FAQ

What inspired this website?

The evergrowing amount of fraud and corruption on the internet, and lack of government regulation. The fact that many politicians are in fact party to fraud and corruption, making their oversight and regulations pointless and self-serving. The tragedy of the internet being taken over and dragged thru the mud by a small handful of Big Tech monopolies. Our website is a neutral third party simply documenting relationships, nothing more.

What is the long-term purpose of this website?

To bring transparency to how money flows between business, journalism (“media”), and politics. Our goal is to simply reveal who is paying who money — following the money. The general public is invited to comment (or review) any public figure or brand listed on our website, as long as they use their real name.

What are hucksters, spammers, scammers, fraudsters, grifters, grafters, etc?

These words have evolved a lot over the course of history, esp. in the internet age. Old terms like “grifter” have recently become popular again as the internet has allowed people with questionable morals to find easy targets, usually for financial gain. Generally, we aim to expose those who are abusing innocent members of the public, no matter what term is used. In many cases we must first identify legitimate members of an organization before we can identity cases of fraud or otherwise, this is why the majority of people in our database should be considered unremarkable.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/is-it-grifter-or-grafter-usage-difference-grift-graft

Do you encourage the public to contact, harass, or otherwise harm individuals listed on this site?

No. Under no circumstances do we encourage contacting, stalking, harassing, or otherwise harming individuals found on our website.

This is also in accordance with policies from search engines such as Google: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9554939

Do you publish personal contact information of individuals?

No. Under no circumstances do we publish contact information such as personal phone numbers, email addresses, or residential addresses of individuals. The only “contact” information we ever publish or allow to be posted in comments/reviews is public profiles that an individual has created on other websites such as social media networks, homepages, or similar, or relevant business contact information (like a business email address or physical office address, etc).

Do you publish private data of individuals, such as ID numbers, private documents, irrelevant relationships, etc?

No. If you find a page on our site (or comments from third-party users) that contain confidential ID numbers, financial data, medical data, or other private documents please let us know and we will ensure it is removed immediately.

This is also in accordance with policies from search engines such as Google: https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061

We also never publish irrelevant relationships such as lovers, siblings, friends, or neighbors, unless it is directly relevant (such as business partners, etc).

Can I remove a listing from your website?

No.

What types of comments (reviews) do you allow or disallow?

We only allow comments to be posted under your real name… if we determine a comment was posted using a fake name or aliases it will be deleted. Relevant commentary to a listed person’s career and career-related activity is what is allowed here. Random trash-talking, personal events (when I knew him in high school… when I dated him…), and confusing jibberish are never allowed. This website is not a place for personal grievances, it is ALWAYS focused on public interest only, e.g. protecting the public only. Accusing anyone of certain felony crimes like (r**e, murder, etc) when they have never been convicted of said crimes is never allowed here. A few other types of comments will also be deleted, such as death threats, or other extreme cases that could be seen to encourage self-harm or excessively cruel (irrelevant to the public) mockery of personal traits (you’re a fat ugly orphan…).

Are you extorting/blackmailing me? If I pay money, will you remove a listing?

No. Under no circumstances do we accept or solicit payment to remove content from our site. The goal of our site is not to extort, blackmail or otherwise hurt any individual or entity, but rather to simply expose the relationships between persons and organizations. We believe that everyone deserves to voice their perspective (using their real name), and that perhaps some of the misdeeds on the internet can be reduced if there is more public argument and exposure over them. We also do sincerely believe in forgiveness, second chances, etc.

Ultimately, this website is a grand experiment in transparency in an era of political polarization and online censorship.

If I sue you, threaten you, file GDPR or copyright complaints (etc), will you remove my listing?

No.

Do you allow sexually explicate language or content?

No. Under no circumstances do we allow sexual or pornographic content including images, videos, or other renderings. We also do not allow sexual innuendo, jokes, or insults in our comments and reviews, unless a user is referring to a previous discussion or experience for the sake of public knowledge, however these instances still cannot contain images, videos, or renderings.

Why am I listed here, or XYZ brand listed here?

Because you have a public presence as an entity that sells products or ideas to the general public, or you are a tax-funded politician.

Do you expose websites focused on gambling, adult themes, or file-sharing/streaming?

Generally, no. These types of sites might technically be illegal in some places but we don’t generally see them as “scams” taking advantage of innocent/average people. Exceptions might a casino website that was scamming users, or sites that are known to distribute child p*rnagraphy.

There is unflattering or untrue information or comments about me, what should I do?

You may register an account and post a comment on the relevant page with your viewpoint. If the page is “your” profile on Hucksters, we will sticky your comment so that it appears above all other comments. You can also reply to comments on a per-comment basis. You may edit/update your comments or delete them at anytime as well. If you desire, you can also file a legal complaint with the relevant United States court against the individual who you believe is posting untrue things about you (only real names are allowed here, for exactly this reason).

Do you ever expose journalists or activists who might be endangered?

No, at least not purposefully. One of the main exceptions to our work is protecting activists or journalists who might be physical danger or otherwise for their work in exposing fraud, corruption, human rights violations, or otherwise. Generally speaking, this exception tends not to apply as often in Western countries. This is also a good reason why political “stance” is often relevant these days (and should be understood as such)… for example, a left-wing activist in Iran might be fighting for the same things as a right-wing activist in China.

How can I contact you to report a violation of your rules, etc?

To maintain total transparency, we do not maintain email addresses to prevent any “secret” communication from happening, and to avoid harassment. If you want to report a violation of our rules, simply create an account on Hucksters.net and then post a comment on the profile/page you found a violation on and our team will see it rather quickly and take action as appropriate. Trying to contact/harass our team via other means will not achieve anything, and might be mentioned on your own profile here on Hucksters.

What other directories do you suggest?

There are several online directories trying to encourage transparency, here are some: https://hucksters.net/scam-trackers