having to pay to remove slanderous comments from a website?

[hifilootin]

I recently tried to remove a slanderous comment posted on a website, the website admins said i would have to pay before the comment would be removed. Is this legal??? This website doesn't have any registered members, it's just a free public place to post comments about various business'. It seems these people wanna capitalize off slanderous & degrading comments that are made without any regulation at all. If your a lawyer or know one who may be interested in looking into this, feel free to contact me as i'm sure i speak for hundreds of business owners who would like to end this. Thanks, Chris HIFILOOTIN@HOTMAIL.COM

 

[dannyP]

RipOffReport.com

BEWARE RipOffReport.com State of Arizona Attorney General's Office

EVERYONE: If you have had any problems with "ripoffreport" or any of Ed Magdeson's websites, please contact the state of arizona attorney general and file a formal complaint. Here is the response we got from the AG.

This site allows post but not rebuttals -- They ask for $$ to remove posts made by others - This is a racket and is extortion by RipoffReport.com - They act as a Consumer protection website --

Bruce Ottley, a law professor who specializes in libel and slander at DePaul University in Chicago, said Internet libel has the potential to be more damaging than libel published in print media. Newspapers and magazines have a finite circulation and a relatively limited readership, but information posted on the Internet can be read anywhere, by anyone, for an extended period of time, he said.


Re: State of Arizona Attorney General's Office * *

Re "Re: State of Arizona Attorney General's Office" posted by josie at 15:37 22/11/04 ...
Crystal Lake lawyer sues woman, Web firm

by KRISTEN SCHMIDT
kristenschmidt@nwherald.com


WOODSTOCK – A Crystal Lake lawyer is suing a Barrington woman and a Web site operator for $22 million, claiming that derogatory comments posted on a complaint Web site have hurt his business.

Steven English filed the lawsuit Wednesday in McHenry County Court. English claims that Mary Zwiefelhofer of Barrington posted comments on the Web site, www.ripoffreport.com, that damaged his reputation and caused him to lose business.

According to transcripts of Internet message boards included in English's complaint, Zwiefelhofer and her fiancé lost out on a deal to buy their dream home when the seller pulled out late. In the message-board transcript, Zwiefelhofer claimed that she was cheated out of the purchase. English was the real-estate agent for the seller and the failed purchase in general.


The transcripts include messages from other Web site visitors who write opinions about real-estate and contract law, buying a home, and other topics.


The lawsuit did not specify any particular words or phrases allegedly posted on the Web site by Zwiefelhofer, although the lawsuit stated that Zwiefelhofer called English's practices "unethical" in some of the postings.


The last message included in the transcript is one from Zwiefelhofer, who wrote that she had received a warning letter from English about her comments. She then retracted specific words and phrases that she had used in her initial missive about English.


English seeks $10 million in punitive damages each from Zwiefelhofer and the Web site. He also seeks $2 million in compensatory damages from both parties. The $2 million represents what English believes he has lost in business and professional reputation because of the alleged libel.


The lawsuit names as defendants Xcentric Ventures LLC, www.ripoffreport.com and Ed Magdeson, who is cited on the Web site as a founder.


English claims in his lawsuit that the words written by Zwiefelhofer were "unfounded, untrue, wrongful, debasing, debilitating and defamatory."


He wrote in the complaint that he has suffered emotional stress and a general decline in business because of Zwiefelhofer's writing on the Web site.


Ted Peterson, who called himself a volunteer at www.ripoffreport.com, said people who run the Web site haven't seen the lawsuit.


Peterson, calling from Tucson, Ariz., said it sounded like English is suing the wrong party. He contends that the Web site's language is protected like that of an Internet search engine.


"Making a lawsuit against us is nothing short of being frivolous," Peterson said. "What he's going to try to do is cost us money."


He said English's lawsuit could backfire because it could draw more attention to the writing to which he objects on www.ripoffreports.com.


"He just made a big boo-boo," Peterson said.


English did not immediately return a call, and his lawyer was unavailable for comment Thursday.


Zwiefelhofer could not be reached for comment.

