Need help with “extortion”

larryB

I discovered that my residence comes up in online searches as the physical address of a business i later found out is operating with license or permits. Both yahoo and Apple show the business and provide directions to my home. I called the business, it sounds like an overseas boiler room and when I asked about their location they hung up on me. So far Apple is very nice and does nothing. Yahoo on the other hand told me they would be happy to remove the offending company if I paid them $100.00. Otherwise said the Yahoo guy, it would remain and he was quite offensive and insulting. Any ideas on how to deal with Apple and Yahoo?

Crash

I would say you'll need to write it up on an official form provided by your State Atty. General. But that is pretty well useless, in my experience. Money is in charge. Not people, at least not people with any ETHICS. Since only MONEY talks, you will probably need a lawyer. And you might never be able to discover who those overseas scumbags are. There are ways to extract a small measure of revenge, sometimes:


And the rude, insulting Yahoo guy? Fuck him. All kinds of worthless bags of shit hold jobs. In fact, they manage to hold their jobs BECAUSE they are rude and insulting.

johnN

Hi sir crash.. Can you report false business to business beareau/bbb or federal trade agency or ? ...wonder how they got your address?
Many evil personels out there

Sorry catch22...

RisklessInSeattle

@larryB
Call the business and thank them for the hundreds of checks and money orders that were sent to your address (by mistake).

catch22

@johnN
This post is not set by me; as you noted in a reply. An "edit" will take care of this.

hank

johnN said:

Hi sir catch22.. Can you report false business to business beareau/bbb or federal trade agency or ? ...wonder how they got your address?
Many evil personels out there

@JohnN - Your errant post is Exhibit #1 for what @LarryB is trying to prevent. You incorrectly identified @Catch22 as the “address” from which someone else’s query originated. I assume you meant to refer to @LarryB?

I’d imagine Larry’s problem is all too common today. Probably not on the same level of seriousness, I’d think, as the identity theft which I dealt with some years ago, but annoying and potentially threatening nonetheless. A sign of the times. In my case, the police to whom I reported the Identity theft served warrant against the internet email provider (Yahoo) that the criminal was using to set up a fake account under my identity (and operate a scam operation). He than was able to trace the source of the fake account / scam back to Russia (Yep - our new best buddy). But he also indicated that even with a search warrant getting information out of internet businesses like Yahoo was still tough - a bit like “pulling teeth” as I remember. They fight to guard their information every inch of the way.


@LarryB - I’d strongly suggest checking your credit file with Experian or some other provider just to make sure this use of your address isn’t part of an identity theft operation. I seriously doubt it is - but you can’t be too careful nowadays.

Regards & good luck

larryB

Thanks for your comments everyone . I
Beat the yahoo extortion by getting help from YEXT.. I think they work with yahoo. Apple eventually removed the link to my home. Perhaps because I have too much time I discovered that the same unlicensed repair outfit is using many other residence addresses in the Sacramento metro area, with different phone numbers that all end up in the same call center. It’s unclear what is their ultimate scam but glad to no longer be connected.