I want to tell you about a business reputation management tool extraordinaire, that I have invested nearly 6 years in making. It is as simple as doing a search on Google and it is, by far and away, the most valuable and important tool you will find on the internet to help you keep your online reputation intact and I can’t wait to describe it to you in all of its glorious detail.

The problem: how to access important, good quality, up-to-date and free advice on online reputation management of your business when you need it.

The answer: A dedicated Internet Law Google search engine.

Let me explain.

A few years ago Google came up with a very clever idea. They rent you their best ever, most accurate search engine and you customise it to only deliver relevant search results on a specific topic.

So I got one of these clever search engines and I put into it everything I could find that I had said, learned from, written, published and unpublished about internet law as well as other high quality articles written by others that I found the most useful for my work as an internet lawyer.

In total, 6 years of arduous labour, put into one single search engine.

Here was my goal, my idea:

At any time, for any specific purpose, you could go right to the proper article in this special search engine and get a quick, concise answer – what would an experienced internet lawyer say about this?

So, let’s say you’re spending a marketing budget to persuade 10 or 10,000 prospects to accept your proposition or buy your products. You then notice that a competitor or a disgruntled customer has written on the internet a number of unpleasant reviews about the quality of the service that your company provides. You could instantly yank me into the room and get a quick download of my best advice and strategies for dealing with online defamation, webpage removal, and cease and desist letters.

Or let’s say you’re about to raise investment for your business and you’re worried that credit agencies will search the internet and find defamatory or unflattering comments about your business. You get me to instantly beam down into the chair next to your desk and reel off my very best suggestions for making these unpleasant comments disappear from the search results as quickly as possible.

Or, you’re about to get on the phone and negotiate the removal of a nasty review from a website written by a particularly difficult customer. But you realise that you are being blackmailed because the customer wants something in return for removing their review from the popular site. Blink your eyes and – zap – there I am, to go over a handful of key ideas about winning in negotiations of such nature.

I’m at your beck and call. Anytime. As needed. As often as needed.

Many of my clients and colleagues have been asking for a resource like this for years. Maybe you’re one of them. It’s finally here. Now you can keep me on the shelf right next to your desk, ask me an internet law question any time you want to, and get an instant answer.
The index is darned near magical. Putting together the index was almost as herculean a project as was doing everything else.

Click here to immediately find an answer to your Internet Law question!

This is a detailed, cross referenced, highly organised, easy to use index, so you can get from question or topic to answers fast.

In this Internet Law Google Search Engine I’ve identified 979 different questions that most businesses owners are likely to seek answers to during a major or a minor situation of online reputation crisis.

Here’s just a tiny sampling of the gems to be found in the dedicated search engine:
1. I am a victim of online defamation – do I need an injunction?

2. What do I need to do to make my business compliant with recent changes in social media?

3. Why some bad reviews appear so high in search results?

2. The reason why I should not click on links to defamatory search results

3. What are the 5 most essential steps I need to follow when I face internet defamation against my business?

4. What are the dangers to my business in obtaining injunctions to stop online defamation?

5. What are the new laws about internet trolling and why are they relevant to my business?

6. Can a business be bullied online?

7. What type of court orders are best to avoid?

8. How can a website still be visible many years after it was deleted and how does this affect the way I should approach internet defamation?

9. How can I reduce the chances of defamation being committed by my employees?

10. What is the first thing that I need to do when an employee steals my customer list?

11. What sort of language and tone is best do use when responding to a derogatory online review?

12. The truth about removing defamatory webpages with SEO.

13. How to go about removing defamatory articles from complaints websites.

14. What is the very first thing I need to do if I find my business listed on a complaint’s website?

15. How do I find out who owns my company’s domain name?

16. What are the essentials of an effective corporate reputation crisis management strategy? – a blue print.

17. The three most important foundations of every cease and desist letter

18. Can Google be sued for displaying defamatory search results?

19. Is it possible for a listed company to sue a shareholder for defamation?

20. Why is it important to obtain disclosure orders against Go daddy from one particular court that is based in Arizona?

21. Is it worth suing a poser of defamation who uses investor’s forums to defame a listed company?

22. What exactly is a Google Bomb and how do I defuse it?

23. How can I tell if I am about to become the victim of an online reputation attack before the attack occurs?

24. What is the best method to respond to a defamation cease and desist letter?

25. What is the relationship between online reputation management and the use of social media?

26. I am a victim of defamation on the internet. Any advice?

27. Is a forum host liable for defamation that is being posted by the users?

28. Chat websites and blackmail – how not to become victim

29. What is the difference between a defamation lawyer and a social media lawyer?

The above is just a small sample of the questions you can ask me at any time, day or night.

Click here to immediately find an answer to your Internet Law question!

Wake Me Up In The Middle Of The Night

Go ahead: worry me endlessly with your questions. Poke me in the side and ask me questions about internet law all day long. Like a circus sea lion who does a somersault every time a dead fish is waved over its head, I will leap to alertness, ready and eager to give you my very best ideas, advice and answers at a moment’s notice, any time, as often as you desire. That’s what visiting my dedicated Internet Law Google Search Engine enables you to do.

