Who Posted Your Fake FCC Comment?

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So what do I do now?

What should you do when multiple random companies and political operatives have stolen your identity for a propaganda campign?

  1. Call your Attorney General

    2. Yes, several state Attorney General offices have investigated and fined several of these groups already. But that doesn't mean you can't ask for answers.

    You can find a list of every U.S. State/Territory level Attorney General here.

  2. Call your laywer

    3. This is not legal advice, but...even if you don't have one, the amount of mass fraud and number of organizations involved makes this a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.

  3. Look up your loved ones

    4. Many fake comment discoveries in 2017 and 2018 came from individuals looking up their loved ones and finding that these comments were posted under the names of deceased relatives.

  4. Look up your name on the FCC's actual online comment system

    5. This database of proven fake comments only reflects comment campaigns investigated and proven by the office of the New York Attorney General. It's entirely possible your name was used in a "Restoring Internet Freedom" comment posted by another party, or even in a comment campaign in response to an entirely different FCC proposed rule.

    You can search for your name on the FCC's ECFS here.

    Please note that the since 2017, the FCC no longer displays address information associated with comments. This could be an issue if you have a more common name, or your name appears multiple times in this website under different email addresses that aren't yours. In that case, you will have to pull the raw comment data from the FCC's website using the Data.gov API (yes, the same API that may have posted your fake comment to begin with).

  5. Call and write to your members of Congress

    6. While Representatives and Senators have demanded answers from the FCC about the fake comment epidemic before, you can bring it to their attention again if you call and write their offices.

    You can look up your Representative here and Senators here.

    While you're at it, there's a bill in the Senate to restore Net Neutrality you can voice your support for.

  6. Check to see if your personal data has been leaked online elsewhere

    7. Unfortunately, these fake comments posted under real people's names to the FCC's website is the tip of the iceberg for mass personal data theft and abuse.

    In fact, many of the 1.5 million comments uploaded by Shane Cory/MediaBridge used data later confirmed to have been taken from a leaked database from Modern Business Solutions in 2016.

    One place where you can check if your data has been leaked/stolen/compromised is have i been pwned?