Ripoff Report is a private website founded and operated for profit by Ed Magedson. Ripoff Report is operated by Xcentric Ventures, LLC in T4-0, Arizona, and has been online since December 1998. Ripoff Report allows anonymous complaints about businesses or individuals for users over the age of 14.
The site requires the creation of an account before “reports” can be filed, but does not confirm the identity of users. If someone searches the Ripoff Report on Google, it can become embarrassing or damaging to the targets (or companies) in the report.
Everyone has heard the phrase “the customer is always right.” Taken somewhat out of context, this seems to apply to Ripoff Report – even if one of its users is completely wrong by posting false and defamatory business information. Ripoff Report strictly refuses to remove posts from the site, no matter how inaccurate, defamatory, or harmful they may be, to give a voice to dissatisfied consumers. This includes scenarios where writers accept misconduct and are even willing to accept their defamatory statements if the Ripoff Report allows it.
The Ripoff Report’s website is known for never wanting to be listed. A large number of Ripoff Reports can be misleading or inaccurate. For small businesses that do not have the resources to pay to edit or remove negative reports, this could be devastating.
As contributors told Eric Schiffer, “I am not going to a bank meeting right now,” he said, “with anything more powerful to destroy an entrepreneur’s life than an online reputation. Regardless of whether the matter is true or false, and whether the allegation is personal or business, the nightmare most feared is the rip-off notice.
There are several strategies used in such situations: Paying an online reputation firm to push down the report; participating in the VIP arbitration program of Ripoff Report, which may result in parts of a post being written but not completely deleted; publishing a rebuttal that is correctly reported below; and attempting to prosecute Ripoff Report, i.e., both have significant inconvenience.
However, the Ripoff Report contains another approach to dealing with defamation that we consider to be very effective: obtaining a court order stating that the report contains false or diametric information; in the end, the page must be deleted from the indexes of Google and other search engines.
These are the best way to deal with false Ripoff Report messages:
1) Try to respond calmly –
The first way to respond to the false comments on the Ripoff Report website is to respond calmly. We, humans, tend to get angry or lose our temper immediately when we hear something false about ourselves. After all, we do things we should not have done.
If you want to reply, you need to create an account on the Ripoff website. When creating an account, you must agree to the terms of the Ripoff Report (this includes many legal disclaimers). Also, remember not to write nasty words in your response, since they have more damage. Try to be humble and authentic, otherwise, you will be liable for your own words when responding to your critics.
2) Ripoff Report Defamation Proceedings approach-
This resource is one of the latest developments in the ROR process. The ROR announced a month ago that, if it determines that the judgment is valid and credible, it will submit certain false factual allegations established by a U.S. judgment against the author. To find out if your case is strong enough to bring an online defamation lawsuit, you need to speak with a Ripoff attorney. If you are a small business, it could be expensive to file a case against Ripoff Report. If you have large sums of money to spend on a lawsuit, then this is a great way to fight the fake reviews of the Ripoff Report.
3) Commit to SEO and PR, “white hat”-
You can rely on your Internet search engine to return results that respond to the claim in an unexciting, professional manner, i.e., “I do not think that’s a real customer claim – I have never had a customer, and we would not treat a customer that way.” “I do not know if that claim is a real customer. Again, strive to have legitimate and positive relationships. When there’s a bad problem, the solid and positive content of your business is especially valuable.
4) Become a Corporate Advocacy Program member (CAP)-
CAP is an initiative to turn customers into store owners of your brand. You can ask ripoffreport.com to investigate this issue under this program. This strategy may not be effective in addressing comments on Ripoff Report because even if the CAP investigates and proves that the comment on the Ripoff website is false or unwarranted, it may not be possible to remove the complaint. However, the results of the company’s investigation will trump the complaint. The website VIP Arbitration Program was also included in the Ripoff report.
5) Arbitration of VIP (voluntary, impartial, and private)-
The latest development in the ROR process is this resource. The cost for this service is $2,000 (including $1,000 for the conciliator). As part of this process, you file a complaint that specifically states the false factual allegations and provides substantiating evidence. You and the accusers make the statements and then the arbitrator’s rules. The charges stand, but the false statements are removed by the ROR. If the accuser has listed or does not respond, the conciliator takes note of those facts and considers them. The ROR cautions against unusual cases. An indication that a Prosecutor is not responding does not necessarily imply a decision.
6) Get the page from the search engine de-list/de-index-
You can delete your false Report page from Google through this strategy. If you believe that your ripoff report is harmful, you can try to ask Google to remove the complaint from its search index. According to some industry experts, ripoff reports sometimes move reviews to a new URL. This results in only reviews showing up in search results. In this category, the ripoff review page will otherwise be removed from a search engine’s index, but a court order is required. You must convince the court that the material is truly defamatory. This is undoubtedly your time-consuming interaction with the Ripoff Report.
7) Make the two essential appeals –
Typical advice for clients in a PR crisis. You should call your lawyer for the first time. The other is your leadership at PR. In any case, these two resources should work hand in hand after these calls. As tempting as it may be to go to the press, issue a quick rebuttal or file a lawsuit, do not take action until these two resources have considered the consequences of your next steps. Responding effectively is the sure way to make your situation worse, both in terms of your legal remedies and mitigating negative relationships.