True costs of Online Defamation Case and is it worth pursuing

[tonimoroni]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
I don't have a story where someone abused me on facebook chat or some internet bully is posting modified meme of my personal pictures on the web. I am a victim of true online defamation. The reason for posting my story here is to inform everyone to think twice before you even want to pursue such cases via legal option.

In todays age where everyone is ready to sue anyone at any point of time it is most important to know that MOST of the online defamation cases are no contingent. Basically you have to put high costs upfront to pursue such matter in terms of retainer and no attorney would work on contingent basis. The reason being that laws regarding privacy disclosure online are just too vague and unless you are NSA or FBI you virtually have no way of tracing someone unless you spend excessive amount of private funds and pursue it for ages. Unless you are a business and its a matter of survival, it is virtually impossible to find the culprit if they are smart and know the loop holes in the system.

In my case, I started off with a cyber crime investigator who basically charged me $2500 and came back with nothing. Absolutely nothing. The culprit had used fake ids and posted videos and bligs under my real name and took pictures from my facebook account. Accused me of being a terrorist, con artist, woman abuser, threat to national security etc. There was not a single web hosting website where negative things about me weren't posted an tagged including videos, pictures, fake twitter accounts and google blogs. All with the intention that anyone who would google my name would get this information on first 3 pages of the search results. Obviously for a person with my background where feedback and reviews decided my future projects this was a devastating experience. On one page of a link of my linkedin profile along with 20 different malicious links. There were even videos with women using my facebook profile pics and accusing me of infidelity.

I used a pretty reputable law firm and after 5k in retainer costs consumed in 2 months all i got was a complaint issued in local court (sub peona). Hopefully on the basis of which these hundreds of website will be approached regarding taking those links down. The sad part is that websites such as rip off reports etc wont bring down these negative links even with a court order. I dont know how much cost it will take to clear the results but it is a very long process which requires lots of patience.

I suggest parallely one should hire a web marketing company which posts negative links about you so that in 2-3 months the search results are flooded with positive information rather then negative. The only down side is that with bing and google search algorithm changing and based on traffic and clicks per link the results might vary every month. So chances are unless you have a company monitoring your search results it would be somewhat expensive in the long run. Also, it might be good idea to put google alerts against your name and family name so that if somone does tag you or post something negative about you, you get notified immediately rather than coming to know through coworkers and family members as in my case.

So if I have filed a complaint with FBI cyber crime division but they did not get back to me. Filed a DMCA take down request with google so that my private pictures from facebook are removed from these malicious links but they have turned down my request. Contact EFF to start an investigation but they didn't get back to me. So far there are no options. Unfortunately, if you are in a miserable situation as I am there aren't much options other than lawyers and they cost lot of money. So far I have spent $10k in legal and invesigative costs. Even if you have a clue who the person is there is no way you can link them because unless you are NSA or law enforcement you are simply not going to get the link between an individual and the postings because most of this work could be outsourced to outside of US and there are so many ways of ip spoofing and masking that it is virtually impossible to track a person. The culprits know that. In my case, I know my own brother and his friend did this to me and they even told me that they did something similar to their business competitor and couple of fake reviews and negative info wiped their competitor out of business but because THE LAW is too weak there is no way to trace them.

Only options are attorneys and as mentioned earlier they can be expensive. My current attorney is charging $400 an hr. I am not sure how long I can have him and based on his attitude looks like he isnt interested much because most of the online defamation suits have no juice in them for the attorneys. They make money through legal costs and it is fair but the real question is it REALLY worth it pursuing a legal case against someone who posted crap about you online and is harassing you on facebook etc. Only you can answer that question?

On a side know I would like to know how much in general does it cost to issue a subpeona to a website. Any cost estimate would be great. Also, my attorny has consumed my retainer and at the moment I am not sure if I can pursue further a charge of $400/hr. What should I do? My attornys are ignoring my emails regarding contingent discussion. They keep sending me a bill end of every month? Can any one assist me with options.

