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Defamation campaign against Web of Trust
Mon 15 Jun 2009 10:12:04 AM UTC — Esa S.When I checked my email on Saturday morning I noticed that my Google alert had picked up several postings with false and defamatory information on WOT and me:
http://hubpages.com/hub/esa_suurio
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200906...
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/esa-suur...
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/461/RipOff04...
Based on the similarities between these postings, this defamation campaign against Web of Trust has been launched by a single person or a company. Two quotes:
"CEO Esa Suurio is ripping off each and every one of his users. He is stealing the identities of the users and selling it to the highest bidder, and then hiding it all behind foreign laws."
"Scammer Esa Suurio has quite the racket going on here. He's a self called "serial entrepreneur" but should more correctly be called "serial scammer". He uses the complexities of international law to hide his crimes, but INTERPOL or the FBI should do something to shut these people down.
As you can see, these lies are spread as if I myself had posted them, which is good for the search engine optimization but certainly hurts credibility ;-)
They can throw stones at us, but they can't stop the Web of Trust!
When I started at Web of Trust back in August 2007, WOT had some 70,000 downloads. Today we have 5 million downloads, and many players in the Internet security field regard us the leading provider of website safety ratings. Besides friends and supporters, this success has brought us many enemies among scammers whose illegitimate businesses get hurt when their scams are revealed by WOT.
These crooks, hiding in the dark corners of the Internet, will do their best to distract and cause disturbance, but we will not give up! This libeling proves that Web of Trust has succeeded in what it has been founded for, making the Internet safer for us all. It also proves that the work of each community member really makes a difference. Let's keep up the good work!
Proof-of-concept?
Wow, that's really scary! On the other hand, imo, it just goes to show that WOT is really working. I think that ultimately scammers are just "shooting themselves in the ankles" as the Finnish expression goes.
Thanks for the good laughs that reading a couple of those posts gave me. They had awesome "facts" behind their accusations :) Keep on rockin'!
O poder do usuário na web
O que está acontecendo com o Web of Trust é a prova de que realmente o site presta um serviço de grande relevância para o usuário onde sua vontade é expressa de forma democrática. Na minha página vou colocar um tópico sobre isso.
The power of user in web
What Web of Trust is happening with the Web is the test of that really the quick site a service of great relevance for the user where its will is express of democratic form. In my page I go to place a topic on this.
O plantio é opcional, mas a colheita é sempre certa.
Deborah Salmi
It's unfortunate the original poster at answers.yahoo.com has the name of Deborah Salmi.
Misusing Deb's name
The person who posted the question to answers.yahoo.com deliberately misused Deborah's name. Deb is our employee and would never post anything like this. The same thing has been done in SiteAdvisor ad well, and we have requested them to remove the comment or at least Deb's name. Knowing SiteAdvisor it probably takes them 6 months to correct!
The question in yahoo has already been removed.
You'll be Lucky!
I wonder what will happen 1st - our Olympic Stadium is finished or Site Advisor
respond?
The only reason some of us persist with rating for SA is because we know a lot
of users rely on it for site ratings, and some good info can be gained from other
reviewers there.
The problem seems to be that they have no staff or moderators.
There is life at SA
I'm amazed - Spoof Deborah comment has been removed by SA staff already.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/mywot.com
mmartin42 or whats his name
Don't worry, when I was still in SiteAdvisor, I remember this person named mmartin42 person rated WOT a bad site because I mentioned that WOT has his website (usinfosearch.com) rated red on mywot.com's SiteAdvisor scorecard, and he decided to spam some red ratings. I contacted SiteAdvisor and they have sent me an e-mail saying they have removed the comment.
Here was his message:
Hello,
Thank you for your concern. We are looking into this matter, and have already taken some actions.
Sincerely,
Andrew
Customer Support
McAfee SiteAdvisor
------------------------
Please reply directly to this email for all future correspondence pertaining to this issue.
Glad to see SiteAdvisor still active on 2008, too bad not now...
