Top 10 Myths About Ed Magedson & The Ripoff Report

1
Top 10 Myths About Ed Magedson The Ripoff Report
Why do people spread this fake allegation if
theres no truth to it? The reason is pretty
obvious people who have been criticized on
Ripoff Report by true reports cant fight back
any other way, so they try to discredit the site
by claiming that it is only there to make money
by publishing and then removing fake complaints.
By making this outrageous claim, they think they
will make people doubt the accuracy of anything
on the Ripoff Report. Dont be fooled by these
lies!
10.
MythEd Magedson is a fugitive wanted by the
FBI.
Truthoh, please! This one has been around for so
long its doubtful anyone really believes it, but
for the record FALSE! Ed Magedson is not a
fugitive. This is just another bogus story used
to try to
discredit Ed which makes no sense given that Eds
credibility isnt relevant hes not the
person who writes the reports posted on the
Ripoff Report, so what difference does his
credibility make?
Has Ed ever been wanted by the FBI or other law
enforcement agency? NO! But dont just take
our word for it if you find someone spreading
this lie, just ask them to provide backup for
this claim.
9.
MythRipoff Report is being investigated by law
enforcement.
Sorry, this is 100 false.
Again, this lie has been around for more than
half a decade since at least 2004. If law
enforcement was really investigating the Ripoff
Report, dont you think that theyd have
completed their investigation by now? And if
Ripoff Report or Ed Magedson were really breaking
the law, dont you think the police would have
stepped in by now?
In reality, as part of his mission to protect
consumers and prevent corporate wrongdoing, Ed
Magedson works closely with many branches of law
enforcement including local police, federal
agencies, and federal and state attorneys
general. In all his years working with law
enforcement, no one has mentioned to Ed anything
about the Ripoff Report being investigated, so
were confident this is another hoax.
8.
MythEd Magedson creates fake reports.
Truthno way! While Eds critics wish this was
true, its not. This is just another smear
campaign trying to discredit the Ripoff Report by
spreading lies about Ed. Its honestly very sad.
2
Really, since the sole mission of Ripoff Report
is to help protect consumers, why would Ed create
fake reports about someone? How would that be
consistent with his goals? It wouldnt.
But dont take Eds word for it. Instead,
consider thisunder the Communications Decency
Act, Ed and the Ripoff Report are protected from
liability so long as they did not create the
material at issue. On the other hand, if Ed
creates statements that are false and harmful,
his are 100 liable.
Over the years, dozens of lawsuits have been
filed against the Ripoff Report, and each one
really boils down to a simple questionwho
created the statements involved? If a user did,
then Ed is not liable. If Ed did, he would
liable and would have to pay any damages caused.
Now, in all of these cases and with millions of
dollars in legal fees spent attacking Ed and the
Ripoff Report and trying to prove Ed has written
defamatory statements, do you know how many have
succeeded? NONE. Why not? Because Ed does not
create reports, nor do he materially alter
reports posted by our users (full
disclosureminor, non-material edits which do not
change the meaning of a report are permitted and
may occur on a limited basis). Ed knows better
than anyone that he would lose his legal
protection if he created reports, so he doesnt
do it.
Oh, heres another point to consider there are
currently almost 700,000 unique reports on the
Ripoff Report, and many millions of
comments/rebuttals/responses. Even though
critics of the Ripoff Report would like you to
believe that all of the posts (or even a few of
them) were created by Ed Magedson, we have news
for you Ripoff Report logs the contact
information for the author of every single post
on our site, including name, IP address, email
address, etc., and the site keeps that
information forever.
Think about that for a minute. If Eds critics
were correct and if Ripoff Report really creates
all the posts on the site, that means Ed would
have to fabricate not just the details of all the
stories on our site which relate to tens of
thousands of companies across the country, he
would also have to fake the underlying contact
information for the millions of posts on our
site, including fake IPs and email addresses.