Thanks

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
I don't have a story where someone abused me on facebook chat or some internet bully is posting modified meme of my personal pictures on the web. I am a victim of true online defamation. The reason for posting my story here is to inform everyone to think twice before you even want to pursue such cases via legal option.

In todays age where everyone is ready to sue anyone at any point of time it is most important to know that MOST of the online defamation cases are no contingent. Basically you have to put high costs upfront to pursue such matter in terms of retainer and no attorney would work on contingent basis. The reason being that laws regarding privacy disclosure online are just too vague and unless you are NSA or FBI you virtually have no way of tracing someone unless you spend excessive amount of private funds and pursue it for ages. Unless you are a business and its a matter of survival, it is virtually impossible to find the culprit if they are smart and know the loop holes in the system.

In my case, I started off with a cyber crime investigator who basically charged me $2500 and came back with nothing. Absolutely nothing. The culprit had used fake ids and posted videos and bligs under my real name and took pictures from my facebook account. Accused me of being a terrorist, con artist, woman abuser, threat to national security etc. There was not a single web hosting website where negative things about me weren't posted an tagged including videos, pictures, fake twitter accounts and google blogs. All with the intention that anyone who would google my name would get this information on first 3 pages of the search results. Obviously for a person with my background where feedback and reviews decided my future projects this was a devastating experience. On one page of a link of my linkedin profile along with 20 different malicious links. There were even videos with women using my facebook profile pics and accusing me of infidelity.

I used a pretty reputable law firm and after 5k in retainer costs consumed in 2 months all i got was a complaint issued in local court (sub peona). Hopefully on the basis of which these hundreds of website will be approached regarding taking those links down. The sad part is that websites such as rip off reports etc wont bring down these negative links even with a court order. I dont know how much cost it will take to clear the results but it is a very long process which requires lots of patience.

I suggest parallely one should hire a web marketing company which posts negative links about you so that in 2-3 months the search results are flooded with positive information rather then negative. The only down side is that with bing and google search algorithm changing and based on traffic and clicks per link the results might vary every month. So chances are unless you have a company monitoring your search results it would be somewhat expensive in the long run. Also, it might be good idea to put google alerts against your name and family name so that if somone does tag you or post something negative about you, you get notified immediately rather than coming to know through coworkers and family members as in my case.

So if I have filed a complaint with FBI cyber crime division but they did not get back to me. Filed a DMCA take down request with google so that my private pictures from facebook are removed from these malicious links but they have turned down my request. Contact EFF to start an investigation but they didn't get back to me. So far there are no options. Unfortunately, if you are in a miserable situation as I am there aren't much options other than lawyers and they cost lot of money. So far I have spent $10k in legal and invesigative costs. Even if you have a clue who the person is there is no way you can link them because unless you are NSA or law enforcement you are simply not going to get the link between an individual and the postings because most of this work could be outsourced to outside of US and there are so many ways of ip spoofing and masking that it is virtually impossible to track a person. The culprits know that. In my case, I know my own brother and his friend did this to me and they even told me that they did something similar to their business competitor and couple of fake reviews and negative info wiped their competitor out of business but because THE LAW is too weak there is no way to trace them.

Only options are attorneys and as mentioned earlier they can be expensive. My current attorney is charging $400 an hr. I am not sure how long I can have him and based on his attitude looks like he isnt interested much because most of the online defamation suits have no juice in them for the attorneys. They make money through legal costs and it is fair but the real question is it REALLY worth it pursuing a legal case against someone who posted crap about you online and is harassing you on facebook etc. Only you can answer that question?

On a side know I would like to know how much in general does it cost to issue a subpeona to a website. Any cost estimate would be great. Also, my attorny has consumed my retainer and at the moment I am not sure if I can pursue further a charge of $400/hr. What should I do? My attornys are ignoring my emails regarding contingent discussion. They keep sending me a bill end of every month? Can any one assist me with options.

