One of the most interesting stories to catch my eyes in the last few months was this exposé from Chris Bennet at 97th Floor - Google, Your Honeymoon with Rip Off Report Has to Stop. Looking through Chris' detailed research into the practices of the website and perusing some of the appalling accusations made about the business and its founder, it's shocking that the domain continues to retain its authority.
Here's the basic gist of Chris' arguments:
- The website - Rip Off Report - essentially earns a living through extortion of businesses based on the search results (almost like a reverse reputation management campaign).
- Because the site ranks well at Google (Yahoo!, Live, and Ask appear not to give it as much weight), companies whose profiles appear on the site must pay the owner to have the information removed or have administrative comments added that an issue was resolved or the complaint was found to be false.
- It would appear that content creators unfamiliar with the English language, yet very familiar with keyword stuffing, create many of the negative profiles on the site (ostensibly to help them rank better in the search engines so they will have a greater negative impact on the businesses they list).
- The site even features bizarre allegations (supposedly from a 16 year old girl) that Google's founders propositioned her and another underage girl.
Certainly, if you visit the site (which I won't link to directly), you'll note the exaggerated style and tone of the content suggests a less-than-professional organization. The site proudly claims not to investigate the comments left by its visitors, and one is forced to wonder if Rip Off Report will truly investigate once a business pays them (or whether they simply remove the listing or add their "all's well" commentary).
Beyond the ethics, I have to say that it's a fascinating business model from an SEO perspective - integrating the negative linkbait pull of trashing a business or person as a link acquisition technique, using the link weight to rank well for company names, then forcing them to pay in order to "mitigate" their bad publicity through search engines. Honestly, I'm surprised that someone like Matt Cutts hasn't taken action against the site - it would seem to fit well within his usual definition of manipulating Google.
I think more investigation of the site might be warranted - just a few quick searches led me down a fascinating tale of dodged court appearances, paranoia, default judgments, and violent threats. Here's a few gems:
- The Phoenix Sun Times - The Real Rip Off Report - the reporter's meeting with ROR's owner is almost hard to believe, and the number of businesses paying thousands each month (if accurate) make this one of the most profitable black/gray hat SEO concepts I've ever heard.
- Eric Goldman - Rip Off Report Gets Mixed Ruling - it would appear that the site does have the ability to operate legally, though Chris' blog post certainly suggests that the owners themselves are behind much of the content (and thus would have to answer for it). That portion of the case (suggesting that the owners created the libelous content) is still proceeding in Arizona.
- A video from Florida - WSVN on Rip-Off Report - showing fairly compelling evidence that the site does indeed extort businesses by offering to turn bad reports into positive ones for a fee.
BTW - I'm not sure why Chris didn't mention it, but as far as Google's TOS violations go, it would appear that they're also selling paid link advertising and passing link juice (the banners in the top right corners don't have nofollows).
Rand,
Thanks for backing me up. Hopefully this will get in front of some important people at Google. The site is leveraged because of Googles treatment to it, and it is doing nothing but ruining lives.
Awesome find on the Link Selling and Do Follows on the banners, I didn't even think to catch it.
Another thing that is funny is if you come across old posts you will see they use those dumb CPC models where a buzz word is linked to an add, and when you scroll over the word it brings up the ad with a choice to click on it. Can someone really take a site seriously that is blantantly trying to make money off of the UGC, when it is supposed to be a legit resource for consumers?
Nice over-view Rand. The original story is up on Sphinn if anyone wants to help it get to the widest possible audience.
ROR is breaking the cardinal rule of reputation extortion - Keep the stakes low enough that the expense of a court case isn't justified so that the only sensible course of action is to just pay the bribe and move on.
Collection agencies do it all the time - unless you already have a lawyer retained you just have to pay the $700 that you don't owe because an attorney is $1200 - or suffer the consequences that are even more expensive.
Sadly in the real world the law does almost nothing to protect us against assaults on our reputations or credit ratings.
It sucks.
I see a ton of auto dealers getting slammed on the ROR website - OK a lot of it is probably justified but I see some slamming that is not fair or easy to be resolved.
I do get several large auto dealers in my area asking what they can do about it - I always have to be honest - fight back for now...
Yahoo! Local have it down (IMO) I pay for a local listing and some dirtbag went there and let me a terrible review (not a client I assure you) I emailed Y! and asked them to remove the comment which they did immediately - sad thing is they wouldn't let me know who did it so I couldn't send Paulie Walnuts around....
No kidding. This kind of thing is so frustrating it's easy to see how someone could decide that the best thing to do is just break someones kneecaps.
"ROR is breaking the cardinal rule of reputation extortion..."
Geez, I didn't even know reputation extortion had a cardinal rule. For ROR to go and break it like that - how unethical can you get? ;)
It's the cardinal rule of any kind of extortion. As long as things don't escalate far enough to bring in lawyers or firearms people can get away with all kinds of petty theft just because it isn't economically feasible to make them pay.
If any opportunity exists for open Q&A with Matt Cutts or other Googlers at any of the upcoming conferences (SMX West, SES NY, etc.) , we should ask them about this. It would be interesting to get their viewpoint on the whole thing.
If the reviews were legit, that would be one thing. However this is nothing short of extortion. If Google would remove them from the index, ROR would have no more strength.
Agreed David, I guess they need an extortion filter (a.k.a. manually checking out claims such as this).
"Extortion Filter."
That's brilliant.
Kudos to Chris for raising the profile of this one. It's an important issue since by the looks of things RoR are getting a tidy profit off this!
It's strange in my eyes that Google is just ignoring them...
The irony of this site is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Just their name alone "Rip Off Report".
You certainly can't claim they don't comply with the old adage "Truth in advertising". They tell you what they are right at the outset - a rip off.
This site reeks of scam - even to the point of trying to play good cop - good cop - 1st by providing a platform for anyone (good cop) to harm someone's name without legitimately checking the facts, followed by showing you how you can protect your good name (good cop again), for a nominal fee, which is a sliding scale based on how many negatives you have. You simply need apply to use their "Repair Your Reputation" service.
They've essentially taken the entire basis of the United States Justice System - "Innocent Until Proven Guilty", and turned it on its head - "Guilty Until Proven Innocent".
In a final bit of irony, a search for Google lists 95 complaints - not necessarily against Google themselves, but using Google as a means to facilitate the supposed crime.
Low and behold - Google is assisting Rip Off Report to hurt its own name. Go figure.
There is a better site than RipoffReport.com - It is https://www.iRipoff.com - Now this consumer site rocks. It doesn't even require a email address and users can upload images without writing the site like ripoffreport.
I have reported people on Rip off Report for no reason at all and it allowed me to do so with no verification. My goal is to go through the yellow pages and report everyone so the site will really become worthless.
I am sure that the website you just mentioned is also a scam site.
ATTENTION: NOTICE of Imminent Criminal compliant and nationwide solicitation on a Class Action law suit against ROR and GOOGLE
HELP to bring down ROR-Google in a class action lawsuit, if you or your company have the next:
1.- Knows the identity of your ROR author. 2.- Been subject of extortion by same author, before date on report.3.- Witness list 4.- Proof of Ed Magedson acknowledge of your complaint.5.- Proof of Google acknowledge of your compliant.
Contact us immediately at [email protected]
ATTENTION SEO experts: If you have knowledge or suspect of:
1.- GOOGLE rank manipulation by keeping damaging RORs far away from their premier advertisers.2.- AdWords’ click fraud.3.- Proof of ROR's SEO tactics violations on Google's terms of service. Contact us immediately at [email protected]
Tom, I agree that I am glad someone finally had the kahungas to write about this horrific website ROR! It is absurd that ripoffreport allows anyone to post derogatory comments about people and businesses without even doing any research on their own to ensure the content is valid!
Since 2006, my own business name and personal name has been trashed on ripoffreport.com by estranged family members with an internet ax to grind. Their postings are so outrageous, so absurd and so over the top that I can't even believe people really believe what was written about my business! Both my cousin and I tried to contact the site owner and he told my cousin to mind her own business and said she didn't know what she was talking about and he ignored my pleas to remove the postings I knew were untruthful and simply "revenge" type of postings meant to destroy my credibility as a business on the internet.
After each derogatory posting about me and my business by fake user names and my estranged family members pretending to be "wronged" consumers...I'd get a phone call from a supposed "reputation builder" telling me that if I paid them $25,000 they'd "rebuild" my internet reputation and remove the derogatory postings!!! I cussed them out and hung up on them telling them that this was extortion thru and thru!
People should do their research first about ripoffreport.com because the site itself is a fraud and the site owner a scam artist!
Ed Magedson and his Attorney David Gingras attempted to extort 50,000.00 from the company I work for just the other day. The was a posting from a poster publically broadcasted information from a sealed court matter and Ed and his attorney refused to honor the court order and instead tried to extort 50K plus a mainteance fee from the owner of the company. Our Private Investigative firm is going to subpoena Xcentric Ventures LLC for the identity of the poster and sue Ed and his attorney for the extortion plot. We are very dilligent investigators and we are in the same state as Ed. We hope to help put an end to this man scamming the public.
I have dealt with multiple companies who were falsely slammed by this site and have even seen one go under due to false information posted on the site.
I have also seen emails from the owner attempting to extort money from businesses.
Hopefully their authority in Google gets knocked down and they get what they deserve!
I've delt with them before also. Total sleeze operation (in my opinion).
Way to pick this up for extra publicity, Rand. I think we're going to do the same. I have heard too many stories of small guys defenceless against this.
Way to go.
I'd love to hear Sarah's take on this as well - does seem to be an area where the law is failing people (perhaps because it's too expensive to bring a lawsuit? - isn't that what class actions are for?)
Mr. Critchlow,
Your wish is my command.
I'm going to cover the Communications Decency Act and the RICO Act on Legal Monday. And I'm going to make RipOff Report my working example.
I think it's going to be a hot post. Lawyers are having to get very creative in order to get some traction on RipOff Report. After all, the law that shields him from defamation is the same law that shields all of us from being liable for what other people post on our blogs.