Sorry folks, but thats just IMPOSSIBLE.
7.
MythRipoff Report pays Google to get higher
ranking.
False! This myth is based on the fact that
Ripoff Report postings often appear in the first
few pages of Googles search results. Because
Ripoff Report ranks so high, people assume Ed
must be cheating or paying Google for the
privilege. Not true!
Once again, please dont forget to consider the
factsGoogle is a massive, multi-billion dollar
business. The Ripoff Report is relatively small
and even if Ed wanted to bribe Google for
favoritism, its not likely that he could afford
to do so. Also, many, many lawsuits have been
filed against us over the years, and each time
the plaintiffs lawyers have had the option of
sending a subpoena to Google asking for any
records of payments received from Ripoff Report.
Has this ever produced a shred of proof that Ed
pays Google for better results? NO!
6.
MythRipoff Report violates Googles Terms of
Service.
Not true! This is yet another bogus claim made by
self-appointed but largely clueless experts
who dont like Ripoff Reportand why would that
be? The most obvious reasonthey have been
featured in reports on the Ripoff Report site!
3
In case youre not an SEO guru, heres the
dealsome people think that Ripoff Report
deliberately stuffs the titles of each report
with keywords by copying names in the title and
repeating them extra times in order to trick
Google into thinking that the page is more
relevant than it would otherwise be. In other
words, if someone writes a report complaining
about Fox News and they only use the name once,
critics accuse Ed of looking at the title and
copying the name numerous times so it says Fox
News Fox New Fox News, as if this would make
Google rank the page higher!
Seriously now, this is just nonsense circulated
by ignorant people who are trying to
sound knowledgeable and impressive. Here are the
facts
Fact 1Ed and the Ripoff Report staff DO NOT
create titles to reports! Whatever is there is
whatever the user typed when they wrote their
report. Dont believe it? Try thiscreate a draft
report and you will see that every single word
in the title comes from the author, not from
Ripoff Report.
Fact 2Theres no evidence that repeating a
keyword makes a page rank higher in Google.
Honestly, do they really think Google is that
stupid? If this claim was true, dont you think
that every page on
http//www.starbucks.com/ would contain the word
coffee about 1 million times so they could
rank higher than http//www.peets.com/?
5.
MythED Ripoff Report has been sued and lost.
Truthwell, Ed and Ripoff Report certainly have
been sued many times, so that part is true. Most
cases were thrown out of court by the judge and
some cases were settled when the plaintiff agreed
to drop their claims (Ed has NEVER paid a dime
to settle a case).
However, for the record Ed and Ripoff Report
have NEVER lost a casewith one exception.
The only exception was in 2003 when a lawsuit was
filed in the High Court of Justice, Federation
of Saint Christopher and Nevis. Where the heck
is that? Its a tiny island nation (about 4
miles wide) off the coast of South America! A
default judgment was entered but the case was
eventually resolved without any money being paid.
4.
MythRipoff Report has class action lawsuits
pending against it.
100 FALSE!
While people have suggested that a group may want
to band together and bring a class action
lawsuit against Ripoff Report, this has never
happened and its not likely to ever happen.
Why? Well, putting aside the fact that the
Ripoff Report is generally immune from liability
for user-generated reports, the requirements for
class action cases are extremely strict. Most
importantly, class actions can only be
maintained where the plaintiffs in the class
have injuries which are caused by nearly
identical events (i.e., workers in an asbestos
factory who all get sick from breathing the same
air). Because every report on the Ripoff Report
is factually distinct and specific, it is not
really possible for one plaintiff to say they
were harmed by a report about someone else.
Also, because the issue of truth always plays a
role in defamation cases, claims arising from
online postings are always highly fact-specific
and inherently inappropriate for class action
status.
4
3.
MythSEO services can remove reports.
Sorry, this is 100 false. These are phony
promises from fly-by-night companies who claim
they can remove reports in exchange for a fee.
