Money extortion from former virtual assistant

[seamles]

I'm looking for any legal/guidance for a situation with former VA's from the Phillipines who have been threatening and trying to extort money? Note to everyone, contracts or working through an agency is so much better than saving any money or cutting corners. Happy to talk to anyone directly. Thanks.

 

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[Rabby]

How are they able to extort money though? I mean, what's the threat?

 

[seamles]

How are they able to extort money though? I mean, what's the threat?

First was my dumbness giving access to websites etc. Then they threatened to email past clients and bad mouth me. Third was a general lawsuit (one VA hired others and didn't pay them) but don't think that was valid. The whole thing is so frustrating.

 

[OverByte]

Can't you just remove their access? Re email I would reckon it's likely an empty threat if you don't pay up why would they go through the trouble. Plus you can remove them from being able to send from your domain so the risk would be limited to them copying email addresses and sending from a different email domain and likely a personal email.

I don't know your situation and it's way easier for me to say this from my perspective but I don't think you'll get anywhere legally since they are in the Philippines and it will just waste time and money and increase your stress and how long this plays out. I suggest removing all their access to any accounts and telling them to go f' themselves. Then monitor for any damage that needs to be controlled. Likely none. That's the fastest way out. Again limited details but realistically how much damage can they inflict and what's the incentive if you don't pay up. Probably just an idle threat.

Edit: telling them to go f' themselves was more figurative. I'd suggest a short message clearly indicating you have removed all access and won't pay them anything. That you never want to hear from them again and if you do you'll consider pursuing legal action. (Which will also be an empty threat but will disincentivize them from contacting you again)

 

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[seamles]

Can't you just remove their access? Re email I would reckon it's likely an empty threat if you don't pay up why would they go through the trouble. Plus you can remove them from being able to send from your domain so the risk would be limited to them copying email addresses and sending from a different email domain and likely a personal email.

I don't know your situation and it's way easier for me to say this from my perspective but I don't think you'll get anywhere legally since they are in the Philippines and it will just waste time and money and increase your stress and how long this plays out. I suggest removing all their access to any accounts and telling them to go f' themselves. Then monitor for any damage that needs to be controlled. Likely none. That's the fastest way out. Again limited details but realistically how much damage can they inflict and what's the incentive if you don't pay up. Probably just an idle threat.

Edit: telling them to go f' themselves was more figurative. I'd suggest a short message clearly indicating you have removed all access and won't pay them anything. That you never want to hear from them again and if you do you'll consider pursuing legal action.

Yes sorry for not being the most clear. I've removed all access, changed all of that information. I agree legally it's been dumb dealing with and the lawyer I supposedly have is also not necessarily the best.

My main concern at this point is if they did email my main place of work. I don't think anything would really happen but don't want to deal with the headache of explaining to them.

On your edit, basically these people have no problem just continuing emailing and threatening me. Nothing has actually been done so far but it's just partly my own fear.

 

[Jon L]

I would just go dark. Don't respond to anything they say. Don't even open their emails so they won't know you're you're reading what they write. They will likely get bored and move onto an easier target.

 

[OverByte]

So are you still employed and your main concern is they are going to call your employer and say that you have a business?

They will continue to email and threaten if they think you might budge.

Nothing has actually been done so far but it's just partly my own fear.

All of this is your own fear. Granted it's easier for me to say but it's also easier for me to be objective. What's the worst that happens here? I stand by my original message, tell them to f' off and go back to making money. If they keep emailing you block them. Use this as an opportunity to let go of the fear and advance, this is why FTE are so important to making significant progress. It's a catalyst to get over fear because you realized you are suffering enough. You don't need a FTE but it helps. Use this, grow from it, forget them, advance. You can't negotiate with extortionists and I see a legal battle going nowhere, don't let it sap your energy. That is your choice!

 

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[seamles]

Thank you so much for your words everyone. Feeling better.

 

[Kevin88660]

I'm looking for any legal/guidance for a situation with former VA's from the Phillipines who have been threatening and trying to extort money? Note to everyone, contracts or working through an agency is so much better than saving any money or cutting corners. Happy to talk to anyone directly. Thanks.

As far as what you have told us there is nothing worth concerning, from my point of view.