Thanks

What is the name of your state, or the name of your country if you are not in the U.S? Do you know in what state or country your "defamer" resides?

 

[cbg]

The FBI cyber crimes unit tells you at the time you file your complaint that you will not get a response.

 

[quincy]

The FBI cyber crimes unit tells you at the time you file your complaint that you will not get a response.

IC3 forwards complaints to agencies local to the complainant - and it will be up to these local agencies to determine how much of their time, energy and (limited) resources to devote to an investigation.

 

[cbg]

Not debating that. However, when I filed my complaint a few years back, there was clear notification that I should not expect a response. I have no way of knowing what transpired with regards to my complaint, but I was told up front that I wouldn't. I have no reason to believe that the OP was not likewise notified, since it was right there on the online reporting form.

Of course, just because it was there doesn't mean the OP noticed it.

 

[quincy]

Not debating that. However, when I filed my complaint a few years back, there was clear notification that I should not expect a response. I have no way of knowing what transpired with regards to my complaint, but I was told up front that I wouldn't. I have no reason to believe that the OP was not likewise notified, since it was right there on the online reporting form.

Of course, just because it was there doesn't mean the OP noticed it.

I would be surprised if someone didn't notice the statement. It is made clear when filing a complaint.

I might as well address tonimoroni's last question now, as it will remain the same regardless of the state or country. Costs vary. Attorney fees, court costs, the costs of a subpoena, the costs of a lawsuit ... all are dependent on so many factors that estimates are not worth providing. The average cost of a defamation lawsuit, for example, is somewhere in the $500,000 range now but this average cost does not accurately reflect the "regular person versus regular person" suit. How much a regular person will spend on pursuing a defamer in court cannot be determined at in a vacuum. Facts matter.

As an additional note to tonimoroni: Emails that are sent to your attorney and read by your attorney will cost you money. Use them sparingly.

 

[Silverplum]

The only thing anyone needs to know at this point, tonimoroni, is the name of your US state.

 

[tonimoroni]

I am sorry I thought I mentioned it. I am in TEXAS

The only thing anyone needs to know at this point, tonimoroni, is the name of your US state.

Guys,

Thanks for your feedback. Regarding the FBI complain, I have a coworker who once was scammed by someone online he met at a gaming forum and was duped out of $1000. He told me that the FBI agent followed up with him and told him that cyber crime unit investigates online scam like on ebay and those Nigerian scams. Tha'ts their main priority. So I know they look into cases. My case was probably not worth looking after since they probably know that I am not a threat to national security and its just some personal grudge which is not worth pursuing. Basically it impacts an individual and not just the community on whole.

I can tell you that the false personal information posted online was done by my brother and his friend. He confessed to me that his friend did it and told him he took out his business competitors this way. Those folks at xxxxx service said that the work is too professional. Basically, even after deploying ip traps, running facial recognition software of the women in videos accusing me to illegal relationship etc came back with nothing. Its not some disgruntled ex trying to use her personal email id or fb id online posting these blogs and uploading the videos. Unfortunately, the damage to my work life is really bad as compared to my personal life. If I had a business I would have gone out of business for sure but luckily in terms of job I have some real time references and the online marketing campaign is really pushing up negative reviews and non sense information further down the search pages.

Sorry I thought I mentioned that I am in TX but some reason it got missed. The culprit is my own younger brother who used to live 3 streets down the road. Based on the personal information he posted online it is obvious that only a family member would have access to such information. For example I have a blog under my full name which has my wedding photos and then it says that I am a con artist, I beat women, I am a threat to this country and I hate US etc etc. Actually people who know me spoke to me about it and they know its not true. If it were one or two links its ok but I am talking about 2-3 pages of forums, blogs, video upload sites, fake twitter accts full of my real pictures and false propoganda. According to my brother his friend who is an online marketing person/real estate agent did this and he basically did it for one of his competitors. There is no possible way of linking him to my brother.

