“Extortionate” Scheme Preys On Ex-Cons, Says Class Action

The lead plaintiff in a class action filed in Illinois says Mugshots.com published incorrect information about his criminal record, and as a result he was fired from his job. Then a “sister” company of Mugshots –  said by the Better Business Bureau to be an alternate name for the same company – told the man it would clean up his profile for $15,000. The Attorney General of Illinois has intervened on the plaintiff side, calling the Mugshots business model “extortionate,” but a lawyer for the company says it’s exercising its First Amendment free speech rights. Those rights, the company says in a court filing, are not lost “simply because the information has become stale, or is incomplete.”