As a hint for Monday, lawyers are turning to the RICO Act (originally written to take down the mafia) to try and hold ROR liable in court.
Stay tuned for Monday...
Best Regards,
Sarah
Oh crap. Sarah's on the case. These guys are in deep sH$T!
Sounds heavy. Can't wait.
ATTENTION: NOTICE of Imminent Criminal compliant and nationwide solicitation on a Class Action law suit against ROR and GOOGLE
HELP to bring down ROR-Google in a class action lawsuit, if you or your company have the next:
1.- Knows the identity of your ROR author. 2.- Been subject of extortion by same author, before date on report.3.- Witness list 4.- Proof of Ed Magedson acknowledge of your complaint.5.- Proof of Google acknowledge of your compliant.
Contact us immediately at [email protected]
ATTENTION SEO experts: If you have knowledge or suspect of:
1.- GOOGLE rank manipulation by keeping damaging RORs far away from their premier advertisers.2.- AdWords’ click fraud.3.- Proof of ROR's SEO tactics violations on Google's terms of service. Contact us immediately at [email protected]
Is there any follow up materials or events that occured as a result of your actions Sarah? I was hopeful an update is available.
Secondly, has anyone thought to contribute to the peer reviewed content on Google in wikipedia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
These posts are going on over 2 years now and the relationship still thrives. I have just learned of RoR in the past few weeks while joining a small business with the same issue all others appear to have. Slightly dismayed that the same grass keeps getting cut here....
ATTENTION: NOTICE of Imminent Criminal compliant and nationwide solicitation on a Class Action law suit against ROR and GOOGLE
I think that was dumb on behalf of ED Magedson to have done a stupid mistake of targeting a Reputation Management Company. Ripoff only ended up giving more search engine exposure to 97thfloor and yes - Hatsoff to Chris Benett who saw it as an opportunity and has used the alligations in his own favor.
But Rand, what I fail to understand is that, on the report where they have targetted 97th floor, if the titles and content are so spammy, and clearly violating Google guidelines, how can those site's reports and subdomanis rank for so long.
Not every one is a master of reputation management and is as smart as Chris. Such a blow to a small businessman would have shattered him into pieces.
It's totaly unexceptable and Google should do something not to promote such websites. Not even mistakenly!!
This is exactly what we can't work out. Live and Yahoo don't give this site the time of day; you'd like that Google would follow suit.
Jane, I am actually quite impressed by the way Chris has counter attacked Ripoffreport by using his seemingly crony Google against him. If you search google for the term -'ripoffreport', Chris blog post - Get Rid of Rip Off Report in 6 Week. ranks 7th. Even better on Yahoo and MSN - 5th & 4th respectively. Way to go chris. And you know what, I am expecting same thing happening to this Rand's post as well. I am not sure if Rand is doing that intentionally, but I am seeing ripoffreport honeymoon with Google coming to a hault soon.
ATTENTION: NOTICE of Imminent Criminal compliant and nationwide solicitation on a Class Action law suit against ROR and GOOGLE
HELP to bring down ROR-Google in a class action lawsuit, if you or your company have the next:
1.- Knows the identity of your ROR author. 2.- Been subject of extortion by same author, before date on report.3.- Witness list 4.- Proof of Ed Magedson acknowledge of your complaint.5.- Proof of Google acknowledge of your compliant.
Contact us immediately at [email protected]
ATTENTION SEO experts: If you have knowledge or suspect of:
1.- GOOGLE rank manipulation by keeping damaging RORs far away from their premier advertisers.2.- AdWords’ click fraud.3.- Proof of ROR's SEO tactics violations on Google's terms of service. Contact us immediately at [email protected]
Rand, you know whats coming next, right? "Rand outed Rip Off Report to Google's Matt Cutts". Hats off to you and Chris!
Rand,
Thanks for bringing this one to the attention of the search world. There are a lot of ethical quandaries and challenges with online reputation management, and this site is a great case study to look at the darker side of things (i.e., extortion, for-profit brand poisoning).
There's a blurry line line between a legitimate critic site and a for-profit smear site (for instance, whistleblower sites like Xenu.net have been instrumental in the fight against Scientology's subversive, for-profit agenda) but I believe Rip Off Report crosses this line and I thank you for pointing it out sharing all the fascinating links. Very interesting. Cheers!
wow, thanks for the exposure on this, Rand. I've seen that site around for years and always assumed it was real. I guess it shoudl be no great suprise that some of the biz shakedown techniques that are prevelant offline are moving online, just sad to see one get this much love from Google.
Given that there are a lot of ripoffreport.com search results pages indexed in Google, I thought I might dump a few links to snipurl.com/ripoffreport around the place.
Actually, I am too apathetic to bother, but with libel of the sort that is being leveled against Google founders, I am surprised that we are not seeing a goodly number of court cases.
I see that, for the main part, the names have been changed in the Sergy Brin article.
Not everywhere though.
That is very interesting. Thanks, Richard!
Mr. Manley!
Another fantastic observation! If ROR is changing names, that certainly risks their CDA Immunity!
Thanks for your comment!
I have been a little quite of late as I have been somewhat preoccupied recently, but I-CANN and ripoffreport.com are two items which I have been paying close attention to out of personal interest.
Hopefully we can see as satisfactory a result in this situation as we have with domain tasting.
Sounds like that site should be shut down. I'm not sure how things work in the US, but the state were the site is hosted should probably investigate the claims and file criminal charges.
Just an horrible use of SEM techniques. :-(
That sure seems like their site/buisness model breaches the RICO statute.. Scummy stuff indeed. Thanks for the heads up Rand!
Zegron,
You are right on. The ROR cases are definitely having better success with RICO Act claims than Defamation.
I'm going to do a post on Monday about these issues. I hope you get a chance to read and comment.
Best Regards,
Sarah
At first blush, FBI didn't think RICO would work in this case. Nonetheless, that could be because there is no case intelligently built against maggot magedson.
Rand,
Thanks for giving this issue more exposure!! I had heard about this from a couple people in passing but never took the time to read the issues in detail. What are the motivations for google to do nothing about this? Since tis has been a publicly known issue for some time why are they sitting on there hands on this one?
You know, someone (someones) could create reports for each and every aspect of Google (employment at the different offices, PR people, Matt, etc.) and each property: gmail, maps, video, news--just google Google, you get the idea--to the point that it's actually affecting Google's image, thus pointing out the flaw in ROR. I'm sure Microsoft has been through this as well as Yahoo and both decided to say hasta la vista to ROR. I doubt Ed's gree.. (cough, cough) "integrity" would allow him to ignore the sliding scale of Google billions and in turn he'd be SERP silenced.
We should get 1000's of us together at the same time and all file reports about them, day in day out for years to come until the site gets shut down!
Or how about filing GOOD reports about yourself? Pages of it!!!??? Does that work? Has anyone tried it? Are old reports pushed to the bottom over time and more recent reports at the top?
What about posting really stupid reports that are not even about the business, like if you were a florist post about how stupid a pub-manager you were to hire a rabbit from a hat with a broken leg!
Worth a try, if enough people keep it up they will get discredited as a stupid site with no meaning, a bit like the Q&A sites or some Wiki pages!
Why don't you show this post to Matt -- https://www.badbusinessbureau.com/reports/0/265/RipOff0265422.htm
Clearly ror has keyword stuffed the title. A normal consumer would have just put Google or Google Adwords, but ror editors change it to:
Google Adwords, Google Advertising, Google, Google CPC, Google Paid Search Google Adwords
clearly an attempt to capture popular phrases that a searcher would use. funny how it doesn't rank high, guess google's using rep management for themselves.
Wow... From that link:
That's pretty damn funny.
Interestingly, reports about a certain internet company from Tempe never make it to the site.
One would assume that this means that there has been a manual review of all 294872 reportrs filed.
On the basis of this, I cannot imagine how the onus of blame for any libel could possibly fall far from Ed Magedson.
Much like the "Internet Internet" at the end of the 97th Floor entry's title. I hear that repeating "Internet" multiple times on a page makes that page way more likely to rank well on said Internet, you know.
Shhhh! I thought you only gave out secrets like this for the premium members? If you're going to blurt out all the secrets then I want a refund!
Crap, yeah. Sorry. That should have gone in the Premium Tips.
Internet Internet.
I'll let you off this time Jane internet internet but you have to remember to use the phrase within text. It's no use putting it on it's own. keyphrase density is one thing but CONTEXTUAL keyphrase stuffing internet internet is all the rage. best account inretent for some mis-spellings too
Your internet skills impress me, Tom. Google SEO gadgets and tools. I love JLO.
Sigh. If only I had access to your meta tags I could properly optimisate your website for you. It would gain search positionings in no time across thousands of different search 'engines'.
I'll have a talk with Rand about those keyword tags, shall I?
You two having fun?
We had moved this discussion to Facebook, but yes, it hasn't gotten old yet :)
It is actually completely unbelievable that Google is allowing this rippoffreport and its posts to rank so highly.
Seeing that Google is supposed to value good informative content how can it allow content that can be posted by anybody with a grudge or a company competitor which can ruin peoples lives and cause them unwarranted shame. Companies can easily bring down eachothers reputations with no need for justification or means of rebuttal other than paying Rippoffreport extortionate and unwarranted fees.
Rippoffreport are nothing but crooks and should be ranked as such.
I'm so glad that people are becomming more aware of ROR. I've been trying to get our false report taken down for weeks now. A false report went up, one of our employees posted a rebuttal, and the author responded, saying that they want to take down the report but CANNOT. That's right, after you author a post, you cannot edit or remove it. I've contacted google numerous times to try and get it removed, but to no avail. We're making some progress bumping it down in the SERP, but would like to see it gone completely. Hopefully this heightened awareness will help.
People that defend RipOffReport are probably paid shills by Ed Maggot's Son. I'll tell you what, if anyone isn't a shill give us your name, let us write a report on you and see how you like it. The website has hurt my personal reputation, which is worth more than any $$$ amount. People think of you different because of some lie you try to defend. People naturally tend to think the worst so you have that factor as well.