This may sound like a huge temptation to anyone
seeking to mitigate the effect of a negative
posting, but this is just a scam to get your
hard-earned money.
Heres the reality unless someone illegally
hacks into the Ripoff Reports servers (which
would be a federal crime), no third party has the
ability to change or remove anything from the
site. Really, what these companies are selling
is a service called SEO or search engine
optimization which is a euphemism for spamming
the web with junk pages in your name in an effort
to hide negative information. If this works at
all, it wont result in a report being removedit
just means that a report may temporarily drop
down to the second or third page of Googles
results. This is just a temporary Band-Aid that
wont make the problem go away. The report is
still visible and it will still be seen by
anyone who looks beyond the first page of
results. Also, by hiding reports, youre really
cheating yourself out of the opportunity to show
customers how much you care about them. As we
always say
customers LOVE to do business with a company
thats not afraid to show how it has resolved
past complaints!
If you feel that using an SEO service is the best
option for you, thats your prerogative. However,
we have heard LOTS and LOTS of horror stories
about people being cheated by false promises from
SEO companies that cant deliver the results
they advertise, so we strongly caution you about
dealing with any SEO company. In fact, were
even aware of one particular SEO company
threatening its own customers if they refused
to pay, the SEO company ITSELF would create and
post NEW reports about the victim! Talk about a
scam!
If you are still thinking of hiring a SEO company
despite these warnings, you should be sure to
get everything in writing and make sure you do
NOT agree to pay anything up front. Also, make
sure to do your homework by reading reports
posted by other consumers who have tried SEO
services. CLICK HERE to read Ripoff Reports
about SEO companies.
2.
MythEd Magedson is an internet extortionist.
Heres the truthEd Magedson is a consumer
advocate who fights for the rights of consumers
every day. As part of that fight, Ed created the
Ripoff Report to help balance the scales by
giving more power to consumers who were
previously helpless against huge companies with
lots of money.
Because of the awesome power of free speech and
the Internet, companies who previously
ignored consumers complaints have found that the
saying buyer beware no longer applies.
Instead, its seller bewarebecause if you are
a seller and you rip off your customers, they
will not remain silent they will let others
know to stay away from any company who doesnt
treats its customers well.
Bad companies often blame Ed Magedson for this
newly created consumer power, and they claim
hes extorting them by creating the Corporate
Advocacy Program which is a paid service in which
Ripoff Report helps companies deal with unhappy
customers (sorry, it does NOT include removing
reports). Every detail of the CAP program is
explained on the site here, so you can read all
about it and once you do, were sure you will
understand how the program helps, not hurts,
anyone who becomes a member.
5
However, consider this imagine that Ripoff
Report no longer offered the Corporate Advocacy
Program. Would that really make things better?
Good companies who needed help resolving
complaints wouldnt be able to receive any
assistance from the Ripoff Report, and consumers
trying to get complaints resolved would have no
one on their side. Everyone would lose.
1.
MythRipoff Report removes reports for money.
This is easily the most offensive and therefore
the most popular lie out there.
Sorry guys, its just a lie.
Heres the truthEd has NEVER and will NEVER
remove reports for money. PERIOD. Dont believe
it? Try this pick a report, offer Ed a boatload
of cash to remove it and see how far you get. It
wont happen!
Of course, you may also try asking people who
make this type of claim what proof they have to
support itsurely, if Ed removed reports for cash
there must be someone who can come forward with
proof this actually happened, right? Perhaps
there isnt any proof because it just isnt true.
You have to wonder why do people spread this
fake allegation if theres no truth to it? The
reason is pretty obvious people who have been
criticized on Ripoff Report by true reports cant
fight back any other way, so they try to
discredit the site by claiming that it is only
there to make money by publishing and then
removing fake complaints. By making this
outrageous claim, they think they will make
people doubt the accuracy of anything on the
Ripoff Report. Dont be fooled by these lies!