Games that aren't fun

 By Erin Tucker

Tucker Law team member, Kelly Sargent, writer that she is, has been scouting agents for a television show concept she developed. Talk about a steep hill to climb.

She found a site that seemed promising: for a membership fee a writer can register and search for agents. Then she read the Terms of Use and was shocked! 

Any information uploaded to a prospective agent through that site grants . . . 
“without any credit or compensation to you, a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, unrestricted, irrevocable, and fully transferable, assignable and sub-licensable license to use, modify, display, copy, reproduce, disclose, sell, translate, create derivative works of, distribute, and export any of the information, in whole or in part, or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, software or technology of any kind for any purposes whatsoever.” 

Wowza. In other words, the purveyors of that site could take her concept, written text, ideas, format or anything else that is her professional work product and use it anyway they want with no credit or compensation to her whatsoever. 

The bottom line is that whenever you see “terms of use” or an “allow” button or box to check, read what you’re agreeing to! Thankfully, Kelly did and dodged a bullet.

You’re probably not going to try pitching a TV show anytime soon, but there are other scams literally right at your fingertips that are easy to fall prey to. 

I’m talking about Facebook quizzes. Not all Facebook or other social media quizzes are scams, but the Better Business Bureau warns that some of them are. It might be at fun little personality test offering to match you with a character from a favorite TV show or some other which-something-or-other-are-you quiz. Sounds innocuous and entertaining, but if you’re asked questions such as what the first car was you owned or the name of the street you grew up on or other seemingly trivial personal things, they’re fishing for the answers to common security questions used to provide access to insurance, banking and credit card accounts. 

The site Scam Detector warns that the notifications pictured below are a red flag and cautions 

To be extra safe, consider changing your privacy settings from “Public” to “Friends” and consider removing details on your profile such as where you grew up, where you went to school, where you live, where you used to live and where you work. Information of that sort can also make you vulnerable to attempted scams. 

And if you need help, we’re always here.