Ripoff Report – What Can You Do?

Ripoff Report - What Can You Do?

RIPOFFREPORT.com is a website created to supposedly help consumers find legitimate, honorable businesses and avoid scam artists and fraud. The website, however, appears to not be doing its job as intended. On the site, commenters can “file reports” about bad experiences they have had with people, companies or businesses. In reality, although the intention may have been good, the site is set-up to blackmail companies, not help consumers.

The website may feature some valid posts, but mostly the “reports” aim to degrade, slander and humiliate people and companies alike. It is suspected that ex-employees who are unhappy with the business or company competitors who are not doing well create the negative posts. While this may seem all fun and games, or even a little bit helpful for consumers, it is actually life changing for those the reports are about. People who write reports on Ripoffreport.com cannot change their comments or reports, nor can they delete them if they change their mind or their story ends up changing. A comment can be added, but the comments are placed low on the page in an unnoticeable place.

Victims of negative reports, which are not always accurate, spend thousands of dollars to remove the report from Google search results. If gripes with companies are resolved, the listing remains. While some reports may be accurate or true, the majority of them lack sufficient evidence or proof. With the dawn of the technological age upon us, businesses rely on Internet traffic for their companies and businesses. One negative report on the website from an angry friend or a jealous co-worker and the business’ Google results are forever changed. The bad press can cost businesses money in sales and ultimately profit if they are relying on Internet advertising and search engine traffic.

Businesses aren’t the only people who are affected, however; report writers can be sued for slander if their reports are found to be untrue. For example, a customer wrote a negative report, which later turned out to be inaccurate. The customer wrote it based on the feeling he got from the initial interactions he had with a company. Later, the interactions turned out to be a fluke and the transaction went very well. Because of the website’s rules about removing reports, however, even the author of the claim could not take what they posted off the site. This can, and has, led to many expensive legal battles over slander.

RIPOFFREPORT.com, though meant to help people avoid crooks and scams, is doing more harm than good. The site’s policies cause usually false information and defamatory comments to be left on the Internet for all to see, including popular search engine results. This can cause terrible effects on people’s businesses, reputations and relationships and ultimately ruin someone’s life.

445 Media, unfortunately, cannot help you get those results taken down, but we can help you suppress the listings from showing up as one of the first things they see when searching for your business or personal name. Give us a call today and let us explain our process and see if we might be the solution you’re looking for.