Spokeo.com | Scam or search engine?

How would you feel about one search engine combining all of your social networks- Spokeo.com? Image from Flickr.

Spokeo.com claims to do something very simple: aggregate all the publicly available information about a person and sell it to anyone who is willing to pay with payday loans or otherwise. Many are asking if it’s a scam, or if Spokeo really does offer a legitimate service. The answer is … sort of. “Spokeo.com is a scam” isn’t entirely true, but the functionality of Spokeo isn’t necessarily entirely legitimate.

What Spokeo.com offers

Spokeo itself is a search engine that aggregates social networking information. Any information considered public on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, Netflix, Flickr, Last.fm or any other network is aggregated using the Spokeo search. The aggregator matches the information it gathers with an e-mail address. Spokeo then sells the information it aggregates to anybody who gets payday loans no faxing or any other financing to pay for the information.

Spokeo scam?

There have been many allegations that Spokeo.com Scam might be a better name for the company. Spokeo.com itself states in its privacy policy that it only gathers publicly available information. Independent tests by snopes.com and news services have found that the opt-out process on Spokeo.com is spotty. Spokeo.com scam whistle-blowers also claim that Spokeo.com scam billing processes are of concern.

The response of Spokeo.com to scam allegations is that company heads are “just launching a new version of Spokeo and are reviewing policies and algorithms.”

Keeping social networking information safe from Spokeo

The spookiest thing about Spokeo.com, scam or not, is that it aggregates information on the internet you may or may not want shared. More important than which web sites like Spokeo.com might be aggregating your information is what you choose to share. If available, set your privacy settings to a level you are comfortable with.

Spokeo.com is an aggregator – so be sure to remove information you do not want public from the original web site where the information was available. Beyond protecting yourself from the potential Spokeo.com scam, it is just good practice in protecting yourself online.

Sources

Snopes.com
Pandia Search Engine News
Spokio.com blog

barbara jean behar

You have information on me and not any of it is correct. My husband has been deseased 13 years and you also have him as living.You need to do a more thorough search. I only own one home. You have me as owning two. And the value is not correct. This could hurt when someone wants to sell their home.
Franzie4

new purchase of Spokeo with 3 month subscription. Information received through Spokeo is at least 4 years, possibly up to 6 years old and no longer correct. All information gathered as aggragate of publicly available information. My phone call to Spokeo customer service did result in full refund (promise), apology and very courteous experience. I do not consider this site as a “scam” (very negative charge), but, perhaps unable to deliver all they profess in advertising. Again, the information was CORRECT, but not current.
Dissapointed!

Hello peeps I have been one of these peoples pawns. I have been doing a geneology search an thought Spokeo could help. WRONG! As a few of you have stated most of the info I recd I already had, pics were wrong, even DOB’s were wrong just to name a few. On top of that I was charged $35.40 for a one year subscription when it was only suppose to be .95 trial basis. Now Ive got to contact them in hopes of getting my money back. WATCH OUT PEEPS, THEY ARE LIARS AND THIEVES!!!!!
nikki

these kind of sites will get someone hurt or killed i understand if it is for employment purposes or collection purposes but for the general public i believe it should be against the friggin law for sites to do this.. so lets just say someone is trying to get out of an abusive situation and then person they are trying to get away from tracks them down by finding the information on this site?? not smart is it? could really hurt someone.. think people think!
sorry4lucklairs

you mat have about 5% of your information close to being right but your app SUXs
Fakes R Us

SPOKEO is nothing but a fake information site that the facts can be add by any one about " ANYONE "
- POST ANYTHING
  
  so they profile your comment/ screen so they can sell more bogus subscritions …LMAO @ SPOKEO / FAKO
harry

how do i find out the name :
Joshua S. Delatorre
from your search engine?
please help!
Tks!
- harry
  
  i don't need to appear publicly,
  just need to know how to find out or which application from your search engine for the name i gave to you?
Rod Roberts

Their information clearly is substantially out-of-date or completely incorrect for a lot of people. They showed me as living at my ex-wife's address, w/ her land-line as my primary phone number, then concocted a name for my "room mate" out of parts of my first daughter's name, and identifying that "roommate" as another male, close to MY age. What worries me now is that I may start receiving even more spam @ my email address because I needed to give it to them in order to have my listing removed. Fortunately, I was able to do that W/OUT disclosing any passwords or other personally identifying info. And my email service provider has a pretty effective spam filter which keeps most of the junk out of my inbox. Plus, as with a lot of people, I have multiple email addresses … such as the one I'm showing in order to post this comment. Protecting your own privacy isn't really all that hard; it simply requires a willingness to take a few common sense steps to do it.
Jackie

oooohh They are real good!!! got me llsted as a married FEMALE. and then my wifes name. She sure was supprised to find out I am a FEMALE……name ph# address… all in the phone book nothing else was correct
Margarette

This is definately a scam… What what they do with YOUR information. You can find the same results on Google with a little research for free. Don't buy into this rip off site. NOT RECOMMENDED
gESS Hoo;)

BTW … does George Clooney know he's on this site?
gESS Hoo;)

Spokeo DOT com will "aggregate all the publicly available information about a person and sell it to anyone who is willing to pay with payday loans or otherwise … " … i think "AGGRAVATE" is a better word, too funny, these folks are desparate for a buck, good luck ) … the pathetic is that they thrive on comments similar to my own and other folk's remarks, but the enlightening factor is the majority will be removing their listing, and again, very humorous, good techie vs. lame techie, no big deal. People, it's very easy to remove your listing, and though you can't win against the fool geek to completely remain private, it's best to turn the other cheek and live life to the better advantage, do what you can to eliminate the mass pessimist beyond the Internet, life in its natural form truly does exist, take heed to the advice, xx
Cody

I checked out the info that they offered on the site that was supposed to be mine. They had very few correct pieces of info, the rest they pulled out of their *ss, because it was nowhere close to being right. Hell, they posted someone's picture as me and I have no clue who it is. Scam, I would say so. There is no yelling what kind of a hodgepodge of junk they are throwing together on people and trying to peddle it as valid information. My advice, steer clear.
Rick Cain

Its a scam. It asks you for your email password to conduct a "contacts search". No legitimate site would ever ask you outright to supply an email password. Thats basically handing over your family jewels for them to stomp on.

Stay away from it.
- Steven Tarlow
  
  Yeah, I came across Spokeo a while back and would have used it if not for the E-mail password requirement. That's ridiculous.
  
  There are all kinds of background check and reverse directory-type Web sites that lead you through the process of entering in data about who you seek. In the end, they always give you a teasing bit of info, then try to get you to pay for more, usually on a subscription model. 99.9% of that is bogus, I'm sure.
http://franroselive.com/ Franrose

I'm sorry, but it doesn't sound too legit to me. I certainly don't like the idea of this company making money off of things I personally make available to the public. It's made public for a reason, specifically for sharing purposes. What gives someone the right to take that information and sell it? If anything, it should be the actual owner making the money. You know, not too long ago there were rumors that Facebook was going to be doing the exact same thing. I seriously almost shut my account down because of it. I mean, what the heck is going on in the minds of people these days? Are they seriously running out of ideas on ways to make money?
- rosefran
  
  seriously.