Click here to immediately find an answer to your Internet Law question!

Search engines give priority to websites that attract the most traffic so remember that every click counts!

By Yair Cohen

Internet Law Centre

 

Google page rank

Online defamation

Many victims of online defamation do not know what to do when they have discovered that they are being defamed online. It is essential to act appropriately so that you do not cause further damage to your reputation.

I have put together 5 simple steps to follow for those who have found themselves victim of internet defamation. These effective actions will ensure that you are taking the right steps to dealing with the defamation quickly and effectively.

1) Be discreet. Try and tell as few people as possible about your online defamation issue. The more people you tell the more popular the link will become resulting in it to be placed higher on search engines. Although you may automatically want to tell family and friends try not to because … read more and the other 4 tips on our new social media solicitor blog.

Perhaps you then decided to write an online review to warn others. Did the owner of the restaurant then commence a campaign of harassment against you referring to you in a defamatory manner?

This is exactly what happened to Elayna Katz, a 42 year old woman who had wrote an online review about Mambo Nuevo Latino restaurant in Ottawa, Canada.  The owner, Marisol Simoes then hit back at the review and started a 2 year campaign to humiliate Katz. She branded Katz as a “lonely, unstable, sexually insatiable transsexual”.  Simoes had also set up a dating site under Katz’s name and sent various emails impersonating her. Katz described this ordeal as a very embarrassing time.

Simoes was then charged by Ottawa police under Canada’s defamation laws which are rarely used.  She was found guilty of 2 counts of libel and was sentenced, facing up to 5 years in prison.

This further highlights the dangers of posting an online review and the defamation it can prompt.  In this case it was the owner of a restaurant who was harassing a reviewer but in other cases online shoppers might be targeted with internet defamation. See our blog post Is Amazon a compassionate organisation?

Related articles

• Defamation on reviews (defamationlawyer.co.uk)
• Restaurant owner found guilty of defaming customer (Canada) (internetdefamation.co.uk)
• Top 5 Food Crimes of 2012 (friendseat.com)

• Find  out as much as you possibly can about the capacity of the individual or company which are responsible for defaming you online. Are they a blogger? A “professional” self-appointed individual? Are they a competitor? The more you understand about their practices, motives and technical and financial abilities the more accurate and effective your response to internet defamation would be.

• Evaluate the risk to your business by refraining from taking any particular action. Never act impulsively or upon advice which is not based on proven experience and understanding of the issue. Carefully consider the best, worst, and most likely consequences of the various options which are available to you to defeat the defamation on the internet.

• Consider all your available solutions and in particular the legal, technical and social solutions to the defamation issue and always look at the big, long term picture.

• Develop a strategy based on all of the above and never react sporadically.

Follow this simple guide because it is important that you get things right first time round as there might not be a second chance.

Internet Law Centre gives all the advice you need on internet defamation.

You may have suddenly discovered that there is something defamatory written about you or your company over the internet.  You may, perhaps out of anger, respond to that post without thinking through the long-term consequences. If so, you may have just made the situation a thousand times worse with serious long term implications to your organisation.

It is not always a good idea to respond to negative comments on the internet.  Although you may feel the immediate urge to defend your reputation, consider your reaction carefully. If you decide to respond, you will need to plan what you say and ensure that anything that you do say will not cause you greater problems in the future. Defamation lawyer Yair Cohen says that the last thing you probably want to do is to enter into a never-ending dialogue with your accusers.

It is best to avoid using explicit language or to come across as defensive.  If you are responding on behalf of a company you will have to be aware that whatever you say may have a huge effect on the company’s reputation and even on its share prices.

Responding to negative comments could attract search engine results to the original defamatory post.  This means the comments you do not want people to see will become more visible on the web, drawing more attention than if they were simply left alone. This would then seriously damage your reputation, or your business, which could lead to huge consequences.

Whatever you decide to do, don’t gamble. Obtain professional advice immediately as you become aware of the defamation on the internet and follow it through.

Visit the Internet Law Centre to read tips on internet defamation.

Related articles

• Internet Defamation. What does a Modern Internet Defamation Lawyer Do?
• Defamatory search results on Google
• Yelp review lawsuit is much more important than most realize
• High Court grants orders to identify firm’s anonymous online accusers
• Australian judge orders Google to pay $208,000 in damages for defamatory search results

via Defamation Solicitors: Internet Defamation in 53 seconds.

via Defamation Solicitors: How to avoid defamation by employees and former business partners.

The situation is urgent, but what should you do?

Internet Law Centre

You do a little research but find conflicting advice: Hire an SEO expert! Hire a PR consultant! Talk to someone experienced in e-commerce sales! Get yourself a lawyer!

But whose advice should you follow? And how much is this going to cost you?

Finally, there is a straight answer to these questions !!!