My question is how do we rally people around the cause to stop this idiot?
hahahahhahahahaha. Seriously. lulz. Ed Maggot's son...funny. As if somebody couldn't genuinely appreciate the site, like...um...the media? Lawyers? Oh yeah, you think they're scum too.
If all you got was one bad report, or even just a couple, so what. Get over it. The site didn't ruin your reputation, someone who wrote on the site said some bad things--and that someone probably has a pretty good reason--but I doubt your reputation is completely ruined from just one report (or is it more???). Pretty flimsy rep if that's all you got. Just let it die, and it will go away on its own before long, but keep fighting it, and it's like a cancer that will eat you from the inside.
Name calling and childish behavior in blogs doesn't make you sound better or smarter, just immature, angry and probably deserving. Take the advice of marketing experts...take the high ground...and move on.
Blackdawg,
"...some bad things..."?
Innocent people have been maliciously and slanderously labeled as sexual predators, spousal abusers, and a myriad of other shades of criminals on RoR.
EDIT: Your argument is like saying that Superman is still super awesome for saving the planet all the time, even though he did rape that nun, once, in 1968, and that he commited check fraud, and had a minor marijuana bust. RoR continues to hurt people, and take money from them as they do it.
There are several factors everyone should take into account when evaluating the above mentioned website (R.R.). First, no longer can anyone say, "Oh, first you need to evaluate where you went wrong...then try to work it out with the complaining company." Why? Because R.R. is a gossip column where jilted lovers and angry co-workers spew venom like ill mannered teens on reality TV. If you don't believe me, go to the site and put words like "sleeps with anyone" or "a##hole" or "bitch" in the search bar and you will see an online circus like never before. Now, check out the keywords - names are big (business name and/or personal) as well as cities and states. Next, Google search those keywords and you will find the "report" on page one.
To further establish that R.R.is not even close to a legit consumer site, try posting about them on their site. Here is an excerpt of a post I tried to publish: "RipoffReport is not trusted by consumers. Claiming to be a consumer safe haven, RipoffReport is instead a place where angry corporate entities attempt to defame consumers and malicious people can easily harm the reputations of others." ...Consumers cannot trust RipoffReport because their content is useless." Here's the link they gave me : https://www.ripoffreport.com/ripoffreport/consumer-services/ripoffreport-betrays-consumer-e0ee3.htm - yet there is no post. If R.R. were legit, they would publish my complaint and contact me (according to their own terms of service). Heck, they're publishing things like "Susan is a slut..." so this shouldn't be a problem.
Why do R.R.s rank on page 1 of Google? Well, let's look at the source code. Every "report" has an insane amount of source that looks like news service or news wire code with meta name after meta name. In addition they keyword stuff - primarily names, business names and locations. They aren't a news service but Google ranks them like one. Google's algorithm needs to learn to tell the difference between a fake news service and a real one.
Then there is R.R.'s forced visitor engagement and visitor "happiness." You see, R.R. tells you they never remove content and insist the only recourse is to write a rebuttal - Instant engagement. If you want to sign up for their "corporate advocacy" program you have to read and then click and then read and click - well, you get the idea - you have to dig deep into the site about 10 pages to actually access the email to request advocacy (more engagement). Google's algorithm needs to discern between forced and legit user engagement - if that's even possible. It's obvious most visitors to that site aren't happy.
As I just mentioned on 97th Floor's blog, I've heard of cases where ROR will take $10k bribes to takes claims off. How ridiculous.
They also use several sub domains to publish the exact same content, it's sad that many duplicate pages rank on the same page of Google results, the only difference is the sub domain, either www, non, beta or w3 are just a few of the ones I have seen, not to mention the fact that they have completely different domains with the exact same content ranking just as high as their main domain on many queries (badbusinessbureau I think).
Now I see Ed is even selling a guide on how to protect yourself and fight backc against rip offs, guess he's finally sharing all his secrets and tactics he's has probably had to use too. It sucks, cause the way he is pitching the guide is an annoying new window that appears when you land on the ROR homepage. The site is already slow, but loading that extra page popup slows it down even more (usability nightmare, even with the newer design). It appears to go down every weekend these days. Surprised he has found a host that will work with him and all the potential sabotages he must face.
Lt. Yes a business opportunity for us chaps but I have read the rip off report before (while car buying) and didn't go to the dealership that was panned because of it...
That needs to change pdq as it really is not good news for the www and it's intentions - if they're screwing people that's evil.....
Some good honest business, perhaps, lost me as a customer because of some ticked off person who found it easy to file a ROR.... Not right.
So, it's 2015. Nothing has changed it would seem.
Both my professional and personal life have been hurt by false anonymous reports on Ripoff Report. These are serious false claims of sexual harassment. My full name, address, and phone number have been exposed, and I don't even have a busines, that's my personal information.
My family and co-workers have approached me, asking what was up with that stuff. No doubt in my mind it has costs me work (you Google people as part of a standard background check, very common).
Forget loopholes and he-said/she-said crap....HOW is this RIGHT?
And there is nothing I can do about it but respond to it? Why should I unwillingly be put in a position to defend myself against an anonymous person and a flase claim? If it was court and reality that would be one thing, but to be caught up in this false bullshit mess is a fn' joke.
Excuse it or point the finger anywhere you want, David, or who ever else from ROR comes by this, but you are scum that is just taking advantage of a loophole.
I will contribute in any way I can to take them down.
I think Rip Off Report is a great place to report scammers, spammers and bad businesses. I like the fact that they never erase the complaints so if anyone wants to check out a business, the posted complaint or complaints will show up on Google. If a person is operating a 'shady' business or is trying to scam people, the world needs to know about it and what better place to post it?
If everyone would post complaints about bad business owners maybe these people would stop their illegal and unethical practices. There are thousands and thousands of scammers out there and every day, some poor soul is being ripped off by these people. It's time to expose these scum bags once and for all. This goes to all you people out there who are taking money from people and giving them a less than perfect product. This goes to everyone out there who claim to be a business but aren't. Running a 'business' from your home and claiming on the Internet that you are a reputable business owner just doesn't cut it. You all know who you are and the longer you continue to scam people, the longer you continue to post nasty blogs about the people you have screwed over, the deeper you dig your hole.
The more you expose yourself on the Internet the more everyone sees it and the less business you have because of your inappropriate behavior. It's called Karma and it always comes back to bite you in your big fat butt.
You know who you are. Get a real job and stop ripping people off. I give Rip Off Report five stars for allowing us to post about bad people.
to add some info.
My business had 2 complaints on ror. what is interesting is that one complaint changed. someone added our full business address and then changed our company name in the body of the complaint to a company name which is not ours.
I thought this was interesting.
If anyone has had success actually removing ror please contact me. I am happy to pay an extortion fee. lol. the complaints on my business were from 2 people who were on hold too long and were upset. there complaint was handled and satisfied the same day but it was too late because ror will not remove anything. we have tried to bury the items but no luck. paying the extortion fee will save my business unless i have a better option. professional reputation mgt companies please do not contact me. I am not interested. we have tried it.
One of the companies I am involved with found itself on that ripoffreport scam.
As mentioned in this blog, the language is wobbly and the purported complaint came from someone "Zip" in Manila (the company never did any business there, and never anywhwere with just individuals, as Zip is).
The executives talked to the FBI, and were told that the FBI knows of this extortionist! Unfortunately, they said, there is no regulation for Internet that FBI can bring to bear in prosecuting Ed Magedson (RoR's owner).
They advised lodging in a complaint with a national database :
www.ic3.gov
As you cogently wonder in your article: Why isn't Google held responsible? Google is paid by Magedson to be ranked higher.
Is there any way to shame Google into a less immoral position?
Many businesses who deal with individual customers have lost millions.
There is a site somewhere (consumeronline.com, or such) where affected business people bemoan their losses.
Anyone with any knowledge on how to pressure Google?
How is this fraud, Ed Magedson, paying Google to keep high ranking? I've often wondered about this with not just him but of other sites who are always right up at the top in ranking.
ROR stays at the top because he, his buddies and people who post on that website keep the content fresh which causes the site to rank high with google. I don't think they are paying them. I made several attempts to contact Google regarding that website because my estranged sister has posted multiple untruthful, hateful, over the top, absurd "complaints" regarding my business on that site and they said they don't remove content or websites unless it has sexual related content..images, etc.
I will go to that link you provided but I believe I already lodged a complaint on that website regarding Sandra Johnson of Orlando Florida, because she herself is a fraud by posting fraudulant content on ROR knowing none of her postings are true. Ed Magedson was contacted by me and several other people via email regarding the content and we were told to "mind our own business" and that we "didn't know what we were talking about".
Appearantly the FBI, multiple attorneys and hundreds of businesses around the United STates are very aware of ROR being a scam, consumer fraud site and an attorney in Florida has even offered a $20,000 reward for anyone who can find this Magedson person in order to have him served with papers regarding a class action lawsuit. Fortunately for me, Sandra Johnson resides in Orlando Florida and when Mr. Magedson is served and court proceedings begin, our company is a part of this class action lawsuit and we hope that Mrs Johnson, will at that time, go down right along with this creep, Ed person..another fraudulant scheister!
RoR manages to stay on top NOT because the content is fresh, rather they repost content and then optimize with tags in the html code of their site. Conversely, if the content published is not related to Company Name, Address and Employee it almost always is followed by a “robots” content = ‘noindex, noarchive” tag next to the content that they feel could pull in irrelevant results.
If you look closely you will see that the purpose of these reports is not as they would have you believe ie "freedom of speech" and "consumer advocates protecting the world against scams" rather it is a SEO clearing house where keywords are hyperlinked to similar content and rebuttals from a company are watered down with   and meta tags, h1 and h2 keying in on what I stated above.
We are seeing that Google is beginning to favor user generated content as it relates to businesses, preferring content that is geographically cued by address, phone, city and state.
Name, company, address, phone number = + ranking in Google.
No wonder Yahoo and Microsoft results do not net the same results, they dont believe in polygamy.
