Just like most other trolls their business model is simple. Send threatening letters to ISP account holders telling them that they have been caught watching some pretty embarrassingly titled movies and inform them that paying a cash settlement is the only way to remedy the situation.

TorrentFreak invited people targeted by the company to contact us and over the past year we’ve had a steady stream of terribly worried individuals email us with requests for information. The more of these emails you read, the more you appreciate the scale of the heartbreak for all of those involved.

At this point we should be clear – some people we spoke with clearly knew more than they were prepared to admit and some probably did download some content without permission. However, many others obviously did not and when you come across these cases you can see that companies like GoldenEye really do not give a damn about who they hurt, and they will brush off collateral damage like it doesn’t exist.

If GoldenEye only took the time to speak to the people that we have, they might see what their threats are doing. One retired lady we spoke with said she had no idea what she was going to do. Threatening court action, GoldenEye had demanded around £500 for a movie she is extremely unlikely to have been interested in. The only money she had in the world was around £1,500 in savings and now this company wanted a third of that.

One young man told us that his parents had gone crazy when his father, as the bill payer, had been accused of downloading porn. Trying to protect himself against the wrath of his wife, the finger of blame naturally got pointed by the father at his son who in turn contacted us, desperate for a solution to clear his name. Another told us how his mother could no longer cope after receiving a third letter asking for money despite her innocence.

In cases like these where we believe that people have been wrongly accused we are more than happy to help. Throughout the year we corresponded with a couple of dozen individuals, half a dozen or so on a regular basis, in order to keep pace with their cases.

And guess what?

Of those who stuck in their heels, stood by their principles and refused to pay, GoldenEye stopped threatening 100% of them. After the initial three or four letters bounced back and forth, the company backed off, a characteristic of most bullies when they realize their intended victim is refusing to become one.

As a result, today these people are able to enjoy Christmas with their families. Rather than finding themselves £500 in the hole in order to finance GoldenEye’s Christmas party or Ben Dover’s festive lunch, that money is being spent were it should be.

“The final letter GoldenEye sent said that they were going to review my case and then make a decision on whether they were going to proceed or not. At that point I started to understand what was going on finally,” says ‘John’, a recipient of a £500 threat letter.

“GoldenEye are a company who just send letters to people to try and threaten and bully them into paying money, but do not take it any further. It was just like a game of poker to me as they were bluffing all the time so I played the game and won as I didn’t back down to their demands.”

“I am relieved I don’t have to pay any money to them as I don’t have that kind of money to give away. I can get on with my own life now without the extra worry of dealing with these legal scam artists,” he continues. “I am not letting people like this get what they want from me. They have to fight me in court if they want their money.”

Sure, it’s likely that GoldenEye have managed to get payments from a lot of people this year, but their complete lack of compassion has been hit head on by those who refused to give in. And for those people, Christmas this year will be all the more special.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The company has previously had a couple of shots at putting together a scheme to extract cash settlements from alleged file-sharers in the UK, but the latest has its roots in 2011.

The complex battle, which first went to the High Court then to the Court of Appeal, was finally settled in late December 2012 after a failed Open Rights Group challenge.

Golden Eye originally had around 9,000 IP addresses to match with the identities of account holders at ISPs O2 and BE, although how many of these will match with records at the ISPs remains to be seen. However, the ISPs have clearly matched several hundred so far since Golden Eye have already begun their campaign.

Last evening several worried individuals contacted TorrentFreak saying that they had received letters from Golden Eye asking them to settle a copyright infringement claim. Out of the four people we spoke with two said they had been taken by surprise and were totally innocent.

One individual was able to send us a copy of the letter he received. It contains an alleged date of infringement in the first half of 2011, more than 18 months ago.

“This letter assumes that you, as the Internet account holder at your address, were the
user of the relevant computer on the day and time in question,” the letter states, an assumption that cannot be backed up by any evidence.

Indeed, Golden Eye claims in their letter to have included an evidence report from their “forensic computer analyst”. Actually only a film title, IP address, plus date and time of the alleged infringement are included.

Despite the weak evidence, Golden Eye still hope that their targets will roll over and admit guilt.

“Please state whether you admit that you have downloaded the Work and/or made it available for download by others and if so the extent to which you have done so and whether you are prepared in principle to enter into a settlement of the kind outlined above,” they write.

“If you deny that you have downloaded the Work or made it available for download by others, please explain the basis upon which you deny it, and provide the information that we have requested above about other users of the computer.”

Letter recipients should note they have no obligation to incriminate anyone else, it is up to Golden Eye to prove who carried out the alleged infringements.

Speaking with TorrentFreak earlier today, Saskia Walzel of Consumer Focus confirmed that Golden Eye have indeed been sending out letters this week.

“Golden Eye sent the first wave of letters, about 250, on Tuesday by 2nd class mail, the majority should reach consumers today, about 1 percent of the letters are expected to arrive tomorrow (about 1 percent of 2nd class mail is one day late),” she explained.

“Golden Eye is sending the letters in waves, so anybody who has received a letter from O2 or BE in December telling them that their personal data has been released, BUT has not yet received a letter from Golden Eye, is likely to receive a letter from Golden Eye in February,” Saskia adds.

Consumer Focus told us it was worth checking whether Golden Eye’s actual letter is the same as the letter approved by the High Court last year. TorrentFreak checked and some minor details aside the letter does appear to be the same.

So, what should recipients of letters be doing? We briefly spoke with a lawyer familiar with these cases whose initial and crucial advice was to “stay calm and admit nothing.”

Consumer Focus are also clear on their chosen approach.

“It’s really important that people contact Citizens Advice and respond [to the allegations],” Saskia explained, adding that the charity now has detailed scripts on how to deal with these allegations.

Citizens Advice can be contacted on 08454 04 05 06 or people can attend their local Citizens Advice Bureau. Letter recipients can contact TorrentFreak too, you can speak with us in complete confidence.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.