To be a brilliant artist, you don’t necessarily need to use paints, clay or any other traditional artistic tools. You apparently don’t need to have morals or a conscience either.
Ed Magedson is a name well known throughout the internet as a scam artist and the man behind Ripoff Report. The website claims to serve as a consumer advocacy forum: “By Consumers, For Consumers”. But if you believe the many, many reports from other sources, the website is merely a blackmail scam to con businesses into paying Ed Magedson.
The site claims to offer the consumer a chance for retribution or justice for being ripped off by a business, but there is some evidence that many of the posts are written by Magedson or employees. Ripoff Report says it has won numerous legal battles over the legitimacy of the reports, and it has appeared to find a large degree of protection from the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996. Magedson himself has been in court and if you’d like an idea of how slippery a character he is, you can read the court transcript here.
I’m not saying that a site that legitimately warns consumers of potential scams aren’t good for business. The internet has provided a means for consumers to voice their concerns and complaints when they’ve been slighted. But what about businesses who are targeted for no apparent reason?
If Ripoff Report is to be believed, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google harassed a couple of 16-year-old girls in a Santa Monica coffee shop and attempted to get them to go to a hotel room (link). I don’t know Page or Brin personally, but I don’t really need to. The two founders of the largest and most successful search engine in the world weren’t drunk in a Santa Monica coffee shop picking up 16-year-old girls. The claim is ridiculous. **It appears that the name has been changed from the original post to now read Soney Bonoi.
Unfortunately outrageous claims are all the norm on Ripoff Report, and your average business can be targeted with little to no substantiation. The worst part about Magedson’s site is that Google has continued to rank the reports exceptionally well. Search for a given business, and if there is a report written on it, chances are the link will appear on the first page.
Yahoo and Microsoft’s Live search engine have begun handling the reports differently. MSN won’t list Rip-Off Report at all in its listings, and the visibility on Yahoo is a mere five percent. Compare that to 91 percent visibility on Google and you can see why Rip-Off Report gets the traffic that it does.
According to results culled from Compete.com on April 14, 2009, Rip-Off Report receives nearly 3 million unique visitors a month! To put it in comparison, Fox.com gets 3.36 million unique visits a month. That means nearly as many people are viewing the company-bashing reports on Magedson’s site as they are catching up on the latest episodes of House, Family Guy and American Idol.
This kind of traffic is what continues to give Rip-Off Report “relevance”. How much relevance can be gleaned from learning about a supposed case of adultery in Minneapolis is to be determined (link). The company openly states they will not investigate the validity of the claims – unless you want to join their “corporate advocacy program” and pay a hefty fee.
I suppose you can call this something other than extortion, but I’m afraid my antonym finder is broken at the moment. Until the laws are changed or Magedson slips up, the only thing to do if you find your business on the site is to create your own quality content and hope Google sees the error of their ways. At least you won’t find much about R.O.R. on Yahoo or MSN.
**All of the links to mentioned Ripoff Reports are nofollows.
By: Zack S.
Tags: Ed Magedson, Rip-Off Report, Ripoff Report, ROR
[...] you need proof of this, read my blog post about recent PPC scams at both Google and Yahoo. You really can’t be too careful these [...]
[...] you need proof of this, read my blog post about recent PPC scams at both Google and Yahoo. You really can’t be too careful these [...]
Ripoff Report is without question the most sophisticated extortion scheme ever deployed on the internet. I first came to the attention of Ripoff Report in Late 2004. A disgruntled customer of mine filed a complaint and I had received an e-mail from Ed@RipoffReport.com. I quickly responded to the complaint and satisfied the customer. Although the complaint was without merit, I felt the damage she could cause warranted giving the customer what ever she wanted just to have the complaint withdrawn, so I thought. I refunded the customers money and all of a sudden the posting on Ripoff Report began to flood with comments. I contacted the domain owner Ed Magedson and actually recorded the conversation. He had asked for $5000.00 up front and $1500.00 a month as a “monitoring fee” he said he would change the title tags of the report and ensure it would not continue to cause damage. I subsequently declined his offer and turned the extortion attempt over to the FBI. To my knowledge no action was ever taken and Mr. Magedson was never arrested. I have since grown a passion for SEO type work and see the need. If anyone would like to call and talk to me about Ripoff Report and Ed Magedson, please call my cell (254) 291-4696 or email Shawn@ClickaNerd.com.
Kris, you’re welcome to copy it as long as your link back to the original here. Thanks for reading.
