Sue Scheff: More praises for Google Bomb book

I am so overwhelmed at that fantastic reviews Google Bomb is receiving. Yesterday McClatchy-Tribune wrote a wonderful review:

Read it: Google Bomb' aims to protect you from information age trolls

I have received many emails and calls from people all over, singing the praises of Google Bomb. My last caller just told me she ordered 20 copies to share with business associates, as they are now experiencing the effect of a Google bomb from one disgruntled client.

Take cover early - learn how to protect your online image and your cyber resume today!

Sue Scheff: Why people are praising Google Bomb book

· Who should purchase Google Bomb?

Every person with a name and reputation which they wish to protect should purchase this book. You don’t have to be a technological titan to understand the examples provided. The take-away knowledge provides you a fighting chance to protect, and when necessary, reclaim your reputation. My adage re family online safety is: “Invest in your family’s online safety, commensurate with the value of your family.” This book’s modest price is asymmetrical to the increased value you’ll experience in your reputation safety quotient.

· Why you should purchase Google Bomb

Google Bomb is road-map clear, no missed exits, nor wrong turns, no questionable advice. It is an arrow in your quiver, so that you may defend yourself and/or prepare yourself should you have the unfortunate experience of receiving the vile ill-will of another via the social media environment in which we collectively exist – you do have a fighting chance.

· How Google Bomb touched me

Only infrequently does a book cause a reader to experience a personal visceral reaction; for me, it’s happened only once before. Google Bomb, the telling of Sue Scheff’s personal story in the recovery of her good name and reputation, is such a book, it moved me, and it will move you. Allow me to explain.

Those who know me well will have immediate understanding why a book which charts the Herculean efforts required to reclaim your good name, reputation and professional stature following the actions of a few to destroy, such resonated with me. You see, once you’ve traversed that road of false accusations, you never wish to replicate the journey again, and you’d wish it upon no one.

When it’s happening it’s surreal and unbelievable. Once the realization you aren’t dreaming hits home, you are either overwhelmed and capitulate, in effect self-declared road-kill or you take inventory of all your resources and deduce your good name and honorable reputation are the only remnants of your life worth protecting. You then take these remnants and use them to form the foundation of your reclamation efforts. Even if your first steps may feel a bit like Don Quixote tilting at windmills, persevere, what journey ever started off with every experience preordained?

I appreciated the description of the pivotal moment when Sue described the last straw, the straw which caused her to stand up and say, “Enough already.” I had complete visualization of her reaction when the miscreants who had been attacking her persona and her company, began attacking her children. I had no doubt her “mother bear” instinct to fight and protect her offspring was fully awake and it was game-on!

Unfortunately, bad things do happen to good people. You strive, perhaps seemingly altruistically to bring goodness to this world and awaken one day to find yourself surrounded by vile and unconscionable accusations. Your mindset describes the event as “stupefying,” you are now seemingly being punished for your good works. Google Bomb describes such an experience, Sue’s experience.

· What to do and how to do it

John Dozier’s insightful discussion of events, throughout the book, is clear and concise – the reader can easily understand the, “why” behind each of Sue’s actions. I found myself rereading and noting the legal and technical strategy employed as Sue’s reputation was reclaimed. I was nodding my head with great satisfaction as those wishing ill will upon Sue and her family were identified, held accountable and brought before the courts where they were ultimately held responsible and duly punished.

· Applicability for businesses and intellectual property

John’s extrapolation of his methodologies to the realm of a small, medium, or large company’s reputation and intellectual property protection is spot-on. My own book “Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost” was stolen within 60 days of publication from my publisher, and then shared via peer-to-peer networks (