Just MyWOT and SpywareBlaster, I guess... Found a malicious or fraudulent website? Rate it at WOT ASAP! Found a game hacker? Report it to the game's anti-cheat team! Infected with a virus? Delete it with an antivirus =P
Just look at this then
The Kazaa spammers have been reported to SA by several reviewers, but they dont remove this
hxxp//www.siteadvisor.com/sites/kazaa.com/msgpage?page=7#reviews
RE: Just look at this then
@Shazza I am very sorry that these comments exist on the web. If there is any way resolve these issues I will. The issues fall into two categories
1. How can Kazaa's content/purpose change be recognized
2. The comments on SA will be removed
RE: Just look at this then
Comments were removed from SA as requested
Re: Misuse of name
My guess is that this type of question [in Yahoo] is not a question, but a work of a troll.
If you watch your back, beware what is in front of you.
WOT wins
It is deplorable that the crooks behind these resort to such low levels.
Web of Trust is something that the criminals and those that promote 'scareware' programs and many other scams do not like as they are soon found and rated appropriately.
The honest sites and webmasters have nothing to fear and wrong decisions are soon overturned. The dishonest and unscrupulous have much to fear as WOT is a growing force around the world and has unity in numbers.
I support WOT, the team and the members wholeheartedly and will continue to do so.
Colin
http://freepcsecurity.co.uk
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it" - Winston Churchill
Thank you!
Colin, thank you for your support!
Riiiiiiiiiiight...
WOT steals your identity every time Firefox is a virus, Yahoo acquires Google, or my port 1337 website becomes more popular than Microsoft.com.
IT DOESN'T.
~Ben
Edit: BY THE WAY,
I don't see anything about "browsing history" in the quote:
“Background information such as age or gender is used to provide statistical information about website preferences.”
Hmmm... We tell WOT our age and gender if we want to, and that somehow counts as our identities being stolen as well as our browsing history and credit card numbers?
This is like the "dihydrogen monoxide is bad for your health" campaign. It only works when people don't actually read the article.
stormfront
I've seen this exact flame post elsewhere and I've been trying to think of *where*
Well, this proves one thing, WOT is getting popular and the bad guys are feeling the effects of their sites negative ratings
I replied to the blog post and to complaintsboard.com then I went over to ripoffreport
I noticed the location of the "report author" bein in Alabama - then it hit me!
stormfront.org - that's where I've seen this post.
Here is what I posted as a rebuttal at RipOffReport.com; though I'm not sure it will get posted. I'm not about to give accurate contact information to any website who requires so much PII (name address phone number, do I want to be contacted by lawyers, etc...) Oh, and I said I was an "Employee with inside information" LOL.
First, the the fine folks here at ripoffreport.com - apologies that this has come your way; small-minded people such as the originator of this "report"
To the White Supremacist from www .stormfront.org who posted this defamatory and false "report" concerning WOT - Web of Trust:
Since stormfront.org has been identified as a hate site and rated Low on Web of Trusts' rating system I see that WOT is successfully deterring your traffic to not only stormfront.org but also the dozens of other domains Don Black is in control of. The fact you are posting here is proof of that.
You've spammed this identical thread to several forums, blogs, yahoo answers and even over at complaintsboard.com Grow up. Stop spamming good sites with your flames on good people and the positive services they provide to others.
As for your concerns on how WOT makes money... You should read how Michael Widenius, founder of MySQL, invests in WOT
(http://www.mywot.com/en/blog/132-michael-widenius-...
Or what... is MySQL now a big phishing scam too?
-------
Against Intuition - gives us safety through Web of Trust.
WOT Community - gives us security through unity.
Thank you all
G7W {G.O.M}
http://g7w.net/
Trolls
Hey Esa,
don't feed the trolls. Do you all remember the 'arguments' between WOT and *a certain person from Germany*?
His reaction was exactly like this blog entry, and moreover called it exactly the same: A "difamation campaign" launched by a few 'criminal' persons.
