What’s The Deal With Mugshot Websites
When a person is arrested and booked, the police station or sheriff’s office will take photos and fingerprints for identity verification and justice system records. Even after a person has been cleared of charges and the legal system removes your mugshot from public sites, you may still find your mugshot online. Why?
Because of the many for-profit businesses that have popped up in recent years to make money by posting mugshots, real money is made by charging people fees to access people’s mugshots. The best way innocent victims can track down multiple websites to erase mugshots is by partnering with a professional mugshot removal service.
How websites make money posting mugshots
Mug-shot companies make money by posting mugshots in two ways. First, they victimize the innocent person by charging a fee to have their mugshot removed. In most states, it is legal to charge this fee even when the person arrested was never convicted of a crime. The time, energy, and frustration it takes to find all these mugshot companies and request the removal of busted mugshots are the hidden costs associated with these less than reputable companies.
The second way these websites make money is to provide mugshot photos to third parties willing to pay. This could be a company you’ve applied for employment to or a potential love interest looking to know more about you. On the darker side, some people search for the mugshot of someone they know to destroy their reputation. What you have here is a mugshot extortion scheme from both the website and your detractor.
Why websites post mugshots for profit
Some of the largest internet businesses do nothing more than purchasing a software program that digs deep into the internet to curate information. Examples of curated content include:
- News Curators – like BuzzFeed will collect interesting facts and stories posted by other sites.
- Online Reputation Websites – will mine the internet to publish both negative and positive corporate information.
- People Search – complex algorithms that skim the internet to collect personal and private information.
In today’s modern world, data is money. Mugshot publishing companies reap huge profits by collecting millions of mugshots, charging the public to view their database, then charging innocent people to have their mugshots removed. Many of these companies operate above and beyond ethical business practices.
Even when laws prohibit companies like Arrest org from charging a fee to remove mugshots that are no longer valid, these companies specialize in making that process difficult. These companies take pride in the size of their mugshot database, and they actually use those numbers in their advertising campaigns. This is another reason why websites post mugshots for profit and make it hard to erase your mugshot.
Many people are turning to mugshot removal experts to fit this difficult battle for them. These companies hire people experienced in tracking down companies that publish as little contact information as possible. And if you can’t contact them, then you can’t get justice.