The real threat is actually a lot simple if he or she holds very private and confidential customer information such as phone number, address and full name. It could trigger a tens of thousands fine for customer data protection violation. He or she just need to publish online and you can get into a lot trouble explaining (hopefully he or she doesn’t see this).

That is what scares me and preventing me using a PA.

 

[OverByte]

The real threat is actually a lot simple if he or she holds very private and confidential customer information such as phone number, address and full name. It could trigger a tens of thousands fine for customer data protection violation.

I highly doubt that if a bad actor published someone's name online a court would automatically fine a business tens of thousands of dollars. If a bunch of customer data was leaked due to negligence, that would be a different story, but that's not whats going on here. Do you have experience with this or just propagating hypothetical worst case scenarios that no one can prevent and so only cause people unnecessary worry?

As far as what you have told us there is nothing worth concerning, from my point of view.

You should have stopped after that. OP is obviously worried, I don't believe he/she has to be, even you admit this yet for some reason go on to talk about hypothetical scenarios and why you are afraid of using a personal assistant. Yea there is definitely no market for personal assistants since they all bring down companies in extortion rackets...

I'm calling you out on this because you are needlessly re-injecting fear into this conversation where what OP needs is some support. Even if what you said was statistically probable (which is isn't), there is 0 action that can be taken to prevent the possibility and so it's meaningless to discuss. 0 value added. Is there a case where some bad things happened, probably, but you could also get killed driving to the grocery market. We still drive because it is statistically unlikely anything bad will happen as long as you are behaving reasonably competently. Do what you can to reasonably protect against the downside - don't drive drunk, have car insurance, etc but don't avoid getting in the car. You can't live your life in a bubble and you can't do business that way either. Saying you are scared to hire a PA because they may leak customer information is ridiculous. If you constantly think of everything that could go wrong you will never take any risks. You will never grow with that mindset.

 

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[Kevin88660]

I highly doubt that if someone published someones name online a court would automatically fine a business tens of thousands of dollars. Do you have experience with this or just propagating worst case scenarios that no one can prevent and so only cause people unnecessary worry?



You should have stopped after that. OP is obviously worried, I don't believe he/she has to be, even you admit this yet for some reason go on to talk about hypothetical scenarios and why you are afraid of using a personal assistant. Yea there is definitely no market for personal assistants since they all bring down companies in extortion rackets...

I'm calling you out on this because you are needlessly re-injecting fear into this conversation where what OP needs is some support. Even if what you said was statistically probable (which is isn't), there is 0 action that can be taken to prevent the possibility and so it's meaningless to discuss. 0 value added. Is there a case where some bad things happened, probably, but you could also get killed driving to the grocery market. You can't live your life in a bubble and you can't do business that way either. Saying you are scared to hire a PA because they may leak customer information is ridiculous. You will never grow with that mindset.

Personal Data Protection Act 2012 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Singapore's Biggest Data Breaches in 2016 | Shred-it SG

Learn about the biggest data breaches the Singapore has ever seen, and get some tips and advice on how to protect your organisation from the same fate.

www.shredit.com

My concern is 100 percent true And relevant in my industry and jurisdiction.

I hope lawyers can comment here If it applies elsewhere.

 

[OverByte]

Personal Data Protection Act 2012 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Singapore's Biggest Data Breaches in 2016 | Shred-it SG

Learn about the biggest data breaches the Singapore has ever seen, and get some tips and advice on how to protect your organisation from the same fate.

www.shredit.com

My concern is 100 percent true And relevant in my industry and jurisdiction.

I hope lawyers can comment here If it applies elsewhere.

You are linking to large data breaches due to company negligence. If you own a massive company with a massive database of customer information and you failed to protect access to that information then yes, there's liability there. One of the examples you give is that a company threw away private customer data in a trash bag... This is not even remotely close to being a small business and having a former contractor try to extort a company by publishing a list of customer names/addresses. Please don't link to news headlines of global corporations acting negligently and compare it to OP it's not the same situation.

The requirements you listed are similar to most data privacy laws and pertain to how you manage your customer data. They don't mean that if someone at your company who has access to your data (because they need to have access) posts something with it. The court is also going to treat a 5 person operation a lot differently than a thousand person operation. I'm not going to debate this with you if you don't see how this is a completely different situation. I stand by my original post. Please stop fear-mongering.