Coming back to the attorney, they wanted me to file charges against my brother. No body had any proof and they wanted to do forensics and ask questions under oath and all that. I know that my brother can afford a good attorney as well and this would be a loosing proposition unless we had links to ip address or tieing up him with his friend. Even both the guys could lie and say they didn't ask each other to do all this. Bottom line is that the investigative work for such things costs lost of money. Law enforcements are not really interested which means it has to come out of personal costs.

My major concern right now is that after the subpeona have been filed, how do I back out because I dont have the resources. I don't want to email the lawyer so that he charges me while he sends me a reply. What should I do in this situation. Does it mean that I have doomed because I have signed an indefinite order for $400/hr service? There has to be a way out. I had a personal assessment as to how much loss I can take but at this point if just the subpeona costs $5k then I am not sure what will happen in the long run. If anyone can provide me options I would really appreciate it.

 

[tonimoroni]

I would like to add

I don't want to come across as some one who is arrogant to his lawyers and is being impatient but unfortunately I was not aware about the ongoing costs of such litigation. When I asked my lawyer he told me most of the cases like these costs $3500-$7000 and worst case it can go $20k & up if the defendent fights back etc. I don't have a defendent. John Doe is not going to fight back so what to do in such situation. Since most of you guys are with legal background can you please provide me some options. I cannot afford $500,000.00. Actually I can't even afford $20k. I dont want to go bankrupt just because I hired an expensive lawyer. How do I come out of this mess? I am coming close to a point where cost benefit doesnt add up by pursuing such case. Is there a way I can find flat rate lawyers or lawyers who work like immigration or ticket fighting lawyers. I don't even make close to the hourly fee that these guys are charging. There has to be a way out which does not result in me getting slapped with a law suit. Offcourse I will pay what I have to pay until I come out of this financial mess.

Scams on eBay and Nigerian scams are not the FBI's main priority. Child pornography, terrorist threats and, to a lesser extent, wide-scale counterfeiting and infringement, tend to be priorities. Most complaints that are filed with IC3, especially those that affect a single individual or a small group, will be "farmed out" to the states for their agencies to handle.

Ok I mentioned what was told to me by my friend. Since I am no expert I believe you are right.

I am sorry, tonimoroni, but I find it very very hard to believe what you wrote above. The xxx crime investigators did not deploy IP traps or run facial recognition software ... and, even in the unlikely event they worked on the defamation of a single individual in this way, you would not be hearing about what they did and didn't do.

Unfortunately this was the information given to me by the person working on my case. As mentioned earlier, I was not satisfied about the work done and demanded a refund which was not given. You can look up "xxxxx Services" in google. I have no intensions of making this up. They did run some standard background checks on my brother and found his address and stuff. That is about it. The consolidated list of 70+ sites which had malicious content in one huge pdf document and sent it to me. Worst $2500 ever spent and yes it was my fault

Interesting. I suggest you cut off all contact with your brother and your brother's friend. Tell your mother to tell your brother to knock it off.

I am doing that right now. I have even asked my mom to intervene and asked her to compensate me through my brother but she refused.

If law enforcement is not interested, then, yes, the cost will fall to you to pursue in a civil action the person who has published or is publishing false information about you. The police are not going to arrest and charge a person, and a prosecutor is not going to prosecute a person, without some evidence that the person did something illegal.

I thought the xxxxx service will find the evidence but unfortunately they didn't. I don't even know how to pursue getting evidence. I thought these sub poenas against "John Doe" on these websites such as google blogs and vimeo etc would force them to surrender ip address and remove my name from search results. At least thats what I was told. Thats the reason I went ahead with legal action. The attorney referred by this investigative guy works with them and now I know why I was referred. I didn't know what to do so I actually believed people who acted as if they will get things sorted out for me. I went on reddit and was scammed by some people claiming to find the culprit. I still believe that it is not that simple & easy for people to find evidence against online defamation. The process is very expensive & I wish people are informed in advance what they are getting into.