You find the answers in a centre where you can learn, understand and balance all the different issues that affect the management of your organisation’s internet reputation and where you can find case studies, support and plenty of valuable advice on managing your presence on the internet.

Please be my guest at the Internet Law Centre.

Yair Cohen, defamation lawyer

Internet Law Experts Solicitors

Related articles

• Internet Defamation. What does a Modern Internet Defamation Lawyer Do? (internetlawexpert.co.uk)
• Internet defamation risk management (defamationlawyer.co.uk)
• Should you respond to defamatory web posts? (defamationlawyer.co.uk)
• Defamation Lawyer on Websites’ Haven (yaircohenuk.com)
• Internet Law Experts: One Very Effective Way to Deal with Defamation on a Complaint Website. (yaircohenuk.com)
• Social Media and Networks Give Rise to Internet Law Specialty (hispanicbusiness.com)
• Online Reputation Attacks by Former Employees: Important Guidance by Defamation Lawyer Yair Cohen (yaircohenuk.com)

How to effectively communicate to employees important changes such as redundancy…

Best practice incorporates the company’s reputation management policy into any process of redundancy. Otherwise the company should accept short and long-term loses in revenue following online reputation attacks by former employees.

Read in full BEST PRACTICE to help you avoid online reputation attacks on Defamation lawyer website.

By Yair Cohen

Defamation Lawyer

Internet Law Centre.

The Internet Law Centre

Over the years I have noticed that there is a difference between the approach taken by traditional defamation lawyers to the one preferred by modern internet defamation solicitors to solving internet defamation issues. There is no good or bad here but at the same time, from the point of view of the client, the difference is enormous.

To a large degree, traditional defamation law and online defamation law are  two different areas of law altogether.

This is why, sometimes, old-fashioned defamation advice in relation to internet defamation, could backfire in the sense that even if the case is won at court, the defamation may still remain and even increase in volume. This can hardly be good news for the defamation victim.

If you search the Law Society’s website for a lawyer that is an expert in online defamation law or for a solicitor who specialises in internet law, you will find that your search produces zero results. The closest you will get to finding a specialist online defamation lawyer is by searching for a defamation solicitor. You are then likely to find a relatively small number of specialists defamation law firms, many of which are based in the City of London.

The traditional defamation lawyer’ work is more ‘textbook’ based, which means it follows well established legal principles of defamation law, some of which have become out-dated over the past few years.

Many of the traditional legal tools have hardly evolved over the past 100 years and they are being practiced by traditional defamation solicitors whose knowledge and understanding of the internet world is slightly greater than that of the average person on the street. After all, solicitors normally learn the practical aspects of their work from their supervising solicitor in the law firm and these tend to be very senior lawyers indeed, who might find the internet world a little bit overwhelming.

The Internet Law Centre

So what has changed? Why might traditional defamation legal solutions not be compatible with modern online defamation? 

It is obvious, isn’t it, that before one attempts to resolve a problem, one must first fully identify and understand the causes of it and if these causes are not deeply understood, then one might find oneself in the place of a patient with a sore eye who goes to receive treatment from the most expensive and highly prestigious brain surgeon in town. With respect, brain surgeons know very little about sore eyes and the last thing you would want the brain surgeon to do, is to open your brain up to try to administer medicine to your sore eye. In such a case, one can expect nothing but general deterioration in one’s health with the original sore eye now constituting the least of one’s problems.

Over the past 100 years or so, the law of defamation has been developed by expert judges over countless court cases, mainly involving newspapers and book publishers. Broadly speaking, the playing teams who developed our defamation laws used to be very well read and highly experienced judges, a small number of newspaper publishing groups and a few highly paid lawyers, largely based in the City of London.

Pick up a text-book on defamation law in England and you will see that the same names of the parties involved in many of the defamation cases are repeated over and over again. The composition of the parties involved in defamation cases used to be almost set in stone and this is why reading a traditional defamation law text-book could feel like a Déjà vu. You read time and time again about the same judges, the same lawyers and the same defendants. It used to be a small world…. Now this has all changed. 

When appearing in court on matters of online defamation, the players can hardly recognise one another any longer. As a result of the dramatic increase in defamation cases, the number of Judges who are sitting on such matters has increased. And because of the different nature of the modern online defamation, a new breed of defamation solicitor has started to emerge.
This new breed of online defamation solicitor is very different to the traditional defamation lawyer, who used to almost exclusively occupy the court rooms. The modern online defamation solicitors are highly technically skilled, are incredibly internet savvy and they tend to possess vast knowledge of IT related matters.
Modern online defamation solicitors pay a great deal of attention to the psychological aspects of online defamation. They build psychological profiles of offenders and some of them are even NLP trained, which means they can tailor an individual approach to each act of online defamation by analysing the personalities of the offenders and by then dealing with each and every one of them in a personalised and highly effective manner.

Modern defamation lawyers are increasingly entrepreneurial-like in their approach to solving the problem at hand.