I think this kind of reaction showed how vulnerable people can be or not be to such attacks. I mean, we all know how the story with that person went on, don't we? He clearly expressed how easily this made him feel insulted. If he had just ignored it, it would not even have come as far as it has come by know - a legal battle between two parties.
I think WOT should not show that it has taken notice of that and taken it seriously. We don't want to end up at the same level, ...do we?
Of course, since we all know that this is certainly not a revenge attack from a certain person... ;-|
No big deal
Hi you, it's not a big deal, but we want to keep our community and supporters informed about attacks that are made against us. That is just one way of being open and transparent.
Who is the person posting nasty things?
Obviously WOT is not a scam.. Who is the person posting the nasty comments? What is their website(s) etc?
Peace
---------
Jared Gray
We are not sure
Jared, check out G7W's posting above, that is one possibility.
WOT will live
I have no idea how those scums would even try to do this, maybe Siteadvisor isn't a threat to them?
I seriously doubt they will be able to shut down WOT unless they bring AK-47's to WOT's server and shoot it down manually.
As for feeding the trolls, looks like they are feeding us, it's not fun being mocked or shamed by someone else, and I bet they want us to feel this way, maybe the best is to feed the trolls. (or make them go to SiteAdvisor or SafeWeb, away from WOT)
Just MyWOT and SpywareBlaster, I guess... Found a malicious or fraudulent website? Rate it at WOT ASAP! Found a game hacker? Report it to the game's anti-cheat team! Infected with a virus? Delete it with an antivirus =P
SANS ISC thumbs up
Well, if the SANS Internet Storm Center handlers endorse WOT, http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=6592
Who really cares what these folks write anyways...
WOT will definitely live.
How much would complaints affect WOT if only by doing a deep search in google for them would they show up?
And btw, I saw something that kinda shocked me.
On http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/esa-suur..., a chap named ilicpro commented positively: Total drivel! This complaint is a joke.
As you can provide WOT with any info you like, even fake ID if you choose I fail to see what they could possibly know about you that you dont want them to know. unless you're visiting illegal sites.
If you have a problem with sites tracking your surfing why are you not attacking google analytics or your ISP who both track your EVERY move!
Wonder if its really ilicpro coming back to help us?.......
Or maybe its Super-antivirus with another of his false profiles.
But if its really ilicpro, then thank you, ilicpro, for giving a positive rebuttal to this complaint. Maybe you have finally grown up :)
You'll Never Walk Alone
This guy is Pathetic! And his scheme has failed
All I can say is, what goes around comes around. I mean really, who has nothing better to do all day then make fake comments on a website they know is safe but are trying to lie about.
And really, the reason I said "all i can say is," is because believe me, there's a lot worse things I want to say...
But this guy just lost his credibility. Look what he wrote as a comment on ripoffreport.com:
"There's evidence and then there's 'internet proof.' Do I know what I say is true? Yes. Do I have evidence. Yes. Is that evidence on the internet. No. But the truth is the truth and I only speak the truth. If you have the time to actually dig through records, like for real and not in a Google hunt, you will reach the same conclusions I have.
Why does Firefox still allow MyWOT to run its scam? Simple. Ask yourself when the last time was you paid for the firefox software. Why do you people trust that these very rich people give away this stuff for free?
I admire your loyalty. But trust me, like so many others in this country, you loyalty is poorly placed. Think for yourself and you'll see the truth."
He called Firefox unsafe, which just comes to show how phoney this guy is.
I tried replying, but they never published my comment. I didn't think it had that many curse words in it :)
No, I'm just kidding, no curse words. Although I might have said psycho.
We rate the websites, the WOT staff creates, and advertises the add-on, and together, we make it all happen.
Funny how they all seem to come from HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA
No name?
Same location?
Consistent message trying to degrade WOT?
They got WOTroll'd.
Only explanation to their desperate measures.
Go WOT.