Cheap Web "Revenge" Services Draw Anger

Got an enemy? How about ruining his credit, sending messages regarding a faux affair to his wife, and having his power cut off? Sounds like the kind of stuff you'd see in a steamy psychological thriller, but it's here right now. The kicker: Such services will run you about 20 bucks a month.

The service is from a company called confidentialaccess.com (which is offline at the time I write this, hopefully for good), and it's now drawn the ire of British government officials. Britons are reportedly behind the service, though like many an illicit enterprise, it is run from offshore servers.

The story in The Times Online describes how you might use its "novelty" services, which primarily include creating fake documentation like bank account statements, driver's licenses, and ownership papers, to your advantage: At its simplest it suggests sending forged checks from the victim's employer back to that employer. Your boss will think you're forging checks to yourself, and fire you on the spot. Ditto a phony bank statement sent to your bank. Account closed for fraud.

And this is no hoax: For £300, the Times obtained a totally realistic phony driver's license using the photo of one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists.

Fake IDs are nothing new, of course, but point-and-click access to a wide variety of fake documentation is, especially when it's marketed for ruining the lives of other people. It scares me enough that I questioned whether I should write about it at all.

Of course, there's a little good news: The powers that be are aware of the severe risk of sites like these services, and given that the site is offline, perhaps they're already doing some good to shut them down. Meanwhile, be aware that sites like this exist, in case you're on the receiving end of such a scam.

LINK: Web revenge: ruin an enemy for £10