They approach online defamation issues from legal, technical and entrepreneurial angles and their solutions are not necessarily confined to local legal issues but are much more versatile. They tend to focus on obtaining successful results and workable solutions for their clients, who primarily, want their reputational problem to disappear rather than seek damages.

This refreshing approach which is often taken by the modern online defamation solicitors is pretty much in line with the latest technical developments and is reflective of their client’s needs. They understand the fact that winning a defamation case through the courts, may not be sufficient on its own, for their client’s on-going online defamation problems to completely disappear or even not to reoccur soon after the legal battle was won.

The Internet Law Centre

This is another reason why modern online defamation solicitors spend so much of their time researching and genuinely trying to understand some of the underlying roots of each specific online defamation issue.

The use of personalisation by modern defamation solicitors, together with their ability to effectively communicate technical issues to their clients, makes it easier for them to find effective solutions to online defamation issues. And because of their deep-rooted understanding of the law as well as of technical matters, they are managing to develop personal relationships with key people in the social medial organisations and within the internet world, relationships which help them to affect the removal of websites, posts and comments with relative ease.
The ability to speak the same language and to effectively communicate with internet service providers is probably the most important asset of a modern online defamation solicitor because the reality is, that it is much cheaper and more cost-effective to facilitate the removal of material off the internet via dialogue than through legal action.

Lastly, many of the defendants who are now involved in online defamation cases are different in nature from their predecessors. In the past, most defendants in defamation law cases were editors of major newspaper titles, whilst currently defendants in online defamation cases are, generally speaking, normal people like your neighbour across the road who possesses very limited legal skills and experience.
They sometimes appear in court in person, without a lawyer to represent them but with a lot of passion instead. The defamation courts now allow litigants in person to even use video links, whenever regular travel to the court room is not practical for them.

Traditionally, the playing field where defamation was created was very small in size. Newspapers, textbooks and letters, mainly published in the UK used to provide the main source of defamation cases. The old players in defamation law cases were therefore acting within some sort of comfort zone, limited both in size and in scope. This allowed the traditional defamation law solicitors to develop expertise within a very limited field of the defamation law.

This has now changed because the scope of defamation law has been widening. An opportunity to defame exists almost everywhere you look: on websites, blogs, forums, social media, emails and other online forums. Furthermore, defamation can now be initiated from anywhere in the world and be transmitted instantly worldwide. Defamation law is no longer a local or a national matter. Very often it involves cross jurisdictional issues which means the modern online defamation solicitor must have a sound knowledge of multi-national laws.

Modern online defamation solicitors spend hours upon hours researching, studying and investigating their playing field and they must, in addition to having a sound understanding of the law, be vested with specific knowledge of how the online world works and operates. They must be able to speak the language, be fluent in the jargon and fully understand the way things work on the internet, as well as the mechanics which cause online defamation to be created and then spread across. And to enable them to keep up with the rapid changes that are occurring on the internet, modern online defamation solicitors must now possess a rare combination of skills, which include legal, analytical and technical and they must maintain these skills constantly afresh.

It is not surprising therefore that some of the old fashion defamation solicitors, who for many years had been successfully scoring time and time again within a ‘Mini Football field’, are finding it difficult now to keep up with this rapidly changing area of law.

Whilst traditional defamation solicitors have almost always enjoyed the benefit of being trained up by their firm’s experienced defamation law partner (hence the reason why lawyers from other, smaller practices have in the past found it difficult to enter this field of law), much of the knowledge and skills of the modern online defamation solicitors have been acquired independently and by sharing experiences with colleagues all over the world.

In other words, internet law and online defamation law are not subjects which are taught at law schools. They can only be mastered by constant usage and by plenty of practical experience.
One of the reasons why many modern defamation solicitors acquire their unique skills independently, is that there was no one around to teach them these skills, because these skills are not traditionally associated with solicitors’ work. They are not listed in legal textbooks and are highly technical. In fact, many of the special skills that effective online defamation solicitors must possess are not necessarily legal skills but are skills which did not really exist up until very recently.

These skills are not written (yet) into textbooks and neither are they taught on legal courses. Knowing your law well is one thing, but understanding the magic that makes pages appear on or disappear off the internet is a completely different matter so it is not surprising at all that some traditional defamation lawyers are finding it a bit difficult to adapt and participate in this new arena.

Goodbye Damages Hello Damage Limitation or The Trophy is not gold-plated any longer

Traditional defamation solicitors are lawyers not IT specialists, not SEO gurus, not detectives and very often not NLP trained. And because one can only teach what one knows, trainee solicitors in some traditional, corporate like law firms might not receive the opportunity to enhance skills which are not strictly speaking, regarded as legal skills.

Training in large law firms is normally confined to the legal matters and legal matters alone. Modern online defamation solicitors, on the other hand, have always enjoyed the freedom to learn, to study and to pursue knowledge, without the constraints that sometimes exist within old-fashioned law firms, whose focus tends to be directed more on the production of billable hours almost from day one.