Cash4Gold is the latest high profile victim to fold into Ed Magedson’s scheme. He never seems to quit.
A new Federal Statute enacted in 2006 possibly makes the content of RipOff Report and its transmissions criminal, and have apparently never been brought as charges to date. Section 113 was signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2006. It amends 47 U.S.C. 223, the telecommunications harassment statute that is rooted in the Communications Act of 1934. The telecommunications statute prohibits anyone from using a telephone or a telecommunications device “without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person.” Ed Magedson is very proud of talking about how most of the annoying, abusive, defamatory, threatening, or harassing postings on his site are anonymous. In application this has meant that you cannot anonymously annoy another person through the phone lines. Penalties include two years in prison and onerous fines. Section 113 amends the statute to include “any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet.” Section 113, entitled, “PREVENTING CYBERSTALKING,” states that the prohibited criminal acts apply to whoever (1) in interstate or foreign communications (A) by means of a telecommunications device knowingly (i) makes, creates, or solicits, and (ii) initiates the transmission of, any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene or child pornography, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person.
I have been bashed and slandered with rediculous and false accusations on Rip off. It specifically mentions my full name, has nothing to do with any consumer and only from terminated employees.
Since this is personal and not as company, I am going to write to Ed and the Arizona AG to get it off..
What can I do?
If there are any attorneys, journalists or law enforcement that want to know the truth about the man and the business, contact the private investigator that tracked his physical location twice and has all the goods on him.
View the video…link to it if you wish.
http://www.paladinpi.com/content.php?id=21
the rip off report owner is under investigation the guy is hurting millions of consumers with his lies and slanders may repitable co. in order to have something to put on his sit. I am a credit counslor and tones of our clients are scared to get much needed help due to the lies on his site. this should be illegle and he should be made to pay the millions of consumers back that have not gotten help due to his faulse and misleading advise!
To anyone who has reviewed the video posted two entries above by “John F. Brewington” — please note that this video is a smear campaign being propogated by a private investigator who has admitted being “obsessed” with Ed Magedson. In order to set the record straight, here is the TRUTH from Ripoff Report:
This videotape, which we are calling the “Putt Putt Video,” contains deliberately orchestrated lies. Ed Magedson never offered to remove reports from RipoffReport.com for $500.00, or any amount of money. And, RipoffReport never authorized anyone to change the content of reports, period. Note: The “star” of this videotape told investigators that John Brewington did 3 different takes to make the video the way he wanted it.
The maker of the Putt Putt Video is John Brewington, a private investigator from Arizona. He has done business under John F. Brewington and JFB Acquisitions. Mr. Brewington openly admits that he posted this video to retaliate against the editor of RipoffReport.com, Ed Magedson, because Mr. Magedson informed the Arizona Department of Public Safety that the Mr. Brewington committed perjury to a federal judge. “Now it is my turn,” stated Mr. Brewington. This video is carefully produced in an attempt to injure RipoffReport.com with falsehoods.
We feel it is essential to expose falsehoods of this video and bring the truth to light so that the public will not be misled.
The maker of the videotape, John Brewington
John Brewington calls himself a “paladin” a knightly or heroic champion. He also states that he is the “managing member” of Paladin Investigations. Managing member is the term for the person in charge of a limited liability company or “LLC”. But “Paladin Investigations” is not a limited liability company, it is only a trade name for J&S Trust. And, we believe that John Brewington is the only person who works for J&S Trust.
John Brewington testified under oath in deposition that he spent “hundreds” of hours investigating Ed Magedson without ever being paid by anyone. When asked, “you’re obsessed?” he responded, “someone accused me of being obsessed, yes.”
Ed Magedson and his company sued Mr. Brewington last year (2008), for defaming Mr. Magedson and assisting a third party in a plan to attack and take down RipoffReport.com.
The beginning of the Putt Putt Video reflects that it is “supplemental to the interview we were having.” The Putt Putt Video is only a small part of a longer interview. Mr. Brewington paused the camera in between the long interview and the shorter video – perhaps to rehearse or get straight what he wanted the people on the video to say. During the video, Mr. Brewington guides the two people in the video by rephrasing and spinning their statements, leading them to say what Mr. Brewington wants them to say. They readily agree with his spin.