RoR is playing a risky game that is revolting, revealing and revolutionary, seizing a white space that no ethical business would dare enter under the guise that this is for a public good when there are clear indications that this is all about capturing traffic and converting it into metrics that perpetuate their “extortion” services.
That will never happen Diane Gerrish. You seem to have forgotten about all of your nasty, hateful, malicious, accusatory blogs and lies you have posted about me. I saved each and every one of them and you don't have a leg to stand on. I told you before and I'll say it again, your middle name should have been Sue instead of Sheila. You want people to believe that you are a victim when in fact, you aren't. You have smeared my reputation and our other sister's reputations all across the Internet by posting your vial blogs about us. If you think you can just walk into a court room claiming to be a victim, you had better bring a psychiatrist with you because you are nuts. YOU have torn down your own back yard dog breeding operation by posting your hate-filled disgusting blogs about me and our sisters for years and if you don't think your blogs aren't going to matter to a judge, you are mistaken. What you have done to me and our sisters is cyber bullying and cyber harassment. All the videos you posted and all the times you have called DCF and the police on me will also be looked at. You aren't a victim here Diane. You are the harasser. Everything that is on ROR is there forever and it's true. I will also have a police report about your husband stalking my house trying to remove mom from my house without her consent and mine. You had better make damned sure you have all your dogs in a row before you start paying for an attorney. I don't know what you intend to gain by even posting your nonsense about going to court. What are you trying to accomplish anyway?
Alll this has ever been is a "flame war" between me and you. All you have ever done is continue to blog and post your garbage and foolishness and show the world how immature and ignorant you are. It proves that you spend so much time on the Internet blogging about ME that you are neglecting the dogs you are trying so desperately to sell.
All I have to say to you "my friend" is, good luck with all that.
PS: That site you mentioned www.consumersonline.com is also a fraud site...just not as bad as ROR.
Sorry. I finally found the correct address:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/ripoffreport.html
I have just realized, after having read all the comments, that I brought nothing new. All I could see, when I accidentally happened on this seomoz.org, was ripoffreport, and didn't pay attention to the date when all started here.
I found frustration and/or general commentaries from people more or less, or not at all, affected by the scammers. The broad picture is that the internet is just a transposition of the society as-it-has-always-been onto the cyberspace.
Since law has never made a significant dent in the inclination for crime along history, the best way to fight the latter is with same weapons.
In short, only an unusually highly skilled and equally creative IT person could hamper cyber crime. A highly moral and compassionate hacker!
But that smacks of Superman/woman, and he/she will never be born.
--------------------
The only other solution I can conceive of is even more difficult to implement: that is, for ALL businesses targeted to ignore completely all reports - from anywhere - regardless whether detrimental or beneficial.
Not some, but ALL.
The difficulty resides primarily in the absence of a methodology that would be taught to the public at large: "How to assess on your own the quality and reliability of a provider of services or goods, based on the availability of legally enforceable remedies in case of fraud".
Of course you would complain about ROR. You have had numerous complaints posted there about your back yard dog breeding business for years. Because you choose to reply to the complaints posted there, you dug your own hole and made yourself look like the fraud you are. Every time someone complains about you and your dog breeding operation in Cleveland, NC, you freak out and start blogging nasty and hateful things about them on the Internet. You are the one who is to blame for your lack of puppy sales, not anyone else. You have ruined your own reputation by blogging about your sisters and how much you hate them. No one in their right mind would buy anything from you much less an animal. You are one nasty bully. Go ahead, post some more vicious blogs about your sisters and see how much more your sales decline. Maybe if you would stop blogging such hateful things your business might pick up but I believe it's too late for you. You have dug your hole now go lay in it.
If you want to know the truth start here.
https://www.paladinpi.com/content.php?id=21
I used https://www.ReputationMatrix.com to remove my Ripoff Report and they did just that. Now it is on page 20. They are awesome! 1-877-241-7613 all I had to do was supply them with a little content and they had it off the front page of google in 2 weeks.
You said you had "reputation matrix" remove your ripoffreport when I find that very hard to believe. Obviously if content was removed from ripoffreport and google, the only way that content was removed in its entirety was by the site owner himself and he isn't going to do that without a paycheck!
His website is a fraud and a scam. He's been bilking people for money for years. ROR is nothing but a scam. It is not a true consumer website where anyone can actually use the information as being accurate. You said they removed the content from the first page and now its only page 20...so obviously, the content is still there and anyone can still view it by doing a google search. I am sure you provided them with more than "content". How much did you pay just to have your content pushed to page 20 and why would anyone go to the trouble unless the content was being removed entirely.
That site owner for ROR could be more professional by looking into the so called posted complaints and verifying they are being posted by people with actual complaints instead of letting any Joe Schmoe post lie after lie after lie simply because they are mad at someone and don't really have a complaint at all. Instead, he lets anyone post whatever they want to post about someone and then gets his scam reputation builder people to call those who have been targeted on his website, asking for a payout. Dang, why doesn't he just join the mafia and be done with it? That's pretty much the sort of scam he's operating.
Removing content permanently and pushing content to page 20 are two different subjects. This site offers a wealth of information to help push down content utilizing your own resources without paying servcies to an outside organization. Noted again, the problem being if individuals search your name or business using key words that are in the title of the libelous report written, you will find your company or name right back on page 1, despite all efforts to push down the report. In my case, I have one stalker, who wrote content that was defamatory under anonymous names, and continues to copy and paste the same report over and over to avoid terms of her settlement agreement. This tactic keeps my name and business on top of the search engine. It's a full time job with full time pay to monitor and write press releases or build websites to defend your reputation when a stalker is actively writing daily on ROR, with no consequences to their actions.
Second issue relating to my circumstance. My computer was hacked into by the stalker, and not only was I published on multiple sites, (all of them taken down except ROR) innocent family members and friends were also published on ROR, simply because of association. My niece, who is a minor, is published on ROR, and when googled, she will be synonymous with "scam." That's injustice.
I'd like to post an article on ROR, with my own "opinions" about the law firm that represents Ed, and include the general counselor, the receptionist, and interns in the article to warn people that they perform shady business practices and profit from victims. Let the people of the world know that Ed's attorney, in my opinion, represents one of the most unethical business owner's since Al Capone. Next, I'd like to find out how he would react to having not just one article written about him and his fellow associates on ROR, but daily "scam" reports similar to blog entries. Reports written on his whereabouts, reports written about their firm's clientele and next post his clientele on ROR as "Scams." The money dwindles out of the firms accounts one by one....and they can't take the reports down. It's obvious that if this firm, and individual represents ED & ROR, all of their clientele are SCAMS operating unethically too. I'd like to Post his vacation spots, every encounter he has, even his church (if he attends) as a deceptive church....he donates to the church with victim's money, it's a scam right? We must warn the public of anyone who associates with these disreputable individuals and prevent innocent people from being "Ripped Off," it's our duty. Let's next list his financial income, tax returns, net worth, assessment of his home and car, name his significant other (wife, ex wife or partner), children (if a factor), parents and pets, as individuals who profit handsomely by representing the most unscrupulous site owner in history. They have profited from all of us. WE pay for their houses, their cars, their income, and their livelihood. If I wrote these "opinions" on ROR about his general counselor, would it be published, or would it be edited? Or best question, would it be removed.
I'm with you, Tina. Your so very right and I'd love for the people who have been targeted without merit on ROR to do exactly what you suggested. I don't have that information but if you do, I would suggest that you do post those complaints on his own website. Even if he doesn't post them, you can create a blog on blogger.com and blog about this criminal and his deceptive website practices.
I have a stalker too who does exactly what you said your stalker does. She is constantly updated her dumb postings which are not even complaints. Their more rants than anything and her rants are off the wall nonsense.
I fail to understand why google doesn't stop allowing the search engines to pick up any content from his website. I tried to contact google multiple times regarding this issue, but they won't remove the content and most of the time, I never even get a response because there isn't a way that I know of to get them to respond.
I want everyone to type into Google, Dee Gerrish and read all the crap that comes up. Type in Goldendoodle World and see all the garbage that she has blogged about me and our sisters. You will see her blogs on Blogspot, Buzznet, everywhere. Dee Gerrish has the nerve to complain about complaints being filed about her and yet, that is all she does day and night is complain and blog nasty, hateful blogs about me and our sisters. Grow up.
RIPOFF REPORT has hurt me and my family greatly, because of one individuals response to paying me back owned money... ripoff report is a tool for outright slander and defimation to go wild.The innocent are hurt more then the guilty.Because the guilting just don't care.
It is not fare that this site gets to continue....
. Now my demands for my money back have left him with only threatening me with false credibility badgering on RIP OFF report. Now if you Google me, it is a barrage of trumped up lies.
And all I want is to be paid back.What happened to the honest people in the world, why does everyone have to be crook?
By now you would have to be blind, deaf and living in a cave to not know without a shred of doubt Rip Off Report is a criminal operation plain and simple.
The problem is Google. Google promotes ROR spam and allows ROR to violate its on policies. Without Google ROR dies on the vine plain and simple.
Whats funny about Google is they have a policy where they allow removal of anything slanderous, hurtful and spam on their sites on blogs and comments and what have you. BUT where ROR posts come in they wont touch them? Go Figure
I mean who in the hell would want to be even associated with Magedson or ROR? Attorneys or associates of ROR are tainted for a lifetime and can never shake the stain on their reputation by mere association with ROR or Magedson
Ripoff Report is a site filled with lies, slander and should be shut down and Ed Magedson should be put in jail for the extortionist that he is. The man is beyond evil . . .
I completely agree! Ripoff report is a scam website and Mr. Magedson is a scheister! An estranged family member has spent since 2006 posting my personal photos and fabricated content that is very sordid. She lacks perception and uses ROR as her ranting, sounding board. The website owner needs to be jailed for ripping people off. His website, ROR, is laced with google adsense words and I am pretty sure he is using Kontrera as well.
