Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Michael Fertik Writes Foreword for Google Bomb! An Explosive New Book!


Pre-Order Google Bomb on Amazon.com today!

Our society has reached an all-time low. Simple keystrokes can now literally ruin lives, reputations, and cause years of suffering, and require exorbitant amounts of time, money, and sanity to rebuild a life and/or career that has been shattered by cyberbullying, Internet defamation, identity theft, privacy invasion, and so much more. There is even a term that has emerged into our lexicon that describes the practice of manipulating the ranking of web pages: Google Bomb.

Sue Scheff knows first hand about the devastating effects of Google bombing and Internet defamation. Her reputation was destroyed and she almost lost her business because of false and libelous statements about her and her business that went viral. Falling into a deep depression accompanied by agoraphobia, Sue could not escape the abusive attacks from strangers and the paranoia that accompanies such abuse. However, she fought back, and sued the figure head who launched the attack campaign and was awarded a jury verdict of $11.3 million–a case that has set the precedent for a massive debate on Internet regulation vs. free speech and Internet etiquette and safety policies.

Because there is so much to navigate and know about the unknown and mostly unchartered legal territories of Internet usage, Sue has rounded up some of the world’s most preeminent experts on the newly emerging business of Internet law, including attorney John W. Dozier. In Google™ Bomb, Dozier and Scheff offer a hybrid of memoir and prescriptive self-help, as well as a timely call to action that will arm readers with what they can do to avoid falling victim to cyber abuse, rebuild their own ruined reputations, or avoid unknowingly committing a crime against strangers on the Internet.

Written with two markets in mind: those hundreds of thousands of people who are victims of Internet harassment and cannot afford legal council to help clean up their reputations, and those who have built a career, business, and personal reputation and want to be armed with protection and prevention techniques that will help them avoid falling victim to cyber bullies, hackers, e-vengers, and Phreaks.

The true-life story of Sue Scheff’s landmark lawsuit and the lessons she learned coupled with invaluable expert advice from a top Internet legal and reputation defense expert, Google™ Bomb is a heavy-hitting, one-of-a-kind book that will likely spark debate, controversy, and save lives at the same time.

Michael Fertik, CEO and Founder of ReputationDefender which is one of the pioneers of Online Reputation Management Services, writes a compelling, informative and engaging foreword. This book is a book that will touch almost everyone that uses the Internet today.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tweet Tweet! You’re Fired!


MSNBC and other mainstream media outlets have picked up on the Cisco Fatty story that involves a woman getting fired for her twitter post. Quoting from the page:


Why waste valuable social networking hours getting yourself “Facebook fired,” when Twitter allows you to humiliate yourself quickly, and in 140 characters or less?


A recent tweet by one would-be Cisco employee proves that when it comes to placing a permanent black mark on your resume via the Internet, Twitter is now the tool of choice. To illustrate, here’s the tweet the now Web-infamous “theconnor” shared with the world:


“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”


It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a “channel partner advocate” for Cisco Alert, shared this open response:


“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.”


Was “theconnor’s” job offer rescinded? Nosy netizens have yet to suss that out — but they’re doing their darndest to make “theconnor’s” life miserable in the meantime. It didn’t matter that “theconnor” almost immediately set his Twitter account to private and deleted all information from a home page. It was already too late.


Twitter is a great tool to connect people and ReputationDefender supports the emergeant micro-blogging platform. Users should be aware that potential employees are viewing online messages and that the material they post online can both help and hurt their online reputation.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Reputation Defender: A Necessary Service in Today's CyberWorld




Defending reputations may be good business


Defending innocent victims who have been slimed on the Internet is not only a righteous cause, it might be good business. At least that's what VCs who are pumping money into ReputationDefender appear to believe. The 3-year-old Redwood City company, which assists people in removing libelous, egregiously offensive or privacy-invading material from Web sites, is well on its way to raising $5.3 million from investors. "We've had 10 quarters of growth," said CEO Michael Fertik."We're getting more customers, and they're spending more." The current economic climate may have something to do with it.


One of ReputationDefender's services, enabling customer-written resumes to show up prominently on search engines, has proven to be a particular money spinner. "As people are looking more and more for jobs, they are more concerned with what may be being said about them on the Internet," Fertik said.ReputationDefender's investors so far include Maple Investments in Menlo Park and European Founders Fund from Germany.


Sunday, April 5, 2009

ReputationDefender Blog: Identity Theft Made Easy with Twitter



Source: ReputationDefender Blog

In case you didn’t already know, Twitter is the latest “it” fad in the world of social media. From Demi Moore’s suicide prevention tweeting to the news of a potential Google-Twitter merger, it seems that not one week goes by without a major news story about the popular microblogging service.

Unfortunately, it isn’t all wine and roses at Twitter. Since the service emerged in 2006, one of the consistent complaints against it has been the ease with which individuals can set up phony accounts in someone else’s name. With such a large volume of users, it is impossible for Twitter to monitor each individual sign-up for validity. This means that someone could send out hundreds of tweets under your name, before you caught on. That’s what happened to Televangelist Robert H. Schuller, whose Twitter problem was discussed in a recent article at MSNBC.com.


From the article:


Televangelist Robert H. Schuller has reached millions worldwide with his weekly “Hour of Power” TV broadcasts, but when it comes to the Internet, he had a high-tech headache: an online impostor.


When Schuller, the founder of the Crystal Cathedral megachurch, recently tried to set up an account on the micro-blogging Web site Twitter.com, he discovered another user masquerading as himself.


[SNIP]
Schuller’s impersonator — who remains unidentified — seemed to know a lot about that history and the preacher’s life, said Nason, the spokesman. The impostor said in his early tweets that he was Schuller’s assistant, but then went on to say he was Schuller himself and even talked about the preacher’s wife, Nason said.


“The content seemed fairly normal for someone like Dr. Schuller to say,” Fayer said. “But in the future you don’t know how they’re going to use that. What if they start asking people to send money and say, ‘Send money to X,Y,Z’?”


The rest of the article details several other prominent phony Twitter accounts including a fake Stephen Colbert and a fake Tina Fey.


While it may not seem like a big deal to some, it is important to note that Reverend Schuller is a very prominent individual with a PR staff dedicated to catching issues like this. For the average person, it could be months before a Twitter fraud is exposed. That is why it is more important than ever for individuals to take full control of their image online and be proactive in Online Reputation Management.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Michael Fertik Discusses Online Reputation Management Services with NPR


As my new book is getting ready to be released, you can’t ignore the importance of Online Reputation Services and what they can offer to all people - whether it is protecting your children online, maintaining your reputation in cyberspace or simply having a positive online image. These services are priceless and many know my story and my success with ReputationDefender. I feel I have to say, I am not their spokesperson, nor do I receive any referral fees from them, but as a victim and survivor of Internet Defamation, I can personally attest their integrity and concern for keeping you safe in space.


Source: ReputationDefender BlogRecently the CEO of ReputationDefender, Michael Fertik, was featured on NPR - take time to listen to his sound and informational advice.