Send your attorney a letter (certified, return receipt requested) that formally informs your attorney that you will no longer be needing his services. Ask that he send to you a detailed, itemized bill showing all expenses he has incurred to date on your behalf, and how much is still owing. Pay what is owed.

I need to have a back up plan before I do that. I am not going to make a decision in rush so that I get to pay two attorneys at a time. I am waiting for the results of the sub peonas. I need to know what course of action these websites take and then I will decide what to do.

One other note about something you wrote in your first post: You said that you filed DMCA notices on the websites that had pictures of you and the websites refused to remove the photos. If you are not the copyright holder (the photographer), you need to contact the person who took the photos to file the notice. The website should comply with a properly submitted take-down notice (or risk being held liable for damages).

One of the pictures was from my wedding and was copyright. Two others were facebook pics taken with my iphone. Once again paid $250 at xxxx.org professional take down service and google refused to take it down. Looks like facebook pictures even though private do not constitute as copyright protected. The wedding pic was not even on facebook and it was shared with family members only.

I am sorry that you have a brother who wishes to attack your character in the way he has. Good luck.

Every thing has a reason. He is married to a woman for immigration purpose. My parents were unaware of it. I informed them and my mom had a heart attack because he is the youngest one and we usually do arrange marriage in our community. Mom got sick and my brother got pissed that I did this to him so he blamed my mom's sickness on my actions. I guess he has really good friends who believed him and all of a sudden I am the bad guy. It is what it is..

Thanks for you advice.

 

[quincy]

Guys,
Thanks for your feedback. Regarding the FBI complain, I have a coworker who once was scammed by someone online he met at a gaming forum and was duped out of $1000. He told me that the FBI agent followed up with him and told him that cyber crime unit investigates online scam like on ebay and those Nigerian scams. That's their main priority. So I know they look into cases. My case was probably not worth looking after since they probably know that I am not a threat to national security and its just some personal grudge which is not worth pursuing. Basically it impacts an individual and not just the community on whole.

Scams on eBay and Nigerian scams are not the FBI's main priority. Child pornography, terrorist threats and, to a lesser extent, wide-scale counterfeiting and infringement, tend to be priorities. Most complaints that are filed with IC3, especially those that affect a single individual or a small group, will be "farmed out" to the states for their agencies to handle.

I can tell you that the false personal information posted online was done by my brother and his friend. He confessed to me that his friend did it and told him he took out his business competitors this way. Those folks at XXXX XXX service said that the work is too professional. Basically, even after deploying ip traps, running facial recognition software of the women in videos accusing me to illegal relationship etc came back with nothing. Its not some disgruntled ex trying to use her personal email id or fb id online posting these blogs and uploading the videos. Unfortunately, the damage to my work life is really bad as compared to my personal life. If I had a business I would have gone out of business for sure but luckily in terms of job I have some real time references and the online marketing campaign is really pushing up negative reviews and non sense information further down the search pages.

I am sorry, tonimoroni, but I find it very very hard to believe what you wrote above. The XXX investigators did not deploy IP traps or run facial recognition software ... and, even in the unlikely event they worked on the defamation of a single individual in this way, you would not be hearing about what they did and didn't do.

Sorry I thought I mentioned that I am in TX but some reason it got missed. The culprit is my own younger brother who used to live 3 streets down the road. Based on the personal information he posted online it is obvious that only a family member would have access to such information. For example I have a blog under my full name which has my wedding photos and then it says that I am a con artist, I beat women, I am a threat to this country and I hate US etc etc. Actually people who know me spoke to me about it and they know its not true. If it were one or two links its ok but I am talking about 2-3 pages of forums, blogs, video upload sites, fake twitter accts full of my real pictures and false propoganda. According to my brother his friend who is an online marketing person/real estate agent did this and he basically did it for one of his competitors. There is no possible way of linking him to my brother.

Interesting. I suggest you cut off all contact with your brother and your brother's friend. Tell your mother to tell your brother to knock it off.