This is why modern internet defamation lawyers can offer their clients much more than traditional thinking and traditional legal genius. They possess skills, which are not normally associated with traditional corporate-like, old-fashioned defamation solicitors. And furthermore, it is important to note that most victims of online defamation, regardless of the size of their organisations, are looking for an online defamation solicitor with technical, psychological, investigative and inter personal skills in addition to the traditional legal abilities.
Wining a defamation case for a client is without a doubt considered to be the ultimate result for most defamation solicitors. This is one of the reasons why highly expensive and emotionally charged legal proceedings on behalf of lucrative clients, have been the bread and butter of some of the old-fashioned defamation law firms. But this has now also changed.

Many victims of internet defamation are now measuring success by using a different formula altogether.
Because of the immediate and potentially disastrous consequences of online defamation to their businesses, (regardless of size), victims of online defamation, tend to measure success in relation to the speed by which their business can be brought back to normal operation.

Most victims of online defamation have little or no time at all for highly expensive and everlasting defamation trials. By the time their defamation trial comes to an end, there might be nothing left of their business reputation. It is no longer about damages: it is now about damage limitation. 

Court actions for defamation could constitute a serious distraction for the entrepreneur who invariably understands that a lawyer, with even the greatest possible advocacy skills, cannot bring him his business reputation back following a successful defamation trial. Court actions for defamation are considered by most entrepreneurs as ‘last resort’ options.

This is why modern internet defamation solicitors tend to commit their various special skills to help solving their client’s immediate online defamation issues, whenever possible, outside the court room and it is now clear that what many victims of online defamation consider to be a good result is not only the fast disappearance of defamatory comments from the internet, but also the learning which follows from a successfully defeated online reputation attack and the help and support which they receive from their internet lawyer, which helps them build up new systems and processes to prevent or at least minimise future online reputation attacks on their business.

Written by:  Yair Cohen

The Internet Law Centre

Related articles

• €6,550 for lawyer defamed in letter (independent.ie)
• Internet Law Experts: One Very Effective Way to Deal with Defamation on a Complaint Website. (yaircohenuk.com)
• Restaurant owner found guily of defaming customer (Canada) (internetdefamation.co.uk)

You get hit left, right and centre and with very little opportunity to defend yourself.

It is very difficult to describe the moment where you first realise that your business reputation is being tarnished all over the internet. This unforgettable moment normally follows by many sleepless nights, tiredness, frustration and of course money problems.

You see, some of your employees are likely to possess impressive amounts of knowledge about you, your business, your practices, your procedures, your errors, mistakes and regrets, as well as about your true feelings about things that matter to your customers.

You get hit left, right and centre and with very little opportunity to defend yourself.

In the meantime, the online defamation attacks are starting to increase. Links are being shared between people and more defamatory material is now being…. Read more on Online Defamation

Yair Cohen Internet Lawyer

Jeff Clark, a husband and a father to three young children age 3, 6 & 10 has always loved cars. He has been fixing them since he was 12 and has worked in local garages around the Manchester area for many years now……

Read full story on Defamation Solicitors website

One day, Jeff received a telephone call from a chap by the name of Herald Keller, who worked for one of Jeff’s regular suppliers in Germany – the largest wholesaler of second-hand Saab car parts in Europe. Herald Keller told Jeff that his employer was not going to supply Unique Vehicle Suppliers with parts anymore, because there was too much ‘bad stuff’ about Unique Vehicle Suppliers on the internet and that the name of Hines’ employer started to get tarnished as well through some of the very negative internet posts. Basically, there was so much negative publicity on the internet about Unique Vehicle Suppliers that Hines’ employer started to get concerned about his own company’s reputation

Read full story on Defamation Solicitors website

As a hospital administrator has become the first man in the UK to be jailed for stalking a woman by blogs, internet law expert, Yair Cohen says that it seems that the authorities have now sent a strong message to all those who wrongly believe that the internet is a lawless land where stalking, bullying, harassment, defamation and blackmail are a fair game and have demonstrated that online harassment shall not be tolerated in our society.

In a case which was heard by Magistrates in Manchester, a 38 year old man, Stephen Andreassen continuously attacked his female victim by using no less than 35 website blogs in which he repeatedly insulted her, causing her upset and reputational damage. Andreassen also used emails to harass his victims as well as social networking sites such as Facebook.

“It is not surprising at all”, says one of the UK’s leading internet legal experts Yair Cohen, “that it took the authorities 18 months before Andreassen was finally jailed. By this time, his victim must have been completely destroyed

I strongly advise to take cases to the High Court and to obtain a comprehensive injunction within 48 hours.

mentally and emotionally. Her confidence must have been shattered and her trust in people would have been replaced with cynicism and weariness. Had this hate campaign been conducted offline, I have no doubt that the authorities would have acted much quicker to bring it to a halt.

By the time Andreassen was jailed he had already appeared in court on a number of occasions. On one occasion, after he admitted harassment, an order was made against him to refrain from mentioning his victim’s name on any websites. Again, it appears it took some time before this very limited court order was made and even longer, before breaches were dealt with.