State of Arizona Attorney General's Office * *

EVERYONE: If you have had any problems with "ripoffreport" or any of Ed Magdeson's websites, please contact the state of arizona attorney general and file a formal complaint. Here is the response we got from the AG.

RE: CIC 04-21090 MAGEDSON, ED

Dear Consumer:

The Consumer Protection and Advocacy Section of our office would like to thank you for the information you sent.
Vigilant citizens like you are the main source of information for our consumer fraud work. The time and effort it takes for consumers to pass on information does not go unnoticed.
To keep track of this practice, we will keep your correspondence in our records. The information you provided will help us monitor questionable business practices and determine priorities in our law enforcement efforts and legislative recommendations.
If we can assist you in the future, please do not hesitate tot contact our office. Again, thank you for your good citizenship.

Sincerely,

Tammy Miller
CONSUMER INFORMATION
& COMPLAINTS MANAGER
(80035


14:24 25/09/04
**
ROBERT KIRCHMAN * *

This complaint is to make public a criminal who is hiding in Staunton, Virginia. The criminal's name is Robert Kirchman. Robert Kirchman operates a criminal enterprise with several people...

1. Pamela Kirchman , Staunton, Virginia
This is Robert Kirchman's wife, she aides in Robert Kirchman's fraudulent operations.
2. Ed Magedson, Arizona
Ed Magedson runs scam sites with Robert Kirchman, they actually have 2 sites:
www.ripoffreport.com
http://scamfighters.blogspot.com/

As I understand after speaking with the FBI and an assistant Attorney General, Robert Kirchman operates three types of scams:

1. Robert Kirchman Scam #1
Robert Kirchman has setup a architectural design firm...but here's the catch..it's all a facade! There is no real firm just lies. The company I work for, was searching for an architectural design firm...Robert Kirchman's fake firm (unluckily for us) was chosen. Robert Kirchman sent our company some work he had done so that we could evaluate his work, we posted the work on our website and lo and behold a few weeks later we get called by a young architect who had created the art work! He had found our site because of the pictures names on the internet....we called Robert Kirchman and he denied it, claimed it was his work and then had the gall to try to charge us a few thousand dollars!! So this is the scam #1, Robert Kirchman steals from others and tries to sell material that never belonged to him.

2. Robert Kirchman Scam #2
While Robert Kirchman was trying to sell our company on bogus work, he was also speaking to one of the upper managers, he was trying to get our firm to invest $100,000 in some project based in Japan....well after some research on the internet I have found other people who were approached by Robert Kirchman for the same scam! There is no project in Japan, only Robert Kirchman's wallet ready for innocent people. This is a major scam. After my research, we decided to call the FBI to report this criminal...this is the breakdown from the FBI email:
Robert Kirchman has been operating a scam which we think has defrauded people over severak million dollars. He has just recently showed up on our radar screen, in the last couple months we have recieved about 10 complaints about Robert Kirchman, all similar in nature. We are currently investigating Robert Kirchman for money laundering and fraud, as well, the IRS is investigating him for tax evasion....
Luckily for my company, not one cent was given to this criminal.

3. Robert Kirchman Scam #3
The third scam I know of is operating scam sites which try to extort money from companies.
It seems that in this scam he is not alone, but that he operates with another criminal known as Ed Magedson.
What Robert Kirchman and Ed Magedson do is post negative information on companies, they then contact these companies and tell them that the will remove the negative information for thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars!
The first site that I know of is run by Ed Magedson: www.ripoffreport.com
The second site which seems to be run by Robert Kirchman is : http://scamfighters.blogspot.com/

Robert Kirchman and Pamela Kirchman deserve to go to jail! I do believe that these criminals will be put behind bars soon, if you know of any information in regards to Robert Kirchman please report it to the FBI.