He is earning a living off of private individuals and businesses being targeted by irreprehensible people with no concious. You are right. He is beyond evil. His terms of service on his website is a joke.
I filed a copyright infringement complaint regarding an estranged family member posting my personal photos she has no legal rights to and he has failed to remove the photos. I wish an attorney or even several attorneys would take that man down.
It sounds as if you have been the victim of Google-Cide a marketing plan developed with an illcit SQL code which manipulates the search results in Google, Bing and Yahoo.Everyone is a potential victim but the long term goal is to extort money from Ripoff Report & Google.We're talking about a whole new strain of WMDs—weapons of mass defamation.REPUTATION MANAGEMENT :Every good arms dealer knows if the market isn't big enough (and it never is), you have to create new customers.In an audiotape obtained I provided FoxNews.com of a meeting with certain excecutives are heard discussing a public relations fear campaign that would help them sell their services to worried parents:“I would love to run an underground campaign that says, ‘Google is trying to destroy your reputation,’” an executive on the call is heard saying. “I like the idea of, ‘the more popular you are, the more dangerous it is,’ and giving people the scare tactic of, ‘the more exposure you have … the faster it is for your enemies to attack you.’”“I think there’s a whole other campaign where we can break the parents,” the executive continued. “Send them a picture of their kid with a gun in his mouth -- Google did it. ‘Little Johnny is going to commit Google-cide. Can you stop it?’”Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/20/google-cide-online-reputation-managers-can-wipe-from-web/#ixzz1uWySS6QOThink about it: What if allegations of pedophilia were to pop up the next time you Google your name? Or obscene stories about your wife or your daughter? When we're talking about the potential ruin of your career, your marriage, or your child's future, money is no object—and these predators know it. When the time is right, you'll get an email and it'll be Reputation Management to the rescue—antidote in one hand, anthrax in the other.Listen to the audio recordings here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/organized-crime/google-cide-exposed/google-cide-exposed-by-the-man-01cd6.htmAgain, the marketing plan includes: (1) selecting targeted person and companies who would be concerned with their online reputation, (2) intentionally posting negative and disturbing information on the internet of manipulating negative content to suddenly appear on the 1st page of Google, (3) and contacting those targets to sell them 'Reputation Management.This same group plan to manipulate data with the SQL code and then try to extort money from Goolge and Ripoff Report.Journalist Glenn Puit wrote an article which seems to alleges the extortion of Ripoff Report many have already taken place :https://www.ripoffreport.com/business-consultants/google-cide-the-full/google-cide-the-full-story-b3660.htmOnce I discovered the technology was hacking and what its implications were, I have made it my mission to warn the public about the dangers this technology poses to free speech. I also understood the institutionalized repertoire of serial defamation, vexatious litigation, and death threats have all be leveled against me in a futile attempt to force him to retreat from my stated goal.
I am also a victim of ROR website. Anyone can just post anything and they can claim who ever they are, they can post what ever they want, when we as an employer try to post anything on that site at that time they let us to post rather we get an email to contact them. Then usually a voice mail. In a few days later we get a call from unknown number and asking for money somewhere 25K to 100K then with promise to remove the comment. It is an extortion.
They are also moderating the site. Pick and chose who they are going to allow to post or not. So why this should not be under the Communication Decency Act? I just do not understand that yet. Why Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc all search engines allow such websites to be published on their Search Engine based website?
I have taken several legal action against those authors and RipOffReport.com website but there was only a judgment says they are not allowed to post such a false information any more. It is also remaining our crooked justice system allow criminals to do more harm.
We actually need a Internet Decency Act. Unfortunately those nutcase Congress would never pass such a law!!
We need a solutions...
Any one out there do anything about it?
I also had a totally false ripoff report made against me. Unfortunately, I don't know how to sort it out and yes, as Chris just explained, they want 2000 dollars and that could only be the start! They are even using a photo of me which I do not know from where.
It is getting quite upsetting as it has had impacts on me renting a property and could also have negative impacts on future professional positions I may apply for. It shouldn't but in nowadays, there's that growing culture of Goggling someone name for everything and anything!!!!
Can someone advise me? At least for the photo...
Thank you in advance.
I owned a company and a client placed a rip off report that is not true. This woman lied to my staff, and lied to a Federal Tax Judge, saying that she was poor, living on the Street, and was sick with no income. She came to us to gain insight as she was in Tax Court with a free legal service at UW. Where she explained that she wanted information on none collectable Status. We explained that information to her and she gained CNC from the Tax Court. She also wanted to reduce her 200K tax bill. Which was done down to 8K. All this was based on what she told us. She introduced a friend who was helping her and she said he was just a friend giving her food and shelter at times. Linda Lirette wanted my staff to do Chris LeClairs tax returns to help him. We did but when we finished we always ask for Married Status. Guess what he married to Linda, they live in the same home, and he makes good money. She lied and got the IRS, and my company. She then demanded her money back and went to small claims court and swore to the judge she was not married. She was Married in 2008 in July in Snohomish County. She swore she was telling the truth, and she was not. Rip Off wanted us to pay them to take it off. They did not care the damage that this woman made to our small company. I refused to pay. FSTN Inc.
This company is really hurting businesses, especially when they demand $2000 to "arbitrate" the defaming, poorly written complaints. Although this type of business is generally good and may help consumers, this company is clearly our to screw businesses, and then victimize them even more when a company see their company PERMINENTLY listed and seek resolution.
What's more, try to file a complaint about RipOffReport on RipOffReport and see what happens. You could guess that Ed doesn't let these complaints get through. How honest and helpful is that?
My brother was a good person, did not intentionally harm anyone, and simply struggled through life like everyone else. He did not always make the right decisions, but his intentions were never evil. He had a large heart. His only flaw was that he didn't handle difficult situations very well (We are all guilty of that).
Ex-girlfriends and ex-employees took to ripoffreport.com to get revenge.
The posts haunted him every single day, for years. He simply couldn't move forward. He legally changed his name in 2009, in an attempt to hide from this website, but even that didn't fix it.
He was unable to work, have a serious relationship, or move forward after these posts were made. My brother never recovered from these posts.
After years of struggling to recover, he simply couldn't do it any longer. He took his own life on 12/14/2011 in Orlando, FL. He referenced these posts many times in his final words. These posts haunted him daily.
I hope my reply makes people think about the damage that can be done by posting negative things on the internet about another person. Everyone has feelings, and they are real.
My brother will be buried sometime next week.
R.I.P. Dear Brother.
So sad!
This is why it is important to control you reputation and have several public profiles.
RipOff report does expose some bad guys but does not do any verification and they are a bit sleazy.
Any large ecommerce company filling 50-100 orders per day will have some lost or misdirected orders. Any company with a customer service staff will have employees witha bad day. Rip Off Report preys off that.
By controlling your message you can make it harder for rip off report to show in the top five.
Some things you can do for personal and business.
Big guys show up on top.
Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter. Facebook and linkedIN are particularly effective in letting you control your name. They usually show up on top even without much promotion.
Blog every day. Contribute articles to the good articles directories - the ones that take a day or two to approve authors and submissions. Buzzle and EzineArticles work well.
Promoting all positive profiles from your page and wherever else you can link is a must. Your home page should have a link to your facebook, linkedin, you tube and twitter accounts as well as your blog. Try to interlink them wherever you can.
Protecting your name is easier than your company name. There arent that many people fighting for keywords Jacob Maslow.
Lastly, note that what may not work for SEO will work here. Blog commenting is generally no follow. But if you just want the comments to show in the results it will work (you arent after page rank).
You can buy links to your facebook page or whatever social profile is helpful to you. If the links are cheap enough it will drive negative down, ensure more people see your positive profile and is minimal risk.
Are you people even for real?
Spend $4K, get a botnet and DDOS the hell out of his site for a month. See how he will be kicked out of his ISP.
If not enough, pay $20K and DDOS the hell out of his site for a year. See how he will be kicked out of the face of earth.
Duh!
"Ubi non accusator, ibi non judex." (Where there is no police, there is no speed limit.)
-- Roman Law
I'm a little late on this conversation, but I have to say after reading this it's taken the elephant off of my chest. I recently had an employee who was incredibly unprofessional make a report for my company on ROR. I actually didnt even know about it until a friend mentioned it to me. Honestly - I could care less about the report. One or Two (as even mentioned on the ROR site) is nothing to be alarmed about. And me and Mr. Monrovia both know that he is the cheat, not I. Just the same, this report pissed me off because it included my HOME address. Last time I checked the news, there are a lot of really crazy people out there and I did not want my home address posted on a site like this. Hell, let's be honest, I didnt even want the reportee to have it. Anyway, I contacted the email address on ROR and asked that they remove my home address. I said keep the report up. I don't care. I'm not paying $2,000 to have it removed.
No Reply.
So now a week later I fw the email again and this is the rude and manipulative response I got:
"If you email us again, we will take the report an feature it on the left side of all the millions of pages.Things like that don’t get removed.Sorry.Don’t email us again. "
Yea.. okay buddy. So, I decided to go on a search and see who else thought this business was completely unprofessional and extortion-like. Apparently a lot of people do! Still, I wish I could get my address removed.
It is best to NOT respond at all on ripoffreport.com because Ed has people fake complaints on his website including writing complaints himself. He edits what you write and he will remove any link that you put on your reponse. I have had to learn the hard way. This man Ed has an arrest record. He is a scam artist and he is a con artist as well. It is well known that he is after only one thing...YOUR money!
Simply google his name and you will learn alot about him. Unfortunately I have been smeared all over the internet by an estranged family member on his website as well as all over the internet to the point this woman has been impersonating me. I have to now google myself to find her content. The nonsense is to the point of craziness and has gone on for five years and counting. Ed takes advantage of this and even writes his own content. I have received email from this man pretending to be a company that removes "derogatory content" over the internet asking for money. I simply delete the email and do not respond. The more you respond, the more complaints pile up. The more he takes advantage of you. Just ignore the email and ignore the complaints on his website. People should be able to figure out the fact his website is nothing but a scam.
PS: The website scaminformer also belongs to Ed and there are several other similar websites that also belong to him too. Be very careful!
