Jerk.com Jerked Around Consumers, FTC Says

How’s this for an online racket? Surreptitiously grab information from Facebook to create tens of millions of profiles labeling people a "jerk" or "not a jerk" and then charge people $30 to revise their online profiles.

The deceptive scheme didn't sit well with the Federal Trade Commission, which filed an administrative complaint against Jerk, LLC and the operator of the website, John Fanning, for misleading consumers that the content on the site had been created by other Jerk.com users when in reality it had been harvested from Facebook without their permission.

Between 2009 and 2013, Jerk.com operated a social networking website that invited users to "post a jerk." Although the site claimed it contained only user-generated content, in fact the vast majority of the 73 million profiles were created by Jerk using information from Facebook. What's even more troubling, some of the profiles of children were designated as private on Facebook.

The FTC is seeking an order barring Jerk.com from using the personal information improperly obtained and requiring Jerk.com to delete the information.