 

[Sharkie]

Ed Magedson Bad Business Rip Off Exposed

Who watches the watchdog? I am very concerned about a guy who claims to be a consumer watchdog. At least one site exposes the truth behind self styled consumer watchdog, Ed Magedson, to reveal his true interest lies in increasing his own bank account. This unscrupulous criminal uses his bully pulpit to issue outright threats to coerce legitimate business owners to pay-up for a favorable report. You can see all the evidence and decide the truth for yourself.*http://www.bad-business-rip-off.com

I have been reading various threads on the different forums regarding this guy, Ed Magedeson, and have a hard time understanding why anyone would defend him and am puzzled by their position. My gawd, there is a plethora of evidence indicating this guy is less than a stellar citizen. On the contrary, he is the poster child for self aggrandizement and the purveyor of self enrichment at the expense of ethics and truth.*

First of all, he has judgments against him. This is money he legally owes to people and refuses, with impunity, to pay. If he owed YOU money due to a judicial rendering I am sure you would be clamoring for your due. It is also apparent from the available information, from reliable sources, that he associates with known criminal elements. This, in conjunction with his undisclosed location and refusal to allow posting of opinions contrary to his own or to allow business owners to post in defense of their business practices leads me to give greater credence to the accusations by those whom he attacks.

If he is truly being maligned why won't he confront his accusers in court. I understand that they are trying to claim their right to confront him in court but he has chosen to remain in hiding to avoid having to take responsibility for his malicious injustice to these legitimate businesses.

So, in closing, let me reiterate, how anyone can continue to defend this man and his company. For more information a company has set up a site to try and counter some of the false accusations and manufactured complaints against them..
http://www.bad-business-rip-off.com

 

[salt]

Go lay down Sharkie!

I have been following this guy all over the internet with this very same post over and over. He is on a campaign of revenge.

I'm pretty sure that Sharkie is Steve Miller who is the president of the "in trouble" internet debt consolidation company called Federated Financial. Federated Financial is under federal investigation for treating customers badly and ruining their credit there are also allegations of Steve Miller and upper management harassing clients who dared to complain by phone, fax and email. Many Federated employees have blown the whistle on Millers actions to the feds and on ripoffreport.com. This makes Steve Miller very angry and when Steve Miller gets angry Steve Millers calls his lawyer! (And then puts up retaliatory websites and posts as other people on every blog and forum that he can find!!! LOL that's just what kind of guy he is!)

Steve Miller is probably known as a instigator of frivolous lawsuits in Broward county FL where her lives. You should see how many people that he's sued and tried to sue in the past few years....lawsuits appear to be Steve Millers hobby, that and running around all over the internet attacking Ed Magedeson, the owner of ripoffreport.com. I feel bad for Ed.

In retaliation for Ed allowing customers and employees of Federated Financial to post complaints of abuse on ripoffreport.com Steve has put up his own websites trying to discredit and embarrass Ed. Just like children!!! It looks to me that everything that Steve Miller is using against Ed on his smear website is from Eds wild youth, from the 70s. So what! Somebody should look into Steve Millers wild youth in the 70s in New Jersey!!!

Grow up Steve Miller. Everybody knows it's you making all of these posts all over the place complaining about Ed. If what you are doing wasn't so transparent and pathetic it would be funny.

By the way Steve Miller, how long did you think that you could get away with all of that? How many people warned you to stay away from the girls that worked at Federated Financial or you would get into trouble? (EEOC vs Steve Miller Federated Financial Miami 2004, in case anyone is interested) How many people told you not to be nasty and horrible to people or it would bite you right in the ass? How many people told you to calm down and quit acting like a spoiled brat fool?

You should have listened.

 

[salt]

PROOF! Sharkie is Steve Miller

I have found proof that Sharkie is Steve Miller the president of Federated Financial go to Advisoryservicesinc.com into the Idea Exchange and you will see where Steve has posted as both Sharkie and Steve Miller. He even references his company (Federated Financial) while using his Sharkie persona. Too funny!!

Sharkie bit some sour grapes...this is what he does, his OCD kicks in and he runs all over the place posting garbage all over the internet. People don't fall for this guys line of crap. Ripoffreport.com took him on and he can't stand it. He can't stand when anybody takes him on. I'll bet his head will explode when he finds this post! I sure wish that I could see that!!

