A former card-skimming thief has started a legitimate business that
Rob Wiggen, who served three years for card-skimming crimes, founded a website called florida.arrests.org where he posts mug shots scraped from the websites of law enforcement agencies in the state, Wired.com reported Tuesday on its Threat Level blog. Wiggen makes money from advertising revenue.
A number of businesses have cropped up to help arrestees remove their photos from the site the site. One, called RemoveSlander, charges $399. The company would not tell Wired.com how it gets the photos removed, though Wired.com reports that Wiggen created an automated link for taking down mug shots – and charges a substantially smaller fee.
Wiggen charges $9.95 to have images removed, the article said. He charges $19.95 for expedited removal from Google's index.
The companies and individuals who charge much higher fees for removing mug shots from Wiggen's site either denied knowing about the automated removal tool or refused to confirm or deny using it, Wired.com said.
Wired.com asked Wiggen if his site includes his own mug shot from his 2005 card-skimming arrest. "Of course I'm not going to have my mug on my site," he said. However, Wired.com published Wiggen's mug shot, obtained from the Leon County Sheriff's Office, in its article.
