"Extortion" Mug Shot Site Stops Charging People To Have Their Booking Photos Removed—For Now

WW's exposure of a web site that charges people to stop having their mug shots put on the web has apparently compelled the web site's operators to stop the practice—at least for now.

As do many sites, pdxmugshots.com scrapes booking photos from law enforcement web pages then posts them in a gallery online. Pdxmugshots.com then charges people $39 to have their photos taken down and files scrubbed so their photos don't pop up on Google searches.

The parent company, KA Marketing, runs at least dozens of other mug shot sites in states including Louisiana, Arizona, Tennessee, Idaho, Missouri and Georgia. Most reviewed by WW appeared nearly identical to pdxmugshots.com and also offered to remove photos for a fee. Our review shows that—at the moment—the practice has been halted on those sites as well.

Calls to the site's parent company, KA Marketing, based in Redding, Calif., were not returned.