I just had a totally false ripoff report made against me by a known cyber stalker. It made me take a look at their business and i came to the same conclusion as Chris Bennet (my surname is Bennetts)
So i have just made a ripoff report about their own operation and submitted it to their system. Will be interesting if they publish it.
ripoffrerport.com is an online scam masquerading as a public service to extort money from people online by exposing them to fraudulent unsubstantiated allegations without even verifying the identity of those making false accusations.
They claim they are providing a public service and claim that by providing a right or rebuttal they are somehow impartial and absolved of any responsibility but the reality is they are fully aware of the abuse of their system and how many innocent people are subject to defamation.
They cash in on the abuse of the system by promoting reputation repair services which they either run themselves or get a commission for referral and of course those that need a reputation repair service are those people that they have allowed anonymous (or using fake names) people to write negative things about.
To add insult to injury they then offer a service to "arbitrate" any reports for the ripoff rate of $2000 Yes for $2000 they will check and see if the report is false. This is digital extortion.
In my case a report was made against me by a known cyber stalker. The facts are clear but they would want to 2000 dollars to review the false report.
https://www.ripoffreport.com/finally-a-solution-t/telemarketers/internet-internet-08430.htm
Also another person accidentally responded to the report as the owner of the my company. This is how totally unreliable and open to exploitation this service is.
Now the question is do they have the integrity to allow this ripoff report to be published on their system?
So, not being super technical... but trying to find out information on why google wouldn't just pull rip off from the ranking I went to "About Google" ; "Press Center" and did a search on Rip Off Report" and found A LOT of results for random notebook postings that included company names that were listed on RipOff Report. Companies that have nothing to do with each other. Does this have anything to do with how well Rip Off Report returns in the results? Seems wierd to me that these companies are all in one "notebook" with inappropriate language and other stuff that makes no sense...
A friend passed this along to me... Although I doubt any affected businesses will come forward for an interview- for fear of more aggressive retaliation (myself included)- maybe an SEO company or two would be willing to be interviewed for this.
Summary: Rip Off Report
Category: Business & Finance
Name: Keith Yaskin
Email: [email protected]
Title: Reporter
Media Outlet/Publication: Fox Television in Phoenix
Anonymous? No
Specific Geographic Region? No
Region:
Deadline: 6:00 PM MOUNTAIN - August 30
Query:
"I'm working on a story about a controversial website called the
RipOffReport. Some people argue the site allows upset consumers to
fight back against companies. Others argue the site allows unproven
posts that unfairly hurt businesses. I'm looking to interview
someone who is interested in talking about this website. Thank you.
The reporter has been given public record for him to look through. It seems odd that he didn't pull it himself. Here is some for the readers to decide without any bias.
Go to the link and decide.
https://bad-business-rip-off.net/hycite.html
I've dealt with RoR in a previous job and we made the decision just to walk away and not add fuel to the fire. They still publish reports (maybe legit, maybe not) but we've managed to push them off of page 1 by promoting other content.
I can't wait to see these guys go down hard.
I think more people are now aware that Rip Off Report is a scam to extort businesses. It amazes me that nothing is verified. I know that when when a complaint is posted on a company or person they can retaliate by posting something about the original poster whether it is true or not. Some law will eventually have a class action law suit. They will just go after the deepest pockets like google.
Edward Corona
Corona Capital USA
Has anyone considered that perhaps the reason that Google hasn't penalized ROR is because in doing so they would appear to give validity to the bogus claims from the underage girls? If they ignore ROR then they do not draw attention to these wild accusations. However, if they come down hard, even for a legitimate reason they give the impression of guilt. When you think about it, maybe the best way to keep from getting penalized by Google is to publish wild accusations about their founders! LOL!
EDIT: We've removed a link to a new and completely unfounded RipOff Report search result that included the name of a prominent SEO. We're currently trying to contact the SEO involved.
Now I want to know!
What a horrid business model. Nasty, nasty nasty.
Interesting post - I guess until laws are passed that specifically address the internet and who can be held responsible, stuff like this will continue. I've heard about a site where women can trash their ex husbands/ boyfriends online and some of the content is beyond defamation and down right malicious.
I think you're probably talking about bashmyex.com
First let me say thank you to all of you for help bring to light ROR!
Next Let me say that ROR is putting me out of business. They have written slander about me that has caused me loss a lot of clients.
Trail by a blood hunger mob would be more fair.
I have called the vice presidents of google https://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html, the state of NY. Nothing seems to work.
After blogging for two week to kick them of the first page of my search terms. They reappeared yesterday back at the top.
I not a SEO person what is it that keep ROR on top?
With little money and no new business I can not afford a lawyer or a SEO pro person.
My life is could be over !!!
Another good article about Rip off Report, we recently wrote some articles on R.o.R. in case anyone is interested in checking that out, https://ciinc.blogspot.com/ and it's on our website as well https://www.commercialinvestigations.net
Commercial Investigations, Inc. has been contacted by quite a few companies in the past in regards of removing content for an extremely absurd amount of money, it's just not right.
I have reported people on Rip off Report for no reason at all and it allowed me to do so with no verification. My goal is to go through the yellow pages and report everyone so the site will really become worthless.
This seems like a business opportunity. Just go through the ROR listings and contact the companies being slammed with reputation management services. The ROR listings can't be so strong that a good SEO couldn't drive them to the bottom. Ranking for your company name is one of the easiest things to do.
The query "97th floor social media" is way down at the bottom of the first 100 results on google this morning.
Has anybody taken a look at ROR and why they rank so well? Is it really just that they've got a special place in Google's heart? Or is there some giant link farm out there?
Lt. Draper,
Actually ROR is extremely hard to push down I would say one of the hardest sites on the net. I have been working on Rep Management projects to push them down for over a year and half and they are a tad easier than Wikipedia. The reason it isn't ranking for 97th Floor anymore is because the search result for the same post "accidentally" got indexed in Google as well and it is tripping some sort of Supplemental or Duplicate content filter for that post, knocking it down.
The day after the post against us was created it ranked number 8 and the next day number 5.
Seconded. It's hard. Harder than you would think.
I agree. It took me 7 months of rep management work to move the site to page 2 for one of my clients.
When you look on the website they put the rebuttals way at the bottom. It took me three days to figure out where they were. Plus some of the companies they have advertising on there site are some of the biggest rip offs there is. So lets see, lets build a website to take any and all complaints so that the public will utilize it frequently and then sell advertising space on it. HMM! Sounds to me like a scam. Will ripp off reports post a complaint about themselves? Maybe we should try.
John K.
You know what Dear Mr. Professional. I have been ripped off by a company which was promoted on news channels. There was a substantial loss of time and finances as a result of the company's so-called support team, because of false advertising, because money was taken out of my account early, no address available anywhere to return product and on and on. Get off your high horse, and stop judging me and anyone else who goes thru these situations because of crooked companies promoted on national TV.
I'm sure I have more education than you have. If you call yourself saved and take your family, or yourself to church, start listening to what church is about. It's not about going in and tolerating an hour or so, because it looks good. It's about taking it out the door for the 3 or 7 days until you attend again. God Bless You! You should be trying to impress God! You're headed down the wrong road, and it's time you go the other way. Time's short. Sooo short!
Ripoff has posted many items that maliciously made incorrect statements about organizations that are trying to help people (non-profit help organizations) with no justification. No credability should be given to anything stated in the blogs in Ripoff.
If nothing else, Rip Off Report has alerted me to some scam companies. Twice I have been adversely affected by two bottom dwelling "business ventures" and my suspicions were affirmed by the information I found on Rip Off Report.
Happily, none of you seem to have been so afflicted but in the event you are I think your opinions about the benefits provided by Rip Off Report might change.
I think more investigation of the site might be warranted - just a few quick searches led me down a fascinating tale of dodged court appearances, paranoia, default judgments, and violent threats. Here's a few gems:
BTW - I'm not sure why Chris didn't mention it, but as far as Google's TOS violations go, it would appear that they're also selling paid link advertising and passing link juice (the banners in the top right corners don't have no follows).
Hah! Someone posted about Matt Cutts at BadBusinessBureau...and this page doesn't rank very well at Google - go figure!
https://www.badbusinessbureau.com/reports/0/304/RipOff0304085.htm
Geez thats not stuffed with keywords keywords keywords at all. The poster seems upset that a company is trying to earn a profit. *raises an eyebrow*
I wonder if Matt Cutts will rank for "Sith Lord" now..
Great piece Rand. As the scourge of Defamation/Slander/ Complaint sites like Ripoff, and several others, still exist. Here are 5 TIPS on what people can do:
Again, follow the money. If the website uses the extortion model to make money, create a large database of people victimized by these sites presently or in the past, and email blast them not to pay. Follow up. If the web site uses the advertising model to make money, then start a campaign and/ or petition against all their advertisers.
Write each advertiser politely that they are advertising with an evil website that harms people’s reputations and does not remove posts. If you get no response, then complain on 5-6 websites about them. See how they like it. They are just as vulnerable as you are. People will get the message. Shut off the money spigot to these sites.
Why people are gullible enough to pay protection money and subsidize these sites is beyond comprehension. The funding has to stop. Also, email your list of victims not to respond to the posts, and give them tips on how to fight back. When you respond on these sites, a flame war starts and that is good for the defamation site and it’s search engine value. If everyone refused to pay and post, these sites would cease to exist.
Permission is granted to edit/ use any text from this post, anywhere.
Freedom Van Lines
We are fully licensed and insured, operating a state-of-the-art fleet of trucks ensuring a safe and smooth ride for your possessions. Our highly trained relocation teams provide affordable, reliable service across the country or around the town.
we are a victim of this web
Greetings! New here, and would like to add some more perspective to this issue.
I have been an RoR loyalist and regular contributor since 2001. By this I mean that I regularly peruse reports in certain categories and add a "reply" if I feel I have some sort of insight. I am an attorney practicing in debtor's rights (bankruptcy, FDCPA, FCRA, etc.) so I usually focus my energy on the "attorneys" and "collection agencies" categories. I've spoken personally, and at length with Ed in the past. (he came off as a very friendly fellow, but very sketchy, and seemed to have a sinus issue).
