LAT: Revenge by proxy: an L.A. enterprise

[Heidi]

Revenge by proxy: an L.A. enterprise
Two women start Alibis and Paybacks to handle clients' beefs by planting fliers in strategic locations. They haven't been sued -- yet.


Adrienne Ferguson, co-founder of Alibis and Paybacks, posts a revenge flier outside an auto body shop on Jefferson Blvd.

September 19, 2009

Adrienne Ferguson had retribution on her mind as she made her way along West Jefferson Boulevard clutching a stack of papers.

She wasn't reacting to a perceived injustice done to her. She was taking action for a stranger who claims to have a beef with the C&H Auto Center, a small automobile body shop down the street.

Ferguson and a partner operate Alibis & Paybacks, a Los Angeles firm that describes itself as "the ultimate revenge" service, offering paybacks both large and small.

For a fee, for instance, the pair will publicly denounce and embarrass someone or some business, peppering their target's workplace or neighborhood with fliers that colorfully describe the individual's purported malfeasance.

That's how C&H Auto Center owner Mario Dorantes ended up in Ferguson's sights.

For the flier targeting the shop, Ferguson used sugar as a metaphor, borrowing the C&H Sugar logo to assert that her client had been left "bitter" by his experience there. In earthy language, the flier alleged that the shop cheats its customers, something Dorantes strongly denies.

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[notesdev]

1. Organized crime: everybody's doing it

Back in New York, we called this "the mob"

[Heidi]

2. Yep.

That's what we call it here, too (among other things).

[notesdev]

3. Excuse my language, but

where are the fucking cops?

[Heidi]

4. I would think that at the very least they're vandalizing/defacing

private or public property.

[notesdev]

5. You're allowed to put up flyers

What you're not allowed to do is run an intimidation business for cash, and slander and/or libel people. This is called extortion.

[Greyhound]

6. It would be extortion if they demanded payment from the target to cease.

This is potentially libel, unless the allegations are true in which case the company has no case.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Actually your are not allowed to put them on lamp posts etc. Its mostly ignored

but there are groups who actively remove illegal signs. See http://www.causs.org/index.html

[Greyhound]

7. Justice for those who can't afford a lawyer to buy it? n/t