Is this for real? Some guy offers negative seo and defamation services on craigslist!

10 years ago

The man/woman is probably being honest and really offering this service. Its sounds illegal but I am not a lawyer. Its corrupt and unethical. I can see how businesses hurting would want to unleash this on their competitors. What happens when it happens to them? Its pretty sad if this is real that people drop down to this level just to make money.

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icegin

10 years ago

Wow. First time I've come across a service like that. It is definitely unethical and possibly illegal. I certainly hope no one tries to take him up on this -- IM can be very difficult but attacking your competitors in this manner is really low.

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HeySal

10 years ago

Slander. Libel. There isn't too far you can take a smear campaign before it can be met with legal action. As for real? Right now there are viruses around the net that can, and do, take down millions of computers owned by people who have never caused the person who constructed or unleashed it one bit of problem or harm. People can be pretty nasty when they put their minds to it. This guy is a lightweight on the scale of what some people have done to other humans.

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Ben Gordon

10 years ago

Yes, it's real. Did you ever wonder how reputation managers work? They decrease SEO for bad reviews and increase it for good ones, making only the good ones stand out. However, I'm not sure whether it's legal or not.

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Exel

10 years ago

It's called unfair or disloyal competition.

It is legally sanctioned in every country with market economy.

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Paul Myers 10 years ago

People don't realize how dangerous it is to play this game. For example, if you call someone a criminal and they've never been convicted of a crime and they sue, that's pretty much the end of the fact-finding. You lose, and the penalties can be harsh. Same if you claim they've been convicted of a specific crime and they haven't.

There are other legal issues that make this risky, but the real risk is not the law. If you start messing with someone's business or reputation and they have a family to provide for, you have to worry about them taking the matter into their own hands.

People have been killed for far less than the damage this sort of thing can do.

Paul
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Jeannie Crabtree

10 years ago

This is terrible. There was a restaurant that had been in town for years, someone coming through put up a negative review. A number of people here live off of what they make during the tourist season and just get by the rest of the year.

They did not know how to get it taken care of, which a reputation manager or someone in the know could have done for them. The business had to close as it affected their business so much. Business dried up.

So the man lost his business and a number of people in this town were out of work.

It is a very unethical thing to do, and makes one wonder if the provider mentioned has many scruples or fellow feelings. It is doubtful.

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Jonathan Joseph

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Jeannie Crabtree

This is terrible. There was a restaurant that had been in town for years, someone coming through put up a negative review. A number of people here live off of what they make during the tourist season and just get by the rest of the year.

They did not know how to get it taken care of, which a reputation manager or someone in the know could have done for them. The business had to close as it affected their business so much. Business dried up.

So the man lost his business and a number of people in this town were out of work.

It is a very unethical thing to do, and makes one wonder if the provider mentioned has many scruples or fellow feelings. It is doubtful.

Hi there,

I'm going to have to agree with Jeannie here. Even though this service may be "legal", it's incredibly unethical and low, very low. What goes around comes around. I'd stay away from the craigslist guy. There are other more professional routes to take. Besides our focus should be on our well-being, instead of the destruction of others.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" ~Gandhi

PS. Jeannie, your story was very sad, and I'm sure that a negative review can hurt and devastate even a good business.

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Jon

"Success comes when people act together; failure tends to happen alone." -- Deepak Chopra

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Chrisbroholm

10 years ago

Maybe I'm purposefully avoiding the real issue here, but my main problem is that it's even possible in the first place. I understand that google shouldn't just auto-rank pages that get millions of backlinks, but at the same time, since you are in no control of the backlinks yourself, it's tough to stay safe from in any niche.

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Paul Myers

10 years ago

Jeannie,

So the man lost his business and a number of people in this town were out of work.

If a single negative review killed the business, they were probably in rough shape to begin with.

Still, the result would likely make the person posting it happy. There are quite a lot of people out there whose only joy comes from destruction.

Only truly sick people take pleasure from destruction. Sick, and deluded. The delusion is the notion that breaking something shows some form of worthwhile personal power. Any angry cretin can break things. It takes power to create them.