“It is very likely,” says Yair Cohen “that had this been a case of domestic harassment, where more traditional methods of harassments were being used, the victim would have been relieved from her pain much, much earlier. It seems to me that the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Magistrates’ Courts are not yet ready to effectively deal with these sorts of online harassment cases. The civil courts however are much quicker to act in response to online harassment cases with injunctions being granted within days rather than months and years. I strongly advise victims of online harassment,” says Yair Cohen “to take their cases to the High Court where solicitors can obtain a much more comprehensive injunction on their behalf within 48 hours. There is no need for victims of online harassment to suffer for such a long time before the harassment is stopped.”

Despite him being jailed, a large number of the defamatory blogs that Andreassen created against his victim still remain active and are visible to the entire world to view. Yair Cohen says that a properly prepared High Court injunction would have ensured that the blogs and websites were removed by the internet service providers and that once such an injunction was granted, it could last for life, preventing anyone from taking part in the publication of material which is prohibited by the court order.

During his online campaign of harassment, Andreassen boasted of being so skilled in IT that he could set up and manipulate blogs about Miss Pattinson quicker than they could be deleted.

“It is not unusual for IT skilled individuals to blackmail their victims by making threats to destroy their victim’s reputation unless certain demands being met,” says Yair Cohen. “The police have seemed to so far, failed to recognise the fact that this form of blackmail is a criminal offence, mainly out of ignorance and lack of resources. In my law firm we take these sorts of threats very seriously and we make sure that we articulate clearly to the perpetrators of such online threats, the civil as well as the criminal implications of their actions.”

“It is not surprising at all”, says one of the UK’s leading internet legal experts Yair Cohen, “that it took the authorities 18 months before Andreassen was finally jailed. By this time, his victim must have been completely destroyed, mentally and emotionally. Her confidence must have been shattered and her trust in people would have been replaced with cynicism and weariness. Had this hate campaign been conducted offline, I have no doubt that the authorities would have acted much quicker to bring it to a halt.”

via Grooming Of Men On The Internet « Internet Law Expert.

Many men whether rich or poor, married or single go chatting and in most cases quite innocently. It is just another way for many to relax from the days chores  and have a relaxing conversation with other online chatters. It is normally a friendly place which at times, as you will find out, could become very dangerous indeed.

What many of these men don’t realise is that there are some dangerous predators out there, ready to eat them alive. Not literally but also not very far from that.

These dangerous predators I am talking about

Grooming Of Men On The Internet « Internet Law Expert.

Chances are that this is the first time you are hearing about this issue and that what is to follow as you read on has no direct relevance to you at all. In fact, you might even be a woman and this story is about men being groomed online.

Later on, you will see  why we have decided to make  all our clients and colleagues aware of this terrible issue and if, as I expect, this subject is completely foreign to you, please do pass this note to other men you know and care about. You could be doing them a big favour.

We hear a lot about young girls being groomed on the internet by older men.  This is of course one of the most disturbing subjects concerning internet use. What we do not hear about however, and what you are just about to discover as you read on, is the ease by which  men, of all ages, are  being groomed by women over the internet, having their photos, videos and personal details stolen and then spread over websites of a certain nature all over the world.

In short, there are some free forums on the internet for people to chat about anything and everything.  Naturally these forums tend to be regarded as ‘meeting places’ where people talk to strangers, exchange ideas and look for relationships, virtual or otherwise. One of these forums is called Chatabox. You can join up for free and then, you can start chatting immediately.  You can chat to almost anyone who is online at the time. I am not singling out Chatabox and I do not suggest the website owners are doing anything wrong. There are other similar websites which offer free chat and Chatabox is a very popular one and all those who came to me for advice following their horrific experience which I will describe below, have mentioned Chatabox as the place where their nightmare started.

Many men whether rich or poor, married or single take part in chatting and in most cases quite innocently. It is just another way for many to relax from the days chores  and have a relaxing conversation with other online chatters. It is normally a friendly place which at times, as you will find out, can become very dangerous indeed.

What many of these men don’t realise is that there are some dangerous predators out there, ready to eat them alive. Not literally but also not very far from that.

These dangerous predators I am talking about are women who have conspired to groom men and take them away from the chat site, where their identity can be revealed quite easily, to a private chat programme such as MSN Messenger , AOL Messenger or  Yahoo Messenger, where they intend to seduce their victims into performing compromising acts, totally naked, in front of a webcam.  Unbeknownst to their victims, the predator will capture the video, save it to their computer, edit it and then post it on hundreds of websites, the nature of which is obvious.

But there is still worse to come.

The way the operation appears to be working is this:  initially the woman will hunt for her victim. She will try several men before finding one who appears to be naïve so far as internet usage is concerned. The predator women do not look for perverts or men who are regular visitors to certain type of websites as these men tend to be far more suspicious and much more discrete. They hunt for an easy prey instead.

