Sexbaiting: Sexbaiting is creating (usually) fake, (usually) female, profiles or characters on websites that are used to lure men into spending money on the false pretense that they have a chance of having sex with that character. Sexbait examples include many Myspace profiles, personal ads, and sex dating site profiles.
In and of itself, sexbaitig comes real close to crossing an ethical line. However, one could argue that with sexbaitng what you are selling is a fantasy, and people enjoy buying into fantasies even if they are set up under false pretenses. Plus, no one is really getting hurt. In the case of a dating site, for example, the “victim” may still have a chance to have sex with someone through the service. Or in the case of a fake female Icon, they still have the fantasy.
However, waxy has a story of one guy taking it to the next level and actually damaging people’s lives:
On Monday, a Seattle web developer named Jason Fortuny started his own Craigslist experiment. The goal: “Posing as a submissive woman looking for an aggressive dom, how many responses can we get in 24 hours?”
He took the text and photo from a sexually explicit ad (warning: not safe for work) in another area, reposted it to Craigslist Seattle, and waited for the responses to roll in. Like Simon’s experiment, the response was immediate. He wrote, “178 responses, with 145 photos of men in various states of undress. Responses include full e-mail addresses (both personal and business addresses), names, and in some cases IM screen names and telephone numbers.”
In a staggering move, he then published every single response, unedited and uncensored, with all photos and personal information to Encyclopedia Dramatica (kinda like Wikipedia for web fads and Internet drama). Read the responses (warning: sexually explicit material).
See, that’s just not cool. For something to qualify as “Public disclosure of private facts”:
The disclosure must be public. The facts must be private. The plaintiff must be identified. The publication must be “highly offensive.” And there must be an “absence of legitimate concern to the public” with respect to the publication.
So, that’s pretty much verbatim what Jason Fortuny did. My crystal ball says this guy will get sued and he will lose; that is, of course, if one of the people whose life he just ruined does not kill him first.
Conclusion: Sexbaiting is certainly a grey area of morality that can be argued either way. Ruining people’s lives by violating their privacy is not.
4 Responses to “Sexbaiting”
2/14/07 physical harm, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I personally suspect that a person like Fortuny likely has been a spammer for hire in the past. What I don’t understand is why no one has posted Fortuny’s personal foibles. Why don’t we know his home phone number? Why don’t we know make, model, color, license number of his car? Where does he live? Where does he work? Who is his g/f or b/f??? Let’s find this out and post it all. I am not a computer jock so am not good at that kind of stuff….but would gladly participate in boycotting any company that hires him, calliing him in the dead of night, basically making his life miserable for the rest of his likely limited life.
[…] This is a problem … it seems that some brainiac in Seattle has decided to use MY IDEA for evil …read about it here: http://seoblackhat.com/2006/09/08/sexbaiting/ […]
This guy went even further. He placed the ad, lured men into conversations, then forwarded their emails to their wives and co-workers.
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2006/09/18/in-the-company-of-jerkoffs/
Yes, he’s being sued — both by his victims, and by Craig’s List!
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2006/10/18/good-griefers-fortuny-v-crook/
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[…] By now you are aware of Seattle Washington’s Jason Fortuny evil sexbaiting stunt. It’s been everywhere including Slashdot, Wired, and will soon be in all the major newspapers. […]