Coming back to the attorney, they wanted me to file charges against my brother. No body had any proof and they wanted to do forensics and ask questions under oath and all that. I know that my brother can afford a good attorney as well and this would be a loosing proposition unless we had links to ip address or tieing up him with his friend. Even both the guys could lie and say they didn't ask each other to do all this. Bottom line is that the investigative work for such things costs lost of money. Law enforcements are not really interested which means it has to come out of personal costs.

If law enforcement is not interested, then, yes, the cost will fall to you to pursue in a civil action the person who has published or is publishing false information about you. The police are not going to arrest and charge a person, and a prosecutor is not going to prosecute a person, without some evidence that the person did something illegal.

My major concern right now is that after the subpeona have been filed, how do I back out because I dont have the resources. I dont want to email the lawyer so that he charges me while he sends me a reply. What should I do in this situation. Does it mean that I have doomed because I have signed an indefinite order for $400/hr service? There has to be a way out. I had a personal assessment as to how much loss I can take but at this point if just the subpeona costs $5k then I am not sure what will happen in the long run. If anyone can provide me options I would really appreciate it.

Send your attorney a letter (certified, return receipt requested) that formally informs your attorney that you will no longer be needing his services. Ask that he send to you a detailed, itemized bill showing all expenses he has incurred to date on your behalf, and how much is still owing. Pay what is owed.

One other note about something you wrote in your first post: You said that you filed DMCA notices on the websites that had pictures of you and the websites refused to remove the photos. If you are not the copyright holder (the photographer), you need to contact the person who took the photos to file the notice. The website should comply with a properly submitted take-down notice (or risk being held liable for damages).

I am sorry that you have a brother who wishes to attack your character in the way he has. Good luck.

 

[tonimoroni]

Scams on eBay and Nigerian scams are not the FBI's main priority. Child pornography, terrorist threats and, to a lesser extent, wide-scale counterfeiting and infringement, tend to be priorities. Most complaints that are filed with IC3, especially those that affect a single individual or a small group, will be "farmed out" to the states for their agencies to handle.

Ok I mentioned what was told to me by my friend. Since I am no expert I believe you are right.

I am sorry, tonimoroni, but I find it very very hard to believe what you wrote above. The cyber crime investigators did not deploy IP traps or run facial recognition software ... and, even in the unlikely event they worked on the defamation of a single individual in this way, you would not be hearing about what they did and didn't do.

Unfortunately this was the information given to me by the person working on my case. As mentioned earlier, I was not satisfied about the work done and demanded a refund which was not given. You can look up "xxxx Services" in google. I have no intensions of making this up. They did run some standard background checks on my brother and found his address and stuff. That is about it. The consolidated list of 70+ sites which had malicious content in one huge pdf document and sent it to me. Worst $2500 ever spent and yes it was my fault

Interesting. I suggest you cut off all contact with your brother and your brother's friend. Tell your mother to tell your brother to knock it off.

I am doing that right now. I have even asked my mom to intervene and asked her to compensate me through my brother but she refused.

If law enforcement is not interested, then, yes, the cost will fall to you to pursue in a civil action the person who has published or is publishing false information about you. The police are not going to arrest and charge a person, and a prosecutor is not going to prosecute a person, without some evidence that the person did something illegal.

I thought the xxx service will find the evidence but unfortunately they didn't. I don't even know how to pursue getting evidence. I thought these sub poenas against "John Doe" on these websites such as google blogs and vimeo etc would force them to surrender ip address and remove my name from search results. At least that's what I was told. That's the reason I went ahead with legal action. The attorney referred by this investigative guy works with them and now I know why I was referred. I didn't know what to do so I actually believed people who acted as if they will get things sorted out for me. I went on reddit and was scammed by some people claiming to find the culprit. I still believe that it is not that simple & easy for people to find evidence against online defamation. The process is very expensive & I wish people are informed in advance what they are getting into.

