[jsfg_cinti] Need information on apparent rumor-mill service

Dear friends:

As some of you know, I have been trying to get a job in Cincinnati (after
moving here from Washington, DC) for a year and a half and have succeeded in
getting a single interview for a real job during that period.  I have, of
course, had many informational interviews, all of which were quite positive.
I have been involved in some politically "hot" litigation for six years (not
associated with anything in Cincinnati) and from time to time I wonder
whether anyone is taking some sort of action to keep me from working.  Yea,
yea, I know it sounds paranoic.  There are no jobs for senior corporate
attorneys without clients, yada yada.

Anyway, yesterday I received an email from Experience Share
[experience.share@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx], which appears to me to be an
online service (with different levels of paying/not paying memberships) for
getting anonymous information about people from other people who purport to
know them.  According to this service, there have been two requests for
information about me and three people have responded, claiming to have
information about me.  One says he or she knows me well socially.  Another
claims to have professional experience with me over the past year.  THe
latter claim is suspect to me for, although I have done two temporary work
assignments and some free lance legal work, I cannot imagine that the few
close people I have worked with would respond to something like this on an
anonynmous basis and not tell me.  I also find it hard to believe that a law
firm or in-house legal department would use something like this.  But
perhaps a temp firm or headhunter would.  I also have been qualifying to
teach at University of Phoenix.

I am concerned, and also curious.  Has anyone ever used one of these
services or been a victim of one?  Has anyone ever heard of HR departments
or headhunters using something like this?  Any suggestions?  THey have a Q&A
section on the website where they respond to people who have problems with
this by claiming this whole thing has been vetted by an attorney and told
the service is legal.  As an attorney and based upon my admittedly limited
knowledge of the law of libel, I doubt that any attorney has said it is
legal to libel someone on such a service, but one could never know whether
that were happening, could one?  The attorney, if there actually were an
attorney consulted, probably advised the person or group that operates the
site that the operator can escape liability even if a user posts libellous
statements.  I doubt the legal conclusion has been tested in court in this
exact situation, though, given the newness of this type of thing.

I would appreciate any reactions to this any of you have.  It scares me that
people run sites like this where lies could be posted and you would never
know it.

Carolyn Betts

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