subject: Pace Lattin, fraud-fighter and interactive advertising compliance expert, victim of extortion racket [print this page] Pace Lattin, a world recognized expert on interactive advertising fraud and compliance today announced that he was the victim of an attempted extortion racket and offered a $5,000 reward for the capture and prosecution of the extortionist. Mr. Lattin revealed that the week of September 5th, 2010, after publishing several weeks of intelligence information on known scams in the interactive advertising industry, that he was contacted by someone using a Gmail account similar to his name. "This person claimed that he was someone I owed money to, but at the same time made it clear that he didn't like that I was writing about scams in the industry," says Lattin."It became very clear within days that the purpose of his emails was to intimidate me to stop writing about fraud in the industry."
Soon after contacted, Mr. Lattin was hired by a large website to detect click-fraud that was occurring on this website's media buys. "Within hours, I confirmed that the company my client was doing business with was connected to a well known fraud ring, and that despite the pseudonyms being used, the addresses and cell phone numbers tracked back to a well known fraudster," told Lattin. "After confronting these people, I immediately received another email making it very clear that he would start posting false information about me on the internet." Mr. Lattin admits that he is not sure who is behind this extortion attempt, but he will do everything to find this person, prosecute and put behind bars.
In an email written to Mr. Lattin, the extortionist said that he would start posting false allegations that Mr. Lattin was involved in Israeli Terrorism, was involved in child pornography, and that Mr. Lattin never attended his Alma Mater. "These were all things I have written about frequently, so it was very clear that if I continued to cover scams that I was going to be a target." On top of that, Mr. Lattin revealed that the extortionist even threatened to post the addresses of his under-age children on the internet, which currently live with their mother. When Mr. Lattin didn't stop writing, two weeks later the extortionist wrote that he would start publishing information about Mr. Lattin's financial history, including that he had at one time filed bankruptcy all which is public record.
"By going public with this, I want to make it clear that I will not be a victim and rely just on law enforcement to take action. Instead I want to send a message to these cyber terrorists who attempt to defraud small businesses that I will go after them using any means necessary." Mr. Lattin confirmed at this date he has contacted both the FBI and local law enforcement and has provided them with the information needed to assist in capturing and prosecuting the extortionist.
Pace Lattin, fraud-fighter and interactive advertising compliance expert, victim of extortion racket