Send your attorney a letter (certified, return receipt requested) that formally informs your attorney that you will no longer be needing his services. Ask that he send to you a detailed, itemized bill showing all expenses he has incurred to date on your behalf, and how much is still owing. Pay what is owed.

I need to have a back up plan before I do that. I am not going to make a decision in rush so that I get to pay two attorneys at a time. I am waiting for the results of the sub peonas. I need to know what course of action these websites take and then I will decide what to do.

One other note about something you wrote in your first post: You said that you filed DMCA notices on the websites that had pictures of you and the websites refused to remove the photos. If you are not the copyright holder (the photographer), you need to contact the person who took the photos to file the notice. The website should comply with a properly submitted take-down notice (or risk being held liable for damages).

One of the pictures was from my wedding and was copyright. Two others were facebook pics taken with my iphone. Once again paid $250 at DMCA.org professional take down service and google refused to take it down. Looks like facebook pictures even though private do not constitute as copyright protected. The wedding pic was not even on facebook and it was shared with family members only.

I am sorry that you have a brother who wishes to attack your character in the way he has. Good luck.

Every thing has a reason. He is married to a woman for immigration purpose. My parents were unaware of it. I informed them and my mom had a heart attack because he is the youngest one and we usually do arrange marriage in our community. Mom got sick and my brother got pissed that I did this to him so he blamed my moms sickness on my actions. I guess he has really good friends who believed him and all of a sudden I am the bad guy. It is what it is..

Thanks for you advice.

 

[TigerD]

I am sorry, tonimoroni, but I find it very very hard to believe what you wrote above. The xxx investigators did not deploy IP traps or run facial recognition software ... and, even in the unlikely event they worked on the defamation of a single individual in this way, you would not be hearing about what they did and didn't do.

My understanding was that the OP hired a private computer crime investigation service.

DC

 

[tonimoroni]

My understanding was that the OP hired a private computer crime investigation service.

DC

yes xxxx services. xxx I had lots of conference calls with these guys. I have no reason to make this up

Scams on eBay and Nigerian scams are not the FBI's main priority. Child pornography, terrorist threats and, to a lesser extent, wide-scale counterfeiting and infringement, tend to be priorities. Most complaints that are filed with IC3, especially those that affect a single individual or a small group, will be "farmed out" to the states for their agencies to handle.

Ok I mentioned what was told to me by my friend. Since I am no expert I believe you are right.

I am sorry, tonimoroni, but I find it very very hard to believe what you wrote above. The xxx investigators did not deploy IP traps or run facial recognition software ... and, even in the unlikely event they worked on the defamation of a single individual in this way, you would not be hearing about what they did and didn't do.

Unfortunately this was the information given to me by the person working on my case. As mentioned earlier, I was not satisfied about the work done and demanded a refund which was not given. You can look up "xxx Services" in google. I have no intensions of making this up. They did run some standard background checks on my brother and found his address and stuff. That is about it. The consolidated list of 70+ sites which had malicious content in one huge pdf document and sent it to me. Worst $2500 ever spent and yes it was my fault

Interesting. I suggest you cut off all contact with your brother and your brother's friend. Tell your mother to tell your brother to knock it off.

I am doing that right now. I have even asked my mom to intervene and asked her to compensate me through my brother but she refused.

If law enforcement is not interested, then, yes, the cost will fall to you to pursue in a civil action the person who has published or is publishing false information about you. The police are not going to arrest and charge a person, and a prosecutor is not going to prosecute a person, without some evidence that the person did something illegal.

I thought the xxx service will find the evidence but unfortunately they didn't. I don't even know how to pursue getting evidence. I thought these sub poenas against "John Doe" on these websites such as google blogs and vimeo etc would force them to surrender ip address and remove my name from search results. At least that's what I was told. That's the reason I went ahead with legal action. The attorney referred by this investigative guy works with them and now I know why I was referred. I didn't know what to do so I actually believed people who acted as if they will get things sorted out for me. I went on reddit and was scammed by some people claiming to find the culprit. I still believe that it is not that simple & easy for people to find evidence against online defamation. The process is very expensive & I wish people are informed in advance what they are getting into.