Their typical victim will be a school teacher, a dentist or a police officer. The initial conversation will be very innocent. It tends to be about work, family, location and so on. Suspecting of nothing, the victim will often divulge their children’s names and the name of the company they work for. Naturally, once they have given this sort of information, the men become even more trusting. It is a psychological thing that sharing personal information accelerates the feelings of trust that we feel about our partner to the conversation.

Then the woman speaks about herself and surprise surprise it transpires she and her victim have a lot in common. They both might be a bit lonely, they both could have some marital difficulties to resolve and they both are likely to be craving for love and affection.  Neither of them of course will contemplate having an extra marital affair mainly because of their loyalty to their family.  At the suggestion of the woman predator, the conversation will then move to a private chat programme such as Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. This will break the ‘continuity of evidence’. Whilst on the public chat, the parties can relatively easily be traced through their account registration details. This will be almost an impossible task with a private chat programme. The move from one chat programme to another will also break the link between the grooming and the shocking action which will follow.

The conversation will continue on the private chat programme and will turn more and more personal until it becomes purely suggestive.  Eventually the victim will be encouraged to perform a compromising act on himself on camera so that the predator, whose job is almost done can “watch, participate and enjoy”. Once the compromising act is concluded the chat will come to its abrupt end by the predator simply switching off the programme at her end.

What happens next is very interesting and is probably beyond most people’s comprehension.

Following the video conversation which was fully recorded by the female predator onto her computer, she will compile several video clips and will give them titles such as

‘John Smith From 91 Cleveland  Lane Road, London, A GP and Child Molester Fxxxg Himself In Front of School Children’ as well as other similarly colourful commentary.

She will then post these videos on to several websites including YouTube and distribute them to countless other websites all over the world.

The victim will wake up in the morning to a new reality. He will first find an interesting email in his mail box from an unknown email address with a short note by his predator and a video attachment.

Having watched the horrific video, most victims will immediately carry out an internet search against their own name only to discover that their worst fears have been materialised.  By this time, the links which contain the videos have gathered so much popularity, especially following their distribution to the entire world by blogs and emails, that sometimes almost the entire first page of a Google search could be full of links to these videos, each time with a different title and commentary.

A total nightmare.  If the victim is married, he will now need to speak to his wife and explain how he allowed this situation to happen. This you can imagine would be quite a challenging task in itself. It could be a matter of time before his employers will find out, the kids, other family members, the neighbours, business associates or even some thugs who would believe that he is really a child molester or a paedophile.

At this stage the victims normally seek legal advice. They want to know what would happen if or rather when certain people discover these videos, in particular their employers. With most employers, it is a sackable offence to bring their organisation into disrepute.  Naturally, when we speak to the victims, many of them are in a state of extreme shock.

Before we deal with any other issue which troubles them, we give priority to the immediate removal of the videos from the several video hosting websites.  This could be done fairly quickly but of course the sooner we act the better because as time goes by, the number of links tend to increase and so does the popularity of the videos, as well as the number of people who copy these videos onto their personal computer and could potentially redistribute them in the future. The removal of these videos does not however guarantee that they will not reappear in the future.

It is important that the victims sign up for a monitoring system which operates 24/7 to give early warnings of any future distribution of their compromising videos. Potentially, these videos can reappear on the internet at any time in the years to come. In any event, with the internet, it is all about speed speed speed so the priority is to have these videos removed from video hosts sites as quickly as possible.

I cannot tell for sure what is the precise motive behind the action of the predator woman, but having lately seen so many of these cases I have no doubt that there is indeed a system behind this operation and I am almost convinced that the female predators do this for money.

In legal terms, all the victims in such cases have a cause of action in the courts, particularly for breach of privacy. Although legal action could eventually lead us to the predators’ identity this would be very costly and will bring further unwanted attention to the matter, and with it, further reputational damage to the victims. In cases such as this, any publicity is bad publicity.  The police  are unlikely to be willing or able to intervene, mainly because of lack or resources and due to the fact that victims choose not to lodge a formal complaint.

I will leave it for your imagination to picture the devastation this could cause someone. I have seen male victims changing their name and moving to a different town in order to avoid detection. I also witnessed families falling apart and men feeling suicidal following their involvement as victims in this sting.

Legally, little can be done to go back in time. No level of compensation will persuade any man in his right mind to pursue such a matter through the courts. Sometimes keeping your head down is the best advice to follow.

What is left is for us to spread the word, inform the public and educate people to be more vigilant whilst chatting on the internet. You have to remember that the vast majority of the men who find their lives falling apart as a result of being groomed, are innocent victims who were perhaps guilty of being naïve or even a bit reckless, but are certainly not sexual offenders or perverts and do not deserve the potential  life sentence which they may  have to serve day in and day out.

I am not condoning the use of internet chats by married men to look for virtual extra marital affairs. This is a subject of another conversation. However, everyone would agree that it is important to educate both adults and children about some of the dangers of internet chat. These are the dark sides of our new global society and they are not likely to simply disappear. It is only by having people such as yourself passing on this information to others that we can make the internet a safer place for both ourselves and to the next generation.

