May 10, 2018 – Apple Valley, CA – ReviewFraud.org posted a claim that one of my clients and myself have been submitting fake reviews. See their post for the details:
http://reviewfraud.org/harbor-breeze-cruises-long-beach/#comment-71536
This is the response to the accusations submitted as a comment on their blog.
I am the “SEO company” stated in this blog post or more accurately the IT/IS Consultant for my clients. I found this post while performing some reporting routines. I’m obviously disturbed by the accusations and would like to present the situation from my perspective.
Contrary to what was stated by ReviewFraud.org, I have been open, honest and straightforward with my communication with ReviewFraud.org staff as I am with any of my clients, associates and the liking. My integrity is part of why I’ve been in business for over 20 years.
My client, Harbor Breeze Cruises, has been in litigation with a competitor for several years which includes a judgment in favor of my client supporting their claim of unfair marketing tactics. In other words: they won a lawsuit against a very crooked company. Unfortunately, the legal matters are ongoing as the competitor seemingly doesn’t care about the lawsuit or the fact that they lost. They breached the judgment thus creating more legal issues and another lawsuit is now pending.
I’ve been tasked to gather facts and evidence to support my client’s case in these ongoing legal matters. I noticed the competitor had numerous questionable business reviews. I contacted ReviewFraud.org, which I assumed was an expert with fake reviews and has litigation experience in such matters. I was completely shocked when a couple days later ReviewFraud.org accused MY CLIENT and MYSELF of posting fake reviews.
ReviewFraud.org claimed to have found fake reviews on my client’s online profiles and threatened to turn us in. It turns out one of the claimed fake reviews was an old friend of my client whose review and other reviews are documented by my client’s staff.
My client NEVER paid for fake reviews. My client’s staff NEVER posted fake reviews. My client NEVER encourages fake reviews. I DO NOT participate, practice or encourage fake review postings for this client or any of my clients. Furthermore, It would be INCREDIBLY STUPID for me to consult ReviewFraud.org to assist with such matters for my client if my client or I practice anything as claimed by ReviewFraud.Org.
Considering the fact that ReviewFraud.org made an inaccurate claim upon my client, I took the liberty of reviewing some of their claims accusing other businesses of posting fake reviews.
I directly contacted a significant sample of the hundreds of businesses listed on reviewFraud.org. My discovery found that although ReviewFraud.org did, in fact, accurately depict several businesses posting fake reviews, there are numerous businesses who are falsely accused. These businesses could not post fake reviews because they do not have the capacity to do so. Such businesses generally fall into the following profile:
– The business owners/managers are technically challenged
– They do not know how to access or manage their online business profiles (i.e. Google Places, Yelp)
– They do not know how to respond to online reviews of their own business
– They never heard of ReviewFraud.org until I mentioned the website to them
I believe the efforts of ReviewFraud.org are well intended. I don’t believe they intentionally mean to deceive. I don’t believe they mean to harm anyone who is naive or innocent. However, ReviewFraud.org have gone way overboard with their hundreds of public accusations of posting fake reviews when many if not most of these accused businesses do not have the capacity to do so. With that, I question the credibility and lack of professionalism demonstrated by ReviewFraud.org. Needless to say that I do not recommend ReviewFraud.org services for what should be obvious reasons.
To prove my own credibility, I will leave my contact information and an invitation to contact me directly regarding such matters as I have nothing to hide.
Dan Harley,Jr.
c/o PrimeConcepts for Internet Solutions
danharley@primeconcepts.net
ph: 760-247-4814
Respectfully;
Dan Harley,Jr.
NOTE: As of May 10, 2018 @ 10:20 AM PDT the comment above which was submitted the day before HAS NOT been approved for posting on ReviewFraud.org. This is beyond our control.
