Yahoo sued over nude photos

PORTLAND – A woman is suing Yahoo Inc. for $3 million, claiming officials at the Internet company failed to take down nude pictures of her posted by her ex-boyfriend.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Cecilia Barnes, 48, alleges the unauthorized pictures were posted last December on the Web site and included both her name, e-mail and office address.

Her ex, the lawsuit claims, then posed as her inside Internet chat rooms, enticing men on Barnes’ behalf, several of whom showed up at her Oregon office expecting to have sex with her, said her attorney.

“These men would show up and say they were prepared to have a date with her,” said her lawyer Thomas Rask. “She would say: ‘I have no idea who you are.’ “

In January, Barnes sent Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo a letter requesting the profile be deleted, but received no response. In March, as a local TV station was preparing to air a story on her case, Barnes received a call from Mary Osako, a Yahoo spokeswoman, the lawsuit alleges.

In the complaint, Barnes says that Osako asked her to fax a statement to her asking for the profile to be deleted. She then assured her that she would “personally walk the statements over to the division responsible for stopping unauthorized profiles.”

But the profile was never taken down, the lawsuit claims.