More internet law updates that could affect you and people you know

POST UPDATE:

Warning: Blackmail And Extortion Of Men On Internet Chat Rooms. Latest Update

By Yair Cohen

So what does the term “Google Bomb” really mean, how can a Google Bomb affect you or your business and what can you do to protect yourself from being a victim?

Find a ‘live’ example of a mini Google Bomb on my Internet Law Expert blog.

Follow this link to read the full article on How To Create A Google Bomb

Internet Law Experts: What Is A Google Bomb | Internet Lawyers | via Internet Law Experts: What Is A Google Bomb | Internet Defamation

How Can I Remove Defamatory Websites

In the past few weeks we removed over 40 defamatory websites, which up until then, devastated our clients’ reputation.

We removed a vast number of defamatory videos from You Tube and we managed to remove a popular, yet defamatory article against a successful businessman from a national news website.

We sought and won injunctions against YouTube, Google Inc, Firefox and other internet giants around the world and successfully enforced them all in the UK, the USA, Canada and other countries.

We gave one decent, hard-working online retailer his business back following savage online reputation attacks against him and his company by competitors.

We advised a client who owns an international franchise company on how to deal with online attacks by a former employee. These constant attacks were estimated to have cost the company in excess of £300,000!

 
We have also helped the owners of a national services company to form their first ever online reputation strategy following a devastating online reputation attack against them by both a competitor and a former employee, which cost them their biggest contact.

Last month, we brought solutions to an ever growing number of vulnerable people following online reputation attacks against them. We devised creative and cost effective solutions. Some of these individuals thought that it would cost them a fortune to stop these online attacks on their reputation, but pleasantly enough for them, many of them were completely surprised.
The full solution to their online reputation problem was handed to them during an initial consultation, which meant that they needed not spend any money with us, save for their investment of £93 in the initial consultation.

Other individuals saw their problem quickly disappearing following a well drafted and extremely effective letter (sometimes 2), which we sent on their behalf.
Other individuals, who were on the verge of giving up and who came to us with serious online reputation problems, sometimes following years of attacks on their reputation online, finally found that no reputation issue, as big as it might be, is beyond our competence.

But we also brought to them solutions for any future problems. To prevent the problem from repeating itself, we created a unique tool that gives them early alerts of any posts about them on the internet.

It brings any internet posts that carry yours or your company’s name, directly to the desk of our highly experienced legal team, and in real-time.
The material then undergoes an initial assessment and then if necessary, is acted upon.
We do this all for you with no hassle or inconvenience to you. Should the material posted be suspected to be harmful to your reputation we take swift action to contain the problem and often to make it completely  disappear.

Follow this link to learn more about the exclusive our reputation management tools. 

http://www.internetlawcentre.co.uk

We have solutions to almost all online reputation problems. Some of these solutions are fast, others take more time to implement. But what we are sure about is that you will get results (and more quickly), if you use people who are hugely experienced in this very delicate areas of law and business.

We are ready to take on your online reputation problem.

Internet Lawyers

Related articles

• Search Engine Reputation Managers Is Now Offering A Complimentary Online Reputation Audit For Businesses (prweb.com)
• Online defamation Crisis Management (defamationagainstacompany.co.uk)
• Balancing Online Reputation Management and Freedom of Expression (unblawandtech.com)
• Reputation Changer: Complaints, Defamation Cannot Go Ignored by Businesses (virtual-strategy.com)
• The essential 5 steps when responding to online defamation (defamationlawyer.co.uk)
• Why not to click on the link where you are being defamed (defamationlawyer.co.uk)
• ISPs and defamation law: hold fire, Robert Jay | Ashley Hurst (guardian.co.uk)
• Social media lawyer gives 5 essential steps to dealing with online defamation (yaircohenuk.com)

Business Internet Defamation

9 Steps To Avoid Defamation By Employees And Former Business Partners.

Defamation lawyer Yair Cohen says that during their employment, former employees and business partners are likely to have access to sensitive information about the company, and in some cases, evidence of minor wrongdoings by their employer or business partner. They might be in possession of vast amounts of information about you, your family, your personal life, your business practices and some of your past mistakes and errors. They may now use this information
against you.

Defamation lawyer advise on the 9 essential steps to avoid defamation by employees and by former business partners.

Step 1:
While you can’t entirely eliminate the possibility of breach of trust by
former employees or business partners, you can reduce the likelihood of
becoming a victim to online defamation. Here are some important steps
you should take as a precaution: Always remember that employees and
business partners come and go. Someday they will no longer be with your
company, but their memories of you will not end with their employment.

Step 2:
Place a high value on personal integrity and trustworthiness when
assessing a new business partner or employee. Skills may be acquired,
but integrity cannot. It is gold, and value it as such.

Step 3:
Always look for signals of disgruntlement among your employees, listen to their concerns and act to fix matters quickly.

Read Full post on Internet Law Expert Blog

via 9 Steps To Avoid Defamation By Employees And Former Business Partners.

Defamation lawyers for business