If you want to see something funny type who watches the watch dog into google and look at how many forums that he has posted this very same drool into. I'm telling you he's on a rampage!!! It's hysterically funny!

For something even funnier go to ripoffreport.com and type in federated financial services...it's all true people.

He's absolutely nuttier than a fruitcake!!

 

[Sharkie]

Your proof ???

Ahh, Salt - you are here too. So you have spent the whole day following me around the internet posting the exact same text everywhere that I had posted my identical posts to try and counter all that I have said - how sweet.
I see where you were confused about my identity and thinking I was Steve, and I accept your apology for making accusations, which are unfounded.
Because I responded to a comment about Federated you assumed I as Miller. Oh well, anyone can make a mistake - including me.
I am not very familiar with internet and bulletin boards so perhaps I responded in the wrong place. In a couple of places I accidentally submitted the information twice too.

Nonetheless - my identity is irrelevant and anonymous as is yours. I am fairly certain however that you are NOT Ed as your writing is more refined and intelligent than Ed's. How can you take up for this guy? The proof is all on line - take a look. The documents on the federated site (and there is another site with the same basic info too) are all legitimate you can look them up for yourself.
What does Ed have? He makes up and posts illegitimate complaints that are unsubstantiated and does not allow the businesses to either rebut or rectify any claims... UNLESS... the business pays a huge fee.
This Ed guy is going to be in big trouble. He is being accused of Racketeering and extortion by over 20 companies. I have read nearly everything I could find on line about the guy and I got the impression that extortion was EXACTLY what he was doing. Now I have read he is indeed being served and ordered to appear in court for questioning in this regard.
He keeps going into hiding however instead of being accountable for his actions. Even if he were wrong an apology would go a long way toward assuaging those hurt by his malicious actions. Nonetheless, he will be found, he will be served, he will see his little empire crumble around him.

 

[salt]

Sharkie...leave ripoffreport alone

Excuse me Sharkie...er Steve that's Steve Miller, president of the crumbling empire known as Federated Financial Services; I have not apologized to you for anything. In fact I have proven that you are Steve Miller. http://www.advisoryservicesinc.com/board/?topic=topic1 this site is free for anyone who is following your bizarre posts around the internet like we are. Your ranting has given us loads of giggles and snorts and for that we do thank you. Now you really should just leave www.ripoffreport.com alone. All that anyone has to do is go there and look up the posts from people all over the country who have suffered after paying your company to help them to pay their bills and get out of debt.

By the way, if anyone else is interested in following Sharkies forum posting escapades all over the internet simply type in Ed Magdeson into Google and click on any of the forum pages that you see. It's really pretty amazing. I really recommend that you click on the ripoffreport link first and see what kind of person Sharkie is first.

This next section is from the MASTERMIND behind Salt:

I have to tell anyone who cares to read this, I like ripoffreport.com. I think it's a neat site. I don't know anything about Ed but I do know a few people who know him and they say that he's a nice guy. I've looked at the material posted about Federated Financial and I believe what has been posted there. I REALLY believe it, I've seen it with my own eyes, in the flesh!!. That's all that I can say about that or Steve aka Sharkie will call his lawyer and that would be such a pain for me...ho hum. Steve aka Sharkie may be crazy but he's also smart and rich and that's a dangerous combination. That's why the federal investigations and all of the trouble for Federated Financial has taken so long to blow up on him he tries to get revenge! People are afraid of him.

I'm getting tired of doing this so happy trails!

 

[Sharkie]

The Report on Ripoff artists

Excuse me, but what ever happened to searching for truth? The problem is, what is happening to the rights of the people who get information posted about them on any of these sites?
Do you think there are ANY false postings on the Magedson sites? Do you believe all of the posts on that site? Do you think a person ever gets upset about something and over states the case or fails to take personal responsibility for at least part of the problem? If you have any doubts about any of the complaints then you must consider the effect on the person or business that finds themselves erroneously maligned.

How do you think a business or person should go about getting that wrong or resolved issue be removed? How is a business to make right any complaint posted about them, justified or not? I am not out to necessarily promote one person over another, just looking at the bigger picture.