back to article AshMad search outfit Trustify to El Reg: 'Trust us, we're the good guys'

Online “Uber for private investigators” outfit Trustify is upset with The Register for not replicating its messaging with sufficient sycophancy. The company has, through PR company PR/serve, sent the following missive to explain why it harvested searches from the desperate and foolish visiting its site to see if they're on the …

  1. Mark 85

    Ok... sure.. Good Guys..

    And one's name/e-mail addy is in the dump, besides ask you for money, what will they do about it? This is fear mongering at it's worst... the "you or someone you know checked to see if you were there" part. If they said, you're not there, then all is well. If they said "you're in the dump", what will they do about it beside want your CC number?

    Curious minds and all that.....

    1. g e

      Also: "Not on this site"

      That's changed, too, by the look of it...

      http://www.trustify.info/check-no?User[adult_friend_finder_possible_email_address]=ceo@trustify.info

      Will take you to what you get when you enter an email addy, plonk any email addy you like on the end there, as far as I can tell. Not received anything in my inbox yet so perhaps the 'Clear yes/no' is already long gone in favour of hoovering emails up.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    that's one way to verify valid email addresses...

    I don't remember if I ever signed up at AshleyMadison. I don't remember doing that, but I don't care any more, either.

  3. Jamesit

    Nothig om AM about the hack. The site still says "over 39,470,000 anonymous users" and still let's people join.

  4. P. Lee
    Joke

    Oi Richard!

    I've just checked - you're not exposed.

    Oh wait....

  5. Edwin

    dunno, really

    The validation approach does have the benefit of warning the email address owner that they're being looked up. Granted, the wider availability of the database makes the point kind of moot...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scary

    I never signed up - it's against everything I believe - but my address is listed. I'm terrified. Posting a/c for obvious reasons.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Scary

      Trying to work out if you're being sarcastic or just paranoid...

      If your email address is on there then its there for ONLY 2 reasons.

      You signed up for it or someone else signed up with your credentials.

      As to latter, you have to ask "why".

      Personally, i think its the former.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Scary

        if the user database has been "pumped" it may well be full of valid, but misused, email addresses. I have seen evem my own domain on spam sent to my domain from time to time. (and, no, I dont have any server to be compromised, just a domain registered)

        I have no doubt that this will be th case on the AshMad dumps too.

        Correlation of an email does not necessarily mean you signed up. I haven't looked at the dumps but I would expect there to be more corroboration than that for you to worry.

        1. Vic

          Re: Scary

          I have seen evem my own domain on spam sent to my domain

          That's a standard spammer tactic. They seem to think that local-domain addresses will be whitelisted, or something like that.

          My SPF records defeats it all rather trivially...

          Vic.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Scary

      If you've got a gmail/hotmail/outlook/yahoo address, then it might be quite likely to see your email address randomly turn up on there, if it's not too unusual. Similarly if you own something like johnsmith.com.

      My 6 year old nephew has been sending me messages in his school IT lessons via the company website contact form - as he doesn't have an email. But he knows enough to fill in the mandatory email field with hisname@hotmail.com. So I'm sure an AM user can manage the same.

      As my email address is obadiahfullentrousers@spankmonkey.com, I'm not too worried...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    These guys have never heard of the duck theory..

    If it looks like a duck and quacks like one, it is probably after your personal details.

    Or something like that.

    The only way to have a plausible defence from doing something dodgy starts with not doing things that are dodgy. Otherwise it's just a lot of old, er, quack...

  8. x 7

    they want $67 / hour to fix it for you

    Very hard to see how they intend to "fix" it considering the data is already leaked

    1. VinceH

      That $67/hour will result in your details being removed...

      ... from their copy of the database.

      1. Joey M0usepad Silver badge

        staggering that someone running a scam like that will contact el reg claiming legitimacy

  9. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    I wonder how one decides to set up a scam like this

    The discussion to set this site up must have been something like this :

    - Hey, we can make some money on this

    - Yeah, get people to give us their email to check if they're in the dump

    - And if they are, we offer to remove them for $$

    - but we can't

    - Yes we can, we'll remove them from our copy of the data

    - Which is useless

    - Who cares ? That's what they'll have paid for

    - What if they complain ?

    - Where, in court ? They won't dare to

    - Okay, let's do this

    1. Joey M0usepad Silver badge

      Re: I wonder how one decides to set up a scam like this

      part of me thinks anyone dumb enough to pay to be removed from the internet deserves to learn the lesson

  10. Trigonoceps occipitalis

    I've Googled Myself

    I don't exist on this or any other database!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I've Googled Myself

      "I don't exist on this or any other database"

      ...and I presume that you accept only cash for any work you carry out ;-)

  11. Schlimnitz

    The only person who comes out of this looking good is Troy Hunt. He has been consistently sensitive, thoughtful and ethical. Kudos to the guy.

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