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When selflessly helping others goes terribly wrong…

UserPost

6:52 pm
September 25, 2013


Michael @ The Student Loan Sherpa

Indianapolis, Indiana

Member

posts 71

A few weeks ago I had a reader contact me regarding a company she feared might be a scam organization.  I looked into it and found lots of evidence to convince me that her instincts were right.  Because this was a fairly new website, there were no existing warnings on the internet for people who might be considering giving them their money.  I waited for a couple days hoping someone would call out these people, but nobody did.  I felt a duty to use my blog as a platform to warn other customers.  I figured that each day I waited more people could fall victim to the scam, so I wrote this article exposing it.

As I feared, the people behind the scam saw my article and posted these personal attacks about me (I'm linking to screenshots because I don't want to drive any traffic to the original source).  As an attorney, my reputation is of the utmost importance to me.  I'm disgusted that this nonsense is being said about me, and frustrated that my little blog could lead to serious negative consequences for my real job.  I now have a "Google problem".

Does anyone have suggestions for how to deal with this situation?  I love blogging but I hate that I was put in a position where I had to choose between my ideals and my livelihood over my website.  I don't want to find myself in that position again.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Michael – The Student Loan Sherpa

http://StudentLoanSherpa.com

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8:06 pm
September 25, 2013


BeatingBroke

North Dakota, USA

Member

posts 860

I'm not sure what avenues there are that are available to you.  I'd say to contact an attorney, but if you are one, that might be a bit of a silly suggestion. ;)  I had to go to page 4 of a google search for "Student loan sherpa" before I saw the ripoff report, so not as much of a google problem as you might think.  Especially if that isn't one of your larger search terms.  

 

You might drop Lazy Man from Lazy man and money though, as he's taken on a few larger scammers, and might have some advice.  

If it were me, I'd just keep throwing at em.  Expose the ripoff report for what it is and go from there.

5:00 am
September 26, 2013


MoneyBeagle

Member

posts 1466

Have you considered filing a rebuttal?

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10:25 am
September 26, 2013


keerthikasingaravel

Member

posts 21

Michael

In India we have cyber crime cells of the local police.I'm pretty sure that the US too must have something along the lines.Register a complaint about the scam site.Perhaps the person who lost $250 dollars will corroborate your story.The police should find it easy to locate the owners.They have used an Arizona based service to register their domain name and make it private.

Write/rewrite/or re-title your post ConsumerAssistanceProject.org Scam.

Get a blogging buddy with a high page rank carry the post.

Call in favours and get other bloggers to carry similar posts.

Leave warnings in as many consumer awareness directories as you can,say all the directories you see on pgs 1,2,3 of Google

Write a rebuttal on your blog in reply to their accusations

If you wish to go to the trouble, initiate libel proceedings against them.The police should be able to help you track the website owners.Ask the website that carried their attacks to either take down the page or face prosecution too.

My guess is that long before you finish this list,things will get so hot,this website will close down.

But make a police complaint and ensure that can't start another site.

4:15 pm
September 26, 2013


MoneyIsTheRoot

Member

posts 1456

BeatingBroke said:

I'm not sure what avenues there are that are available to you.  I'd say to contact an attorney, but if you are one, that might be a bit of a silly suggestion. ;)  I had to go to page 4 of a google search for "Student loan sherpa" before I saw the ripoff report, so not as much of a google problem as you might think.  Especially if that isn't one of your larger search terms.  

 

You might drop Lazy Man from Lazy man and money though, as he's taken on a few larger scammers, and might have some advice.  

If it were me, I'd just keep throwing at em.  Expose the ripoff report for what it is and go from there.

BB…I think his main concern is the reputation as a lawyer, not a blogger…as such I would expect potential clients to search for Michael Lux Lawyer if they wanted to check him out, not by the name of his blog…and in conducting said search myself his ripoffreport shows up on page 1…that would cause concern for me. 

 

Michael…I would contact ripoffreport right away!!!  let them know your findings…im sure this sort of thing happens often with their site.

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5:57 pm
September 26, 2013


My Personal Finance Journey

Member

posts 3159

Sorry to hear this happened to you. These folks actually tried to comment on your Reader Profile on my site and attack you even. I deleted their comment.

Over the past 3-4 years of blogging, I've seen a couple of these occurrences where people throw a fit about things that are said in a personal finance blog. At the end of the day, as long as what was said was/is the truth, you seem to be protected.

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey

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