Facebook Used To Track Down Debtors

[Dragonfan]

ninemsn.com.au

 

Tue Dec 16 2008

 

A Canberra lawyer who won the right to serve legal documents on two defendants via Facebook says courts around the country will follow his lead. In what he believes is a world first, lawyer Mark McCormack tracked down a couple who had defaulted on a six-figure loan using the internet and served them with a default judgement.

 

Mr McCormack says the ACT Supreme Court allowed him to serve the couple via Facebook as well as leaving the actual court papers at their last known address and sending emails. Earlier this year, lawyers acting for the Bulldogs NRL club served player Sonny Bill Williams with a subpoena via SMS text message. Williams was in Europe after defecting to French rugby club Toulon.

 

Mr McCormack, himself a keen Facebook user, says using the popular social networking site to contact people who flee is the logical "next step". "I think the courts will continue to adopt it on a case by case basis," he said. "They will (just) need to assure themselves that it is reasonably likely to bring (the court's decision) to the attention of the parties concerned."

 

Mr McCormack said his legal firm, Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers, hadn't been able to find any other examples of Facebook being used to serve a court judgement. The lawyer is acting for a lending institution which loaned the Canberra couple more than $100,000. When they defaulted and couldn't be found at their listed residence, he had to get creative.

 

The lawyer obtained a default judgement in the couple's absence and was able to convince the court to serve it via Facebook. The fact the defaulters' Facebook accounts included their names, dates of birth and listed each other as "friends", was enough to persuade the court it had the right people in its sights.

[oz360]

This is a blatant breech of Privacy. Now the whole world knows who, where and what. The company should FORGIVE the loan 100% or the maximum Privacy Breach penalty paid. Facebook is a Public Forum, not a safe and secure post box. Adds Another reason why facebook sucks too.

[Rocker]

The moral of the story is don't put too much about yourself at any site on the net. You are asking for trouble.

[pisspotgrower]

fuck em there thieves, if they rippin of 6 figure sums would put it past em knock of our babies......i fuckin hate thieves

[oz360]

The moral of the story is don't put too much about yourself at any site on the net. You are asking for trouble.

 

Has anyone from here provided too much detail and been busted?

[Pure]

Has anyone from here provided too much detail and been busted?

 

Not to my knowlage , people have been busted whilst being members for other reasons but no-one has ever been busted from this site.

 

 

I am supprised that the courts allowed this simply based on how easy it is to faulsify information on the net but as for a breach of privacy I simply don't see it , If you put the information in a public place then you can have no expectation of privacy.

 

Personaly I think sites like facebook, myspace etc are doing more bad than good in the larger scheme of things , when myspace was the in thing and they ran statistics on members that they knew the identity of there was over 20,000 registered sex offenders as members.

[konflikt]

hope no one has been busted....not sure about IP security in here...maybe pure can clarify if our IP are available for publication?

[Mulcontent]

I've found Facebook to be most useful in keeping in touch with long lost friends , I don't use it as a networking tool like Myspace where you can be more anonymous

With both these applications you have the choice of setting your account so that only added friends and real friends can view it

People who use thier real name and leave thier page open to worldwide viewing only have themeselves to blame at the end of the day - btw you dont have to use your real name

As for the courts trying to deliver a summons via email sure let them do it , you dont have to open that email , so technically you havent recieved it , wait til a privately hired detective tracks you down in the pub with it like the good old days ( hehe )

 

hope no one has been busted....not sure about IP security in here...maybe pure can clarify if our IP are available for publication?

 

Your I.P when using this site is recorded in the admin files but nowhere else , Police could seize these files via a court order if neccessary , that's if they can find the contact details for the hosting company and establish successful contact

Hopefully a quick thinking webmaster would delete all content if thus shit hit the fan , though I doubt this would ever be neccessary

It's not illegal to visit this site and talk about pot , despite the fact the Australia has some of the harshest internet laws in the world ( thanks Kev )

The only busts via the web in Australia I know of were when some people set up stoner sites using the .com.au extension which brings your site under live scrutiny by various internet bodies checking your shit

Bad move

[duckyduckduck]

Somebody mentioned a breach of privacy above. It's not. Not under our laws at least.

 

Personally I think Facebook is an awesome experiment that demonstrates how stupid we all are.

 

Normally, if a government department or company asks you for personal details you sit and think for a few moments "why do they need to know which high school I went to? And what's this nonsense about favorite music?".

 

But, build a form, make next to nothing mandatory then put a smiley face on it, and before long people will have completed every field out of vanity...Oh, and they'll identify their friends, associates and common interests. You can't build a SOM that's as accurate as facebook.

 

Let's face it, the US intelligence community knows that the sissy congress will never give all of the data to TIA that it wants...That's okay, the government can always exercise its rights in Facebook through In-Q-Tel. Genius!

[BongsAway_Cherry]

gosh will they ever back off..