Paul

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Jeannie Crabtree

10 years ago

Possibly Paul. Some businesses here are hanging on by a thread. I know of another restaurant owner that has taken on a apartment managers job as well. I don't think he would have done this if his place had been doing well.

This is a coastal town, people's biggest search by cell phone, when going through town, is for places to eat and a place to stay.

Most people don't have many reviews in their Google places here, so a really bad review sticks out.

I talked to some one that was starting up a reputation management business. One of the stories he was told by a business was that the manager tracked down someone (by his user name) who wrote a bad review not only about their business but a number of other businesses.

When confronted, He said he was a "theatrical writer" - his excuse to say that he made things up. (Something a sociopath would do - make up stories, give it plenty of drama).

She told the man she had tracked him, gotten the phone number and was now telling him to knock it off, or she would be contacting the police.

Personally, I think this whole review thing and the credence it has been given has hurt a number of people who do not deserve it. Like you said, there are a lot of sick people out there.

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Jeannie,If a single negative review killed the business, they were probably in rough shape to begin with.

Still, the result would likely make the person posting it happy. There are quite a lot of people out there whose only joy comes from destruction.

Only truly sick people take pleasure from destruction. Sick, and deluded. The delusion is the notion that breaking something shows some form of worthwhile personal power. Any angry cretin can break things. It takes power to create them.

Paul

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JimWaller

10 years ago

I'm surprised this guy doesn't also offer "click bombing" of their adsense. You can get banned for life, which is really hard to bounce back from.

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ashu2982

10 years ago

i can't believe this even internet is not safe from hitman

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Brian John 10 years ago

Unbelievable. That guy is begging for legal trouble.
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carlhenson

10 years ago

I wonder if his service works. I'm interested to see if the number 1 site on my niche can be affected by this. You see, that site has got strong high PR backlinks.

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tsx 10 years ago

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zaco

10 years ago

Originally Posted by carlhenson

I wonder if his service works. I'm interested to see if the number 1 site on my niche can be affected by this. You see, that site has got strong high PR backlinks.

Why don't you put your self in your competitor's shoes and see how it feels to lose a business that you have been building for years and doing your homework because someone tried to build backlinks to your site because "HE OR SHE IS INTERESTED" to see the results? do you think that is selfish?

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zoomsixx

10 years ago

Not only can your reputation be damaged from negative SEO. For a newer site, say 2-3 years old or younger, you can be completely removed from Google for bad linking techniques. I had it happen to me and I won't go into specifics as to what they did.

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onegoodman

10 years ago

This is dirty SEO.

It is certainly illegal and unethical.

If a company can prove that a competitor did such a thing, they can sue them.

I can't believe he dare to make such an ad on Craigslist.

This guys is not just unethical, only an idiot will hire him. There is no guarantee he will not blackmail whoever hire him looooooool

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theimdude

10 years ago

In the old day you use to just hire a hit man and have your competitor taken out by a sniper. Now days it is a bit more civilized.

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sbucciarel

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by temuchin43

Have you guys seen this:
Want to hit your competitor (or former employer) where it REALLY hurts

I can see how lots of people would love to buy his services, if he can actually deliver.
Do you guys think it's real, or some sort of a hoax? And if it's real, the next question is - is it legal??

libel isn't legal and his customers and him could get sued for libel if he is saying things that are not true.

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ibmethatswhoib

10 years ago

He is asking for it, I can see him getting sued pretty easy. For SEO, it used to be harder to jack someones SEO up, google just wouldn't count crap links and shady link profiles as much and now with the latest panda updates google is thinking they're helping with the quality serps. But I guess they failed to see that will bring on more negative seo and "hitman" that can knock people out easier. I have a feeling this kind of stuff will occur more often sadly.

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temuchin43

10 years ago

Well, the ad is down. Either this thread brought too much publicity for his liking, or someone flagged it.

The interesting thing is, 20+ people responded here and every single one seems to agree that what the ad offered is possible. I guess that answers my original question. Hmm...

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Paul Myers

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Young And Opulent

How is this any different from using false positive reviews?

Ethically? Both are wrong, obviously.

It's probably a whole lot bigger in terms of the damage done to a single person. And the victim in this example has no choice about getting into the fight.

To me, that's a large difference.

Paul