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Bearing False Witness Websites

Thursday, May 13, 2010 2:44 pm

I freely admit that I am frustrated and there is no relief to the frustration. It all stems from an unknown person posting a negative notice on a Bearing False Witness internet site. The site in question is an internet forum where anyone can post whatever they want for the world to see without the necessity of having proof or a basis in reality.

Because the site is only on the internet, anybody can say whatever they want about any business and be identified as only Mike from Torrance. How many Mikes are there in Torrance? Anonymous postings don’t allow a business the opportunity to find a resolution with the unhappy consumer. The website like most of the internet has no editorial controls in place, nor do they make any attempt to validate the accuracy of the postings. Conversely, the website has an entire section warning businesses against filing lawsuits against them. It almost seems like a threat. At the bottom of their home page is an alphabetical list of companies having negative postings. It appears like every company, except the site in question, is a scam.

In 2007, I had my initiation with malicious internet sites. A negative complaint was posted at 15 minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve. After an expensive investigation, it was learned that the derogatory posting came from a competitor (since out of business) saying that we “were stealing his mind.” How do you steal someone’s mind? Although the internet posting was fraudulent, the website’s policy was and is to never delete anything whether it’s true or not. It’s impossible for any business to be safe from anonymous postings that can never be defended or challenged. Curiously, the day after the “stealing my mind” posting, we were contacted by a company guaranteeing to make the Notice disappear for $15,000.00. Sounded like extortion. I didn’t pay. The notice is still there.

Now in 2010, there is a second negative posting. As before, there was an email offer to remove it for a fee. This second negative posting supposedly comes from a cousin of a person who submitted an invention idea for recommendations on what should happen next. According to the negative posting, my staff proposed to do certain services for a fee. That part sounds reasonable and is something we do regularly. It’s impossible to respond more specifically without knowing the name of the inventor, or of the cousin, or if either of them really exists. Regardless, except for some pro bono (free) work, it is my policy that my staff is paid for their work. Who works for free?

So now there are two anonymous negative postings on an internet site that stand behind (some might say – hide behind) Freedom of Speech, while at the same time, refuse to validate truthfulness or to remove proven fraudulent postings. The question is: How do you defend yourself, and the innocent people in your business, from someone who hides in the darkness and hurls stones? The only answer is to keep trying to do the right thing everyday.

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