Noel had filed a report against my website on a site called Rip-Off Report, which purports to be a sort of online Better Business Bureau. Customers who didn't get a fair deal can go there to file a report against the company that they feel 'ripped them off.' The problem, though, is what the site appears to be is not what it really is. What it is is a legal form of extortion.
Let's say you own XYZ Co. I file a report, true or not, against your company. No one bothers to check its authenticity, or even if you or I exist. Nevertheless, search engines pick it up, and any search of your company now shows that you didn't treat me, a customer, fairly. So what can you do about it? Not a lot. Rip-Off Report flat-out refuses to take down any report against any company (or individual, it seems) even if it's proved untrue.
You can, however, pay their mediators to adjudicate the issue, and if they find on your side, Rip-Off report will add a notation saying that the report is untrue. The report they still won't take down. After taking your money and ruining your reputation on the internet. Nice scam, huh?
But here's the funny part. The website Noel Bednaz reported isn't a business at all. It's an online gallery with no e-commerce software or way to send money whatsoever*. As a professional artist, I don't sell my work through the internet. Amateurs and beginners do that. I don't. The people who buy my work (collectors, museum reps, curators) just call me when they have an interest in something.
So, she tried to ruin my online reputation, which doesn't matter, by reporting my non-existent company to a scam website. Ah, the mind of a stalker is a strange thing.
View the whole fiasco here.
Or read it on the website.
(edit: 8 December, 2013 - She has also filed a Rip-Off Report against Ben Gurecki. Anything to libel and harass her victims. How sad.)
* To send money, write to....
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