The Putt Putt Video starts from a very biased viewpoint. John Brewington’s website explains that he produced the video to retaliate against Ed Magedson and Ripoffreport.com. It states that Ed Magedson’s counsel filed a complaint on his private investigator’s license, and “Now it’s my turn.” This is posted on the webpage just below where this videotape was first posted.
Ed Magedson’s complaint was filed with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (“DPS”), the regulatory agency that licenses private investigators. It notified DPS that John Brewington lied to a federal judge about Mr. Magedson. Mr. Brewington was refusing to answer questions regarding the identity of Ed Magedson’s neighbors that he interviewed. Mr. Brewington told the federal judge that he did not want to answer because he thought identifying the neighbors would put them “at risk.” While under oath, he told the judge, “All of the neighbors have expressed great fear, both physically and from being defamed on the Internet, if their information is disclosed.” Mr. Brewington was ordered to disclose the information. Three months later, Mr. Brewington stated the following under oath:
Q: “But is it your testimony that [name of neighbor withheld] told you that she had great fear of Ed’s physical – including physical harm, that she could be physically harmed?
A: No. I don’t think anyone ever indicated physical harm.
Q: So none of the neighbors you spoke with told you that they feared physical harm as a result from Ed?
A: Correct.
Tony Agerone
The videotape features a man named Tony Agerone, who claims that he witnessed Ed Magedson offering to remove a posting about Putt Putt car lot on Rip-off Report for $500.
The statement is ludicrous. Ripoff Report has battled dozens of very expensive lawsuits to protect its right NOT to remove reports. These dozens of lawsuits could have been avoided if RipoffReport.com would agree to remove reports. It is absurd to think that Ed Magedson would offer to remove a report for $500.
Tony Agerone later denied knowing the Putt Putt car lot or Lloyd Jorgeson. He did admit that Brewington coached him on what to say in the video. Police records reveal Tony Agerone’s history of involvement in criminal activities, including:
• 2000 - assault and disorderly conduct
• 2001 - two counts of endangerment
• 2002 – assault
• 2004 - theft of means in connection with the theft of a boat
• 2004 - disorderly conduct
• 2005 - false reporting to law enforcement (he falsely reported that Jay Silvers’ wife who is mentioned in the Putt Putt video hit him with her vehicle)
• 2005 - threatening and intimidation
• 2007 - false reporting to law officers
Krysta Agerone
The woman in the videotape is Krysta Agerone, Tony Agerone’s daughter. She claims that two people, John Unger and Matt Mott, edited the content of postings on Ripoff Report.com. That statement is fabricated. Matt Mott is the father of Ms. Agerone’s child and has sole custody. Also, John Unger has had no involvement with or access to the Ripoff Report since 2003, and is completely removed from contact. John Brewington’s own website posts a link to an order of protection that Mr. Unger sought against Mr. Magedson back in 2003.
Texas Small Business Owner Shawn Richeson
Shawn Richeson of Computer Nerds and Click a Nerd in Killeen Texas is not in the Putt Putt Video, but he and Mr. Brewington have tried to use it against RipoffReport.com. Ripoff Report first became aware of the Putt Putt Video when Shawn Richeson, the owner of an online business operating in Texas, sent a link to the lawyers for Ripoff Report.com. Richeson’s email essentially threatened to post the videotape if Ripoff Report.com did not take down postings on the website about Richeson and his business Computer Nerds and Click a Nerd. RipoffReport.com does not cave in to blackmail and extortion, and instead informed Mr. Richeson that the video was false, and then Ripoff Report began an investigation to uncover the hidden identities of the actors in the video tape, and get to the bottom of the plot.
Previously, Richeson admitted to posting an altered audiotape of Ed Magedson online, and completely fabricating a story about the FBI raiding his computers. He also has a criminal record. In 1997 Richeson received two convictions for deceptive business practices. Both convictions were misdemeanors. He pled guilty and was fined $500. In 1995, Richeson was charged with felony theft which involved money and a computer. Those charges were dropped because he made restitution and he pled guilty in another related case. In 2000, Richeson was convicted of felony theft involving 25 computer systems. He received a six month state jail sentence and a $10,000 fine (plus court fees and restitution). However, whether Richeson is a hardened criminal or just a small time crook, it is clear that he and John Brewington are working together.
As soon as Mr. Richeson learned that Ripoff Report.com was investigating the origin of the videotape, Mr. Brewington sent an email to our investigator with four little words. “Welcome to the game,” said Mr. Brewington.
UPDATES TO COME
Here is the ripoffreport.com phone number : 888-275-2211