 

[Kevin88660]

I highly doubt that if a bad actor published someone's name online a court would automatically fine a business tens of thousands of dollars. If a bunch of customer data was leaked due to negligence, that would be a different story, but that's not whats going on here. Do you have experience with this or just propagating hypothetical worst case scenarios that no one can prevent and so only cause people unnecessary worry?



You should have stopped after that. OP is obviously worried, I don't believe he/she has to be, even you admit this yet for some reason go on to talk about hypothetical scenarios and why you are afraid of using a personal assistant. Yea there is definitely no market for personal assistants since they all bring down companies in extortion rackets...

I'm calling you out on this because you are needlessly re-injecting fear into this conversation where what OP needs is some support. Even if what you said was statistically probable (which is isn't), there is 0 action that can be taken to prevent the possibility and so it's meaningless to discuss. 0 value added. Is there a case where some bad things happened, probably, but you could also get killed driving to the grocery market. We still drive because it is statistically unlikely anything bad will happen as long as you are behaving reasonably competently. Do what you can to reasonably protect against the downside - don't drive drunk, have car insurance, etc but don't avoid getting in the car. You can't live your life in a bubble and you can't do business that way either. Saying you are scared to hire a PA because they may leak customer information is ridiculous. If you constantly think of everything that could go wrong you will never take any risks. You will never grow with that mindset.

I get what you mean.

Negligence versus bad actor who is there to sabotage.

I think in that case there will be no fine but just quite some explaining will help. But I am not a lawyer on that to evaluate the total business cost (operational and hidden) of handling that. I hope someone can.

My purpose of highlighting that is not to say “you should never hire a pa”. Instead focus on what could really go wrong, and do something meaningful. Like collecting evidence of the pa blackmailing you in case that happens, so that to show that the breach is NOT negligent.

And do not waste time worrying they telling your boss and emailing your customer that you suck...these are non-issue. Focus on data breach only.

 

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[Kevin88660]

You are linking to large data breaches due to company negligence. If you own a massive company with a massive database of customer information and you failed to protect access to that information then yes, there's liability there. One of the examples you give is that a company threw away private customer data in a trash bag... This is not even remotely close to being a small business and having an employee publish a list of customer names/addresses. Please don't link to news headlines of global corporations acting negligently and compare it to OP it's not the same situation.

The requirements you listed are similar to most data privacy laws and pertain to how you manage your customer data. They don't mean that if someone at your company who has access to your data (because they need to have access) posts something with it. The court is also going to treat a 5 person operation a lot differently than a thousand person operation. I'm not going to debate this with you if you don't see how this is a completely different situation. I stand by my original post. Please stop fear-mongering.

Identify what could go wrong and prepare for it so that the OP could sleep well. That was my intention.

If I was in his place I will be collecting evidence of being blackmailed so that I do not have to worry what the pa does next, in the name of the company.

 

[OverByte]

Identify what could go wrong and prepare for it so that the OP could sleep well. That was my intention.

If I was in his place I will be collecting evidence of being blackmailed so that I do not have to worry what the pa does next, in the name of the company.

I never thought you had bad intent, I just wanted to point out the fallacy of comparing oranges to apples. OP is in a worried state so it's important to be clear. I agree they should save the emails/correspondence. Maybe even my comment about blocking them should actually be redirect them to some bucket in case they are ever needed, though I worry the temptation to look at them would be too much and continue to cause headache. I think saving the initial ones should be enough.

And do not waste time worrying they telling your boss and emailing your customer that you suck...these are non-issue.

100% agreed on that.

 

[MoreVolume]

I would just go dark. Don't respond to anything they say. Don't even open their emails so they won't know you're you're reading what they write. They will likely get bored and move onto an easier target.

This
Think about the living conditions of the person on the other side of the PC. Do you really think that they are a threat?

 

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[Jose Arturo]

Yes sorry for not being the most clear. I've removed all access, changed all of that information. I agree legally it's been dumb dealing with and the lawyer I supposedly have is also not necessarily the best.

My main concern at this point is if they did email my main place of work. I don't think anything would really happen but don't want to deal with the headache of explaining to them.

On your edit, basically these people have no problem just continuing emailing and threatening me. Nothing has actually been done so far but it's just partly my own fear.

My simple sugestion...mark them as spam. (they are just too far and too poor to do something real besides threatening)