Online extortion scams (lawsuit)

[$5 submissions]

There's an interesting class action lawsuit going on involving the review site YELP

http://www.mediapost.com/publication...144&nid=111530


It seems from the quote below that they are claiming that this is intentional. I don't agree. Aren't the reviews organic? They aren't deleting them, they are just moving them. Also, moving them lower on the page doesn't NECESSARILY MEAN it will achieve what they are claiming below.

Another case of Lawyers making (CASH) mountains out of molehills or is Yelp doing a shakedown?

The first quote is the CLAIM. The second quote block is the background:

Specifically, he alleges that a Yelp sales representative promised to move the reviews to the bottom of its results, ensure that they did not appear in search engine results, and also allow the hospital to decide which order reviews would appear in on Yelp, in exchange for a one-year $300-a-month ad buy.

A California veterinary center has sued review site Yelp for allegedly promising to bury bad reviews in exchange for purchasing $3,600 worth of advertising on the site.

...

Perrault says in his complaint that his dispute with Yelp stemmed from two "defamatory" reviews that appeared on the site. The posts allegedly included statements like "Dr. Perrault is the rudest vet I've ever been to" and "my poor dog was terrified of him."

Perrault says in his lawsuit that shortly after these reviews appeared, he began receiving "frequent, high-pressure calls from Yelp advertising employees, who promised to manipulate Cats and Dogs' Yelp.com listing page in exchange for Cats and Dogs purchasing an advertising subscription."

[woj]

`Perrault says in his lawsuit that shortly after these reviews appeared, he began receiving "frequent, high-pressure calls from Yelp advertising employees, who promised to manipulate Cats and Dogs' Yelp.com listing page in exchange for Cats and Dogs purchasing an advertising subscription." `

Pretty nice scam if that's actually what happened...

[fatfoo]

scams scams scams

[Agent 488]

sounds like an extortion / scam. would not be surprised they wrote the bad reviews themselves then called with the move offer.

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by woj

`Perrault says in his lawsuit that shortly after these reviews appeared, he began receiving "frequent, high-pressure calls from Yelp advertising employees, who promised to manipulate Cats and Dogs' Yelp.com listing page in exchange for Cats and Dogs purchasing an advertising subscription." `

Pretty nice scam if that's actually what happened...

SADLY, what pleading papers CLAIM and REALITY aren't always the same

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

sounds like an extortion / scam. would not be surprised they wrote the bad reviews themselves then called with the move offer.

The server IP/site access records during discovery should yield interesting gems.

[Agent 488]

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastba...nt?oid=1176635

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastba...nt?oid=1176635

Ruh Roh, Shaggy

[Press Release Pro]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

sounds like an extortion / scam. would not be surprised they wrote the bad reviews themselves then called with the move offer.

You wouldn't ?? How about that! You
must be a real agent, top of the class, in order to figure that one out !

Great detective work

[Agent 488]

Originally Posted by Press Release Pro

You wouldn't ?? How about that! You
must be a real agent, top of the class, in order to figure that one out !

Great detective work

read the article. they were having money issues from regular advertising so who knows?

[$5 submissions]

Should be interesting how this plays out

[EscortBiz]

users based reviews are junk

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by EscortBiz

users based reviews are junk

They also get ripped. Ripped without context = crap