Recently an article I wrote about an episode of employee fraud was challenged by some members of the Work Comp Analysis Group on LinkedIn. They criticized me for highlighting employee fraud, which they claimed was minimal, while ignoring employer & carrier fraud, which they claimed was "rampant". In the interest of fairness, I decided to find an episode of employer fraud to which I could apply my, well, "special analysis".
Since my extensive research skills only consist of searching Google when I am bored, I went to that site and typed in "Employer Workers Comp Fraud". The results that were produced by that query sent an eerie shiver down my spine.
Google adds thumbnail photos to some related search results within the news area, and this time was no different. Well, it was a little different. Make that ALOT different. There, next to an article entitled "Ohio Man Sentenced for Workers’ Comp Fraud", was, presumably a picture of the (alleged) culprit. Except it wasn’t. I was staring at myself. It was a picture of me.
Click on the image below for a detailed look at the screenshot.
So there I am, associated with a Claims Journal story about fraud in Ohio, when the actual article is not ours, does not mention me, and makes no link to our site. It is as if the Google Gods decided, "here, this bastard looks shady, put his face there for all to see." if I weren’t so shiftless and untrustworthy, I might have a problem with that.
I did live in Ohio for a couple years in the early nineties, but I don’t ever recall being charged with workers comp fraud. I do recall, as an employer, getting the tar beat out of me at several unemployment hearings (at the time an Ohio employee could kill his supervisor, burn the business down and still win unemployment for "termination without cause"). But I’m pretty sure I did not even file a workers comp claim. Those years are fairly clear in my mind, since Westerville, the town where I lived, was dry. I had to drive to Worthington to drink, and that was just too much trouble.
Of course, Google does aggregate our news stories, including my blog, so my picture does occasionally appear next to my articles. And I must say, the Ohio fraud story probably looks better than this one:
Click image for detail view
That one puts me squarely to the right of a title that makes it look like I got shot in a sex club, and frankly that hasn’t happened to me in months.
So Google, I have to ask; what did I ever do to you? Was it my brief dalliance with Bing? That meant nothing, really. It was just a Bing fling thing. I came home to you; but you should know that, as you know all things about all people.
I would appreciate it if you could correct this. Ohio has enough problems without me being their face of fraud.