So here's my perspective on RoR as an operation: RoR began as an altruistic endeavor to some extent. The intent was to create an alternative to the Better Business Bureau, which I would still contend is far more flawed than RoR. In the early days, there were no ads, Ed wasn't hawking anything (on the site at least), and none of the reports were followed by a "positive" comment from Ed or one of his cronies. The individuals/companies reported were permitted to rebut the reports free of charge.
From my perspective, this was a great idea in a global economy. In days past we dealt primarily with local companies, and our friends and neighbors dealt with the same companies. Word of mouth was all that was needed to spread the message about a shady businessman. But as we increasingly deal with companies from other states and countries, word of mouth is no longer viable, and a centralized "neighborhood" was a good idea.
Much has changed over the years, and RoR is now, obviously, a profit-seeking venture. Case in point: there are (or were, I haven't checked to see if they are still there) MANY complaints regarding a certain real estate investment "system" that is a prominent feature of late-night informercials. I knew from the get-go that the system was a scam and the reports only bolstered that belief. A few months ago, I was QUITE surprised to see an ad for this very product on RoR, with a little tag at the bottom stating "RipOffReport Verified Safe."
Immediate disillusion followed, and with some research I discovered the "Corporate Advocacy Program." With some more research, I found that this program consists of Ed selling the "verified safe" tag at a hefty price.
So if Ed once had noble intentions, I would say that such have evaporated, and I would have to concur with the sentiments levied on this site.
I'm also intimately familiar with the legal history of RoR and Ed himself. I'll leave Ed's personal troubles out of it, but RoR has faced legal battles from the start. Initially, he could have won many of these battles, but took the default judgment route most of the time. He later claimed a couple of libel suit victories. This was due to the fact that he was merely providing a forum and not creating or manipulating content.
He still seems to fare pretty well in libel suits, but I think this is more a matter of plaintiffs having a difficult time meeting their burden of proof than him (or his agents) actually not committing libel. I have yet to review any of the RICO actions, but this does seem like a more viable route. However, I don't think that Ed himself is creating content. So, basically, a successfuly RICO suit would have to be based on the premise that he is extorting by taking advantage of content created by outsiders. If you think of it, this scenario is quite akin to one mob demanding "protection money" to ensure a business' safety from harrassment by another mob. And I guess that's one of the activities RICO was designed to combat, so maybe his foes will finally get their way.
Best regards to all!
"This was due to the fact that he was merely providing a forum and not creating or manipulating content." - goclydego (n u r?)
I would say that this line is very blurry with RoR. A forum has registered members that are not allowed to comment without risk that what is said can be traced back to them for accountability. Members are free to contribute through moderation and guidelines. As for this being content, one can argue if it is useful, accurate and even contextual.
Do you know what content wants most? To be accepted as context.
I do have to say their approach is innovative as algorithms adjust to incorporate USG type reviews on businesses, as it seems to be lucrative and even worthy of soap-opera notary full of drama. There is no shortage of 4 or 5 star ratings on companies in reveiw sites. Perhaps at inception RoR had a positive mission statement, but the image is so tarnished now through practices that would get most de-listed, it will never be a brand worthy of "Consumer Advocacy." This is nothing less than a self-perpetuation tool for spammery in lieu of a solution provider - that is unless one believes that 'getting even' on their site, under their domain, with their guidelines, through their message- can be fair and a resolve anything.
While they claim not to modify content this only applies to the text on the surface from what was submitted and this too is often changed digressing from original submission.
On a regular basis reports are modified and changed to optimize ranking within search engines, or specifically Google. For an organization to claim there are far too many reports to review and therefore administer when incorrect or even false comments are made while adhering to a weekly schedule of "system downage" and new embedded hyperlinks within the text of a report - you can easily track and note that the words they link to change when content is created to subterfuge the report. Take no homage that if an anonymous user creates a report using the name of one of your employees that it will be corrected or even dealt with objectively. Rather expect any legal representation on behalf of RoR to take the Larry Flynt approach, equipped with a sense of self-righteousness on behalf of the consumer.
Case and point: this is not a protection of first amendment rights rather a host who preys upon user generated content to then strategically manipulate the content with SEO strategy. It is even boarderline identity-theft. One should find this system stands for nothing less than a disgusting and despicable business ethics practice while signaling to other would-be predators that it can be profitable too. Is anyone willing to wager that the employees of RoR are paid commissions should a report result in the acquisition of a reputation management solution? Can any attorney or representative from RoR contest hack-SEO techs on their side are constantly monitoring key terms that are outweighing and pushing their results down on SERP's? Furthermore it takes only a novice eye to see that highlighted terms in any report (including rebuttals) constantly shift and change.
Unfortunately until this is a Peer to Peer site reviewed and edited by members - it is nothing less than an extortion scheme that will defuse any small business owners attempts to use Web Strategy as direct marketing, social media, local listings, SEM/SEO.
When given a chance to make right their wrongs, they became adversarial and protective then defensive. This is not proprietary technology, it is simply a blue ocean strategy that jumped the curb onto a new street called GoogleProfitsFromUsSoWeAreSafe.
Take that first ammendment - bet you never thought you would be a talisman for the underbelly of a predator who never rears its head but hides in the bushes taking shots from afar.
I am very familiar with this company, ripoffreport.com since for two and a half years my estranged sisters have posted untruthful comments about me as an individual person and as a Goldendoodle breeder, upon that website. They have repeatedly posted under fake user names not just there but on multiple websites similar to ripoffreport.com
This past monday, September 21, 2009 someone actually had the audacity to tell me they were a "reputation builder" and that for $25,000 they would remove the derogatory postings regarding my business Goldendoodle World and Lake Ridge Kennel!
I told the person that this was extortion and that I was very aware of who posted the information and that none of the information was true. I told them that my cousin and I both emailed the site owner and asked him to remove the postings because they were posted by our estranged family members under fake user names and none of the postings had any merit or truth to them. The site owner's response??
We didn't know what we were talking about. The next thing I know, I get the call asking for $25,000 to remove the postings! I told him where he could go and hung up on him!
That website and others similar to it, are nothing but rip offs themselves! It's all about greed and money!
Nothing is "untruthful" about what is posted about you Diane Gerrish. You are a scam. You are operating a back yard dog breeding business and scamming people. You are posting horrible and nasty blogs about your sisters and you will never, ever stop until you are dead. That day cannot come soon enough.
https://searchengineland.com/070312-104201.php
Here's yet another ROR violation. Many of their indexed results are ROR search results.
For example: https://www.google.com/search?q=adt+security
The ROR on page 1 is the search results. Please report to Google.
I just came across this website and I just had to respond to this. Years ago, after being ripped off, treated poorly, and patronized by several people/businesses while remodeling my house , I looked for a way other than the BBB to complain and spread the word. The BBB tells you nothing about anything. I want reasons, details, and situations. So, Sure enough, when I searched for a "bad business bureau," there was one. It also called itself "The Rip Off Report." Happily, I submitted a couple of huge complaints against a couple of people. At least I had a chance to issue a Caveat to some other poor sucker. I was somewhat satisfied. More and more scam artists, liars, and schemers are reaching maturity every day. And they start businesses. The bad thing is that today, there are too many people moving around, and reputations don't stick very long, or spread very far. They always find a new customer to replace the old. The supply and demand of certain things is not like the old days. We are a needy society, and we need it now. There is also the problem of people giving up and "cutting their losses" when they are ripped off. Anyone whose time is valuable doesn't have time for the Technology Time Vampire. By the time you get anywhere on a phone or on a computer, you have spent your entire vacation, and then that doesn't guarantee any resolution. I say this: When you go to research reviews of businesses/services/people , how can this be bad? Have you seen the "reviews" sections on Amazon, or on the travel sites???? These reviews could put someone out of business, some of them are so bad. I say GOOD NEWS. Let us make up our minds if these people are over exaggerating. At least let us see it all...... the good, the bad and the ugly. The part about the fraud and charging people to erase their bad marks is scummy of this entrepreneur who started the Site. But the idea that there is a place to vent, and freely, is fantastic. We need it. Angie's list doesn't cut it. We need to see what people are getting away with every day..... I say we have a right to know and make up our own minds. The businesses have a right to comment as well. We are not children. We don't need someone to "monitor" what we say, or how we say it.
Perhaps not, but if what you say is libelous or defamatory, and has no grounding in fact, then you had better be prepared to accept that you are not a child and you do not get anyone protecting you from the consequences of what you say or how you say it.
Thanks for a really interesting discussion.
While I love the implication that Angie's List is so universally known that the brief mention of it made sense to everyone, I'm chiming in on behalf of Angie's List just to be sure you all know what we are.
Angie's List is a resource for members to share their firsthand experiences with local service providers so they can make better hiring decisions. Members give companie grade in six catetories and also offer up free text narratives describing their project and the service they received. Other members use that information as a guide regarding who to hire -- or to avoid -- for their own projects.
We also encourage the companies reported on by our members to respond to reports. We post those reports alongside the member report so other members can make up their mind based on both sides of the story.
Thanks!
Chris
Over and over again Google and/or Ed of ROR tries to invalidate your blog titled "google your honeymoon with rip off report" Now when a user like myself tries to open it up it reads "error message 403 and this user is forbidden from acessing this site"
Why Google plays games with your posting Chris is beyond me. This is not the first time they try and invalidate it so consumers cant access it or add comments to it and they protect Mr. Convicted Felon and treat him like the second comming of Christ. Its crazy Chris
Also, maybe some of you smart SEO types can help me figure this out. Many of ROR's pages are not indexed by Google at all. For example, the pages related to Google and now the page related to the SEO community. There are many other examples.
Let's say ROR has a profile for the company it like to target for it's extortion scams. I would say the profile is a small to medium sized company where the owner is paying attention. They have enough money to pay. Perhaps they are looking for bank loans or VC money and can't afford the negative pub.
