Rip Off Report.com?

[JML1179]

Who has had dealing with Rip Off Report.com

They posted a "rip off report" about my client. At the top of the site it has a banner to hire an SEO that can get rid of this "negative online reputation."

Black Hat?

[DanielFreedman]

Ripoff Report is itself a ripoff.

People who write negative reports are usually unwitting dupes.

(in a few cases they may be competitors.)

In any event, Ripoff Report's real business is extracting fees for "mediation services"  and "customer satisfaction" programs to get negative stuff removed...even though it says it has a non-removal policy.

It is a very bad company that has been the subject of many lawsuits -- but stays just within the law to do its dirty business. One court called its business practices "appalling" -- even as it upheld them.

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripoff_Report

Do not attempt to rebut negative reports on the site; this will just increase their prominence. Under no circumstances contact Ripoff Report or anyone claiming to have the ability to mitigate bad reports. It's like dealing with blackmailers. You just encourage ever higher fees.

The only solution is to adopt a "publish and be damned" attitude and then do the hard SEO work to get the negative review pushed down in SERPs.

[BlueprintMarketing]

I just googled ripoff report and the 1st pay per click that came up was this link saying that they would help anybody who needed to remove their name from ripoff report.com I can't speak to the legitimacy of this company or say this is the way to go I would still like to hear what SEOmoz has to say simply because this is something that search engine optimization companies use as a way to attract people I do not offer this service however that does not mean it is something that is illegitimate or should not be offered. Here is the link to the company that came up number 1 pay per click not organic in Google when searching ripoff report

http://www.removeyourname.com/index.html

You may want to make sure they have an agreement with you that you will receive the results you requested or your money back.

Sincerely,

Thomas Zickell

[BlueprintMarketing]

Just so I am on the same page.

You are representing the client the has been put on the " ripoff report.com website" and you feel it is not a legitimate report but one made by possibly a competitor or somebody committing an act of malice?

if what I said is correct I would say the best way of going about it is to contact ripoff report.com at that point explained to them why you believe it is a fraudulent representation of your client and I doubt they'll give you the information of "who did it" however if you asked them enough about the case I am certain that is a good way to start. Because and I'm not an expert please remember on this exact topic however ripoff report is a business and from what I understand they are trying to be legitimate so I'm sure there must be some due diligence into any sort of report documents, e-mails that type of stuff if you can prove the e-mail is fake let's say somebody did lie about your clients business and stated things that are blatantly untrue they probably did not use their corporate e-mail and if they did use e-mail that should be all public information at least public to you the person that has a vested interest in defending your client. However search engine optimization companies often do state they will "remove negative information regarding clients" or whatever I feel if you think it is a fraudulent claim that your best like is dealing directly with the source I could be very wrong so please understand I strongly suggest you use your free private question with SEOmoz you can do that simply by asking a question and marking it private you only get one a month however the information given is really 1st class and I think one of the most valuable parts of being and SEOMoz member. however wall were here I would love to hear what SEOmoz thinks themselves.

Also when you said Black Hat?

If you are talking about the person who did do this and they are doing it just to hurt your client absolutely that is one of the most horrible black hat techniques anyone can use against somebody.

I hope I've been of help to you.

Respectfully,

Thomas

PS Just got out of hospital and have not been available