My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#1

Post by westiseast » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:08 AM UTC

My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.
westiseast.co.uk

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#2

Post by crockstar » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:15 AM UTC

Unfortunately your experience is not something new and I've heard of considerably worse involving pointing dodgy links at competitors sites, "review" sites that charge to rebut a negative review, etc. It really sucks that people behave like this but good on you for the outing, maybe it will help.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#3

Post by westiseast » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:19 AM UTC

crockstar wrote: post #2

Unfortunately your experience is not something new and I've heard of considerably worse involving pointing dodgy links at competitors sites, "review" sites that charge to rebut a negative review, etc. It really sucks that people behave like this but good on you for the outing, maybe it will help.

Yeah - I can't be the first person whose had this "give me cash or I'll post negative reviews" scam. What can you say - the world is full of disreputable people.

Part of the blog post was about setting the record straight, and part of it was also to remind other people in similar situations they're not alone when this kind of thing happens. It's effectively bullying, and the worst part of bullying is suffering in silence.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#4

Post by glimcat » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:30 AM UTC

Should have gone here instead. I'm pretty sure that extortion is against Twitter's TOS.

https://support.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/15789

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#5

Post by westiseast » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:44 AM UTC

glimcat wrote: post #4

Should have gone here instead. I'm pretty sure that extortion is against Twitter's TOS. https://support.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/15789

Thanks for the link glimcat - I'm going to see how it pans out after a few days. Tweets fade fast, and if this scammer doesn't continue posting negative reviews, then I'm happy with that.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#6

Post by crockstar » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:48 AM UTC

westiseast wrote: post #3

crockstar wrote: post #2

Unfortunately your experience is not something new and I've heard of considerably worse involving pointing dodgy links at competitors sites, "review" sites that charge to rebut a negative review, etc. It really sucks that people behave like this but good on you for the outing, maybe it will help.

Yeah - I can't be the first person whose had this "give me cash or I'll post negative reviews" scam. What can you say - the world is full of disreputable people. Part of the blog post was about setting the record straight, and part of it was also to remind other people in similar situations they're not alone when this kind of thing happens. It's effectively bullying, and the worst part of bullying is suffering in sil…

Totally agree, as I say: well done for getting it off your chest. If people don't speak up about it things are unlikely to change. Though obviously if there is any justification whatsoever to the claim scratching that itch may be bad news.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#7

Post by peterbe » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:55 AM UTC

I think you did the right thing in defending yourself.

Suppose I was to stumble across an argument like that about any product/startup/business/whatever I'll almost certainly believe the one who argues in good grammer, without spelling mistakes and without vulgar tones. I think you did the best one can do.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#8

Post by bugsy » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:56 AM UTC

Thanks for the warning. To be fair, even big "companies" like yelp.com have been running extortion rackets for years and are still the darlings of the technical press.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#9

Post by peterbe » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 8:59 AM UTC

Haha! Now I get it "My angry tweet at wasn’t directed towards you in first place.You Unfollowed me. I insulted your tea. Now go away. " /bigfacebrian

So he insulted the tea itself (which he hasn't even tried) because he was unfollowed on Twitter. That's illegal and you can send him a cease or desist letter telling him to unpublish any unfounded slander. However, just carry and selling your tea any ignore this douche bag.

Re: My experience with a 'negative review' scammer.

#10

Post by plasma » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 9:12 AM UTC

Perhaps make a blog post about this (more detailed, with proof of this scum attempting to extort you) and let the tea lovers know to not follow their recommendations.

I'd like to think if anyone ever tried to do that to me, I'd be replying back with a response 10x fold.