Larger companies are not good, either because ROR can't hope to penetrate page 1 or because they just don't care, but a company like 24 Hour FItness would be perfect: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=24+hour+fitness
So ROR makes sure they have a link on the ROR homepage and makes sure their pages are well-indexed.
OK, after all that my question is - does ROR gain an SEO benefit by not indexing some of it's pages, thereby giving more power to the pages that are indexed?
Come on SEO smarties - what do you think?
Folks, Do Not waste one minute writting, calling, faxing GOOGLE. We have faxed and written them 111 times in 3 months about removing copyright protected material that was posted against our company on Rip Off Report.
Do not pay one cent to have an SEO expert remove or try and remove this posting. Its wrong in every single sense of the word. Why should you have to part with your hard earned money to remove fabricated fraudulent material posted about your company on Rip Off Report? We wont do it, its wrong and agaisnt everything we stand for.
What we can tell you is we have written and spoken with 58 Senators and US Congressman about Rip Off Report and Googles being in bed with ROR.
We are taping a 1 hour episode to be aired nationwide next week on what has happend to our company and what Google has directly and indirectly done to cause harm to our business by refusing to remove fraudulent Rip Off Report posting that has harmed our business.
Google is not the sweet inocent company you think it is. THey are surely in bed with ROR, work hand in hand with Ed Magedson and ROR to promote and push this fraudulent postings.
We will let your audience know the air date for this hour long episode on a Huge network channel in investigative reporting. Google will be shamed for what they have done and continue to do for Ed Magedson and Rip Off Report
Hello Everyone,
Firstly, I will apologise if I am long winded. I tend to be when my heart has been ripped out of my chest.
I run a well respected company in Australia that specialises in the development, sale of a trading software designed to monitor market fluctuation from all Australian and NZ Harness and Greyhound racing and all Australasian thoroughbred racing.
Upon the launch of our latest product and website, we came under attack on ripoffreport or ROR as many of you call it.
We do have laws here to prevent such things as defamation online and if it was local I perhaps may have more of a hope to have such posts removed.
It wasn't just me though. It was four or five other companies in our industry that were hit. Roicware, Racemate, Technology21 to name a few. We are governed by the Department of Fair Trading. All such complaints would have been heard by them long before anyone would ever have the need to bombard any company with such remarks as those found on ripoffreport.
Not only are the comments blatant lies about the way in which we do business but they are also personal attacks on each of the owners with threats of violence etc. Stupidly thinking the owner of the site would have ethics and empathy, I sent this email. I will sign off here but if anyone can advise of what we should do or anyone we can talk to that would be great.
EMAIL TO RIPOFFREPORT:
Hello, Sorry to be somewhat long winded and perhaps a little passionate in they way I describe this situation. No offence is intended on any level and all I can hope for is an open ear before I find it necessary to pursue other channels. I am owner and director of a well respected company in Australia. In all the years we have done business, we have never had a complaint filed against us for misleading people or selling them a product under false pretences. We have had a complaint lodged against us 2years ago because of an administration bungle where a client was not sent his user manual after it was claimed by us to have been sent 4 times and after not being able to resolve the situation with him that client was refunded in full as would be offered to ALL unhappy clients. The point to this email is that we still don't have any complaints with any governing body. I run a software development company that specialises in the sale of tools for serious investors and professional gamblers to use equations and formula to enhance their decision making processes. We do not say that anyone will make a profit, we never guarantee future returns or state such on our website nor do we say anything of the sorts in any dealings with any prospect. Just look at the website and all throgh the FAQ for instance there is mention time and time again that it is NOT A 'GET RICH QUICK', LIFE RUINING SCAM! Please, visit www.bettortrader.com and see for yourselves! We hardly even advertise other than Google Adwords and the company consists of only myself my wife and my software developer. We sell to those who like a more informed technologically based gamble and never EVER have we sold under the premise of the software being anything other than an informative tool to use as an aid rather than a 'get rich quick scheme' or even a 'viable business option' as most every company in this industry does. Look at the screen shots in 'results'. Does it look like a cheap scam or perhaps a serious bit of gear that only the astute would understand let alone buy? Most of our clients will testify in court that they do extremely well using our software and ALL of them will swear to the outstanding service we give and the honest and ethical way in which we do business and attract it. There is very little chance of a client feeling the way the second post is suggesting he or she feels because of one most important factor in all of this... we only have around 150 clients!! We are in such constant communication with all of them, that if ANYONE was that upset with us they would have been refunded at the first sign of that kind of aggression and emotion. We certainly do not need to have clients like that for our sake and theirs. The next major reason, is that EVERY client is also a part of our group chats, forum and all are in touch with each other so there is very little that they all do not know about each other and how we have done business which each of them individually. In other words, if we promised people that it is a get rich quick type thing and they don't get rich quick, we would have rather a mess on our hands. I would like to bring your attention to the following posts: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/308/RipOff0308011.htm and https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/308/RipOff0308430.htm Both post on the same day and both from areas where don not do any business and where we have never had any clients. We hav diligently avoided doing business with anyone from the Gold Coast for fear of them being shady competition. Similar threads can be found everywhere... look at this one for instance where my username is justadash as it is on all forums: https://www.cyberhorse.com.au/dcforum/DCForumID2/615.html and see this one that led to legal proceedings against a competitor https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=486803&p=6 ... where in one reply to a member of the thread - Chubby Guts writes... I have 4 weeks of results written down that would say it is impossible to loose money in horse racing. Believe it or not. And the TAB don't care because they always get their cut, win or loose.
justadash reply... A much as I love the fact that you are enthusiastic and that there are some companies out there just weaiting for yu to hand over your credit card details, I must warn you that this comment is dangerously far from the truth. Why would I say something like that if that is what I was promoting? and this... There is no such thing as a magic wand is all I'm saying. and this... If you find me too frank and direct, well I make no apology (but for that I apologize - LOL).Thats what most people like about us and its the kind of people who we also attract and that is someone with both feet firmly planted on the ground, not Mr or Mrs Dreamy looking for a way out of the rut but someone with money, time, intelligence, discipline and punting savvy
Time and time again my family is distraught and I am up until all hours of the night trying to defend myself against this type of slander. Now on the past it was always on Australian sites and being local it was much easier to present my case and have things removed without any doubt that it was a case of someone using a forum to try and destroy someone elses lives and business. I would like desperately to know that you will look at it and if not then what channels must I go through to take further action to investigate this. Your help if agreed to, would be most appreciated as this time I would like to have it investigated to the point where we can have the perpetrators brought before court. This has happened too may times and now it seems they are using an overseas forum to try and get away from being brought to justice or found out somehow. I'm not sure but I do know that we are all extremely upset and confused. Please help! What do we do and what do you need from us to be able to look into it further? I will tomorrow go to A Current Affair which is the countries largest current affairs show as they have expressed interest in doing a story about forum 'trolling' and the damage it does to businesses and peoples lives. All this drama and for what? These people are not even clients! What they have said is total lies and I have to get to the bottom of it. Kind regards, Kevin Riddell Director ATT Developments Pty Ltd
Details removed. Please message me.
I m a victom of RipOffReport.com. Ed Magedson is realy a son of a bitch , blackmailer. wht he is doing simply posts false information on rip off report and when a company see his name on rip off report and contacts ripoffreport they ask for money and blackmail the company. I highly recommend google to baned ripoffreport from thier search enginge.
I also request Google to ban ripoffreport.com
ATTENTION: NOTICE of Imminent Criminal compliant and nationwide solicitation on a Class Action law suit against ROR and GOOGLE
HELP to bring down ROR-Google in a class action lawsuit, if you or your company have the next:
1.- Knows the identity of your ROR author. 2.- Been subject of extortion by same author, before date on report.3.- Witness list 4.- Proof of Ed Magedson acknowledge of your complaint.5.- Proof of Google acknowledge of your compliant.
Contact us immediately at [email protected]
ATTENTION SEO experts: If you have knowledge or suspect of:
1.- GOOGLE rank manipulation by keeping damaging RORs far away from their premier advertisers.2.- AdWords’ click fraud.3.- Proof of ROR's SEO tactics violations on Google's terms of service. Contact us immediately at [email protected]
I believe it because I myself sent a letter to google asking them to remove derogatory comments made about me and my business and they ignored me completely.
Hi i am a new mwmber here, i have created a petition with thie intention to remove ripoff report from teh google index, at the very least it will further emphasise the publics opinion of this site. please promote this petition on your own sites and blogs and anywhere else you can think of and lets see how many signatures we can get.
Darren
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ripoffreport/
buford, your link is nothing but a long list of junk and personal accusations you (assuming you're the author) make against Ed Magedson because he wouldn't do what you asked him to do with his property. Most of what's on that link is patently false or charges dredged up from 30+ years ago (which were dropped). It looks childish for you to keep posting this slanderous material all over the web and makes me question why you go to such lengths to smear Ed's name rather than just deal with the issue you were reported on. What's the grudge? Maybe the issue would die if you weren't so immature. Maybe Federated Financial deserved the negative commentary, given how they've been reacting to the report. "I think thou protesteth overmuch!"
And, I don't get it why everyone slams the ripoff report so hard when it provides a valuable service to so many, not the least of which are the media who quote it every week for catching scammers and fraudulent schemes or law enforcement who use it to find up and coming schemes. Geez, why isn't everyone commenting here up in arms about all the celebrity gossip that's worse for reputations than ripoff report?
Finally, I respect the folks at Google immensely, so I refuse to believe they'd let someone who was REALLY abusing SEO get away with it. To continue to accuse they're somehow in bed with Ed is completely laughable. Maybe the ripoff report technical team is just really good at what they do--and better than you've been able to figure out.
Seriously, most of you commenters are probably really smart folks, so I don't get the conspiracy theory stuff. You don't have to like Ed personally, but you should respect what the site has been able to accomplish and the fact that he stands by his beliefs, regardless of the negative press.
test. Seeing if this works, you can delete this sentence, accident, sorry. thanks.
...test of what?