Send your attorney a letter (certified, return receipt requested) that formally informs your attorney that you will no longer be needing his services. Ask that he send to you a detailed, itemized bill showing all expenses he has incurred to date on your behalf, and how much is still owing. Pay what is owed.

I need to have a back up plan before I do that. I am not going to make a decision in rush so that I get to pay two attorneys at a time. I am waiting for the results of the sub peonas. I need to know what course of action these websites take and then I will decide what to do.

One other note about something you wrote in your first post: You said that you filed DMCA notices on the websites that had pictures of you and the websites refused to remove the photos. If you are not the copyright holder (the photographer), you need to contact the person who took the photos to file the notice. The website should comply with a properly submitted take-down notice (or risk being held liable for damages).

One of the pictures was from my wedding and was copyright. Two others were facebook pics taken with my iphone. Once again paid $250 at DMCA.org professional take down service and google refused to take it down. Looks like facebook pictures even though private do not constitute as copyright protected. The wedding pic was not even on facebook and it was shared with family members only.

I am sorry that you have a brother who wishes to attack your character in the way he has. Good luck.

Every thing has a reason. He is married to a woman for immigration purpose. My parents were unaware of it. I informed them and my mom had a heart attack because he is the youngest one and we usually do arrange marriage in our community. Mom got sick and my brother got pissed that I did this to him so he blamed my moms sickness on my actions. I guess he has really good friends who believed him and all of a sudden I am the bad guy. It is what it is..

Thanks for you advice.

 

[quincy]

yes xxxxxx services. xxx. I had lots of conference calls with these guys. I have no reason to make this up

Oh. My misunderstanding. Sorry.

I would not have recommended such a service.

The way to handle defamatory postings online is to, first, contact the websites where the defamatory material appears and request the removal. Some sites will comply upon request alone.

To "unmask" an anonymous online poster, you will generally need to subpoena the account information. To do this, a court will generally require you file a suit against a "John Doe" and present a "prima facie" case, where the missing piece in the action in order for the action to go forward is the real name of the John Doe defendant. With the court convinced there is a case that can withstand a motion to dismiss, the court will issue the subpoena which will be served on the website. The website will comply with the court order and disclose the identity of the anonymous poster after notifying the poster of the subpoena. The anonymous poster has the chance at that time to "quash" the subpoena with good arguments to the court that his/her identity should not be disclosed. These arguments often fail.

Once you know the identity of your defamer, you can proceed with the case against him or her and either win or lose the case based on its merits.

To get to that point can be costly, both in terms of time and money. If you have an attorney working for you who is experienced in online defamation claims, you have an advantage in that the case will generally be presented well and it should be shorter - and this helps reduce costs. If you hire someone who doesn't know what he is doing, on the other hand, the initial costs may be less but the costs for the attorney to do the necessary research rise rapidly.

Again, for photos of you that are posted online, you file (or the copyright holder files) DMCA takedown notices and most sites will comply with the notice.

To reveal the identity of an anonymous online poster, you subpoena the website for the information.

For a defamation action, you hire a competent attorney who will work to get your defamer to compensate you for the injury to your reputation.

I think that having the derogatory/defamatory material moved to page two or three on an internet search of your name was smart. I also think if what was posted about you is so absurd as to not be believed, it probably won't be believed. There is a lot of nonsense posted on the internet and the person who posts it tends to look far worse than the subject targeted with the nonsense.

Send your current attorney or the investigative service the letter, as advised earlier, saying you wish to stop all service - if you wish to have them stop their work on your behalf.

Good luck.

 

[tonimoroni]

Oh. My mistake. Sorry.



(I had another post composed that was much longer than this, but it is being reviewed by moderators for some reason? If it doesn't show up, I will start all over again )

Yes please read my post #9 it has answers to your comments