I chose to become a paying customer of Dish Network rather than one of DirecTV specifically because of DirecTV’s questionable anti-piracy tactics in which they accuse innocent people of stealing their signal, and then extort $3500 out of them to prevent legal action against them.

Now one of DirecTV’s own former bounty hunters (also an ex cop) is filing a suit against the company over these very same policies.

The lawsuit claims the company knew that between five and ten percent of their targets were innocent. After a time, Fisher “fully realized the end user campaign was an elaborate extortion racket,” the lawsuit alleges. “The letters were full of lies or misrepresentations and the investigators were required to coerce people into paying money for stealing services when we had no proof whether they had done so or not.” Fisher resigned in October.