YOU’re the sucker. For not living in Madison.
Yeah, I’m being biased-- just rode my bike around a couple of lakes on my way home from work… past co-eds playing Ultimate Frisbee and kids skateboarding at a graffitied Youth Center. And dogs (cute, non-yippy ones) everywhere.
I take it that you all realize that spokeo may be configured to collect the information you type in to search and tie it to the IP address you are using to access spokeo? The information you type may not be directly relevant (because you may be typing in someone else’s details). However, the information you type in still does have a connection to you, and with the IP address you are typing from, you just created another bit of information for spokeo to use and apply to their algorithm.
Looks like it 
My original intention was to illustrate, not endorse.
Because your friends are ratting you out. You mentioned no one on the Internet knows who you are to someone and this person set out to prove you wrong.
I had a temp job where I worked for a bond enforcement agency. One thing that REALLY shocked me is how quickly someone will rat someone out if there is even something very trivial (like wiping a smug smile off someone’s face) they get out of it
They had a story about spokeo on the news last night, and since I was online at the time I typed in my name (not my email address) to see what came up. It had some pretty basic information correct, some was outdated and looks like it came from the 2000 census (# of people living in the house) but other basic information which I would think would pretty easy to determine was not even close. For instance, it thinks I’m a Libra, and apparently I live in a million dollar house in a below average neighborhood.
Hah! Spokeo put a 1950s picture of a sullen Marlon Brando in my basic profile. What’s with that? (No, I haven’t posted that pic anywhere online.)
Well, I searched for my name on Spokeo, and it listed the value of my home as over a million dollars (Hah - WAY off), but my neighborhood as “below average” (well, maybe, but depends on how you measure, is my guess - We live in an OK neighborhood, pretty much all professionals many in the medical field, but not doctors)
Also says I have a high school education, when I am actually a well-known scientist (Quoted in the WSJ just last week, and not the first time, for example) and my schooling did NOT stop at high school.
Got my zodiac symbol wrong too.
Lifestyles and interests were pretty close, though, except I definitely don’t knit, and neither does anyone else in my house.
For a photograph, they posted the picture of a well-known tv personality that has the same first and last name as me, but who does not live in this part of the world. They also posted a picture of some other random guy, who I’m guessing also shares my first and last name.
Actually, now that I think about it, the profile information posted could have been guessed by a professional guesser, like a palm reader or mind-reader. It definitely missed the things I do most. I mean, fish were not mentioned at all, and it is pretty hard to separate my life from fish.
I’d be a bit wary about typing your email addresses into Spokeo people - there’s been rumors that its main purpose is to collect the email addresses you enter in the search field in order to to sell them to advertisers. Hence why it doesn’t matter much to them that it’s not very accurate.
Story of how wired.com tracked down the guy who found the iPhone:
http://brianxchen.tumblr.com/post/565083430/how-wired-com-tracked-the-iphone-finder
Incidentally, if you want to remove your listing from Spokeo, when you’re looking at your info page, click on the bottom right side of the page where it says Privacy, and it gives you instructions to remove your listing. It even had my children listed with our address and phone number, which I quickly removed.