trouble and should make sure you have your i's dotted and your t's crossed. EDIT: Doing a little more research it seems some of the content on your site is simply copied from other sites anyhow. I see the exact paypal email prank (the only one I looked for) being used as far back as 2004. Copy of the paypal text on this site: http://funnyprankideas.com/Prank-Ideas/email-prank-ideas/ Someone posting the same paypal email prank text here from 2004: http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=655456&page=464
The LLC is in limbo ATM. I used to run a lot more websites, with much better content, and 100000x more profitable a few years ago, till I sold out. I'm probably going to lose the LLC. But for now, the website is technically owned by an LLC, even though I let the domain names a2-network.com and a2-blog.com expire. The Terms of Service were simply copied and barely modified from a turnkey site I purchased a few years back as well, I don't even know anything about California law. As far as some of the content being copied, two of the pages have copied content, and there's not much I can do about it. They had no authors, so yeah.
What would worry me most is having been contacted by companies and their lawyers. That is really putting you on notice how your site is being used. I don't know how much, if any, money this site makes you. Once a site shows signs of causing me problems, I would ditch it or sell it. Without knowing what those letters you got are asking or telling you it is hard to know the situation your in. Obviously, I am sure you can see how someone could use your site to manipulate or defraud others. I am not sure of the best way to stop that.
Thing is, and I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier, was that all the legal "problems" weren't directed towards me, the lawyers always said something like, "a user of your site misused your system" or something, and they all just requested their IP and other information. That's the only reason I still have the website up, it doesn't make nearly enough money to merit me even hosting it, but its fun to have up. I have a coworker willing to drop a few hundred and take it off my hands, but I think I might wait and see what happens, traffic has doubled with a few changes I've made.
While I may agree that you intend to make your site available solely for the purpose of 'pranks', there is no way you can prove your intention. Are you logging any identification of the people who send those fake emails? You have reasonable knowledge that your service can be used with ill-intentions and hence you must 'ensure' that it does not occur. At court, you will be treated as a passive partner in crime, if not the main accused.
After a bump-in with Best Buy's legal team, I paid someone to make sure all emails sent log the IP address of the sender. Its the best I can do, and has proved to be very helpful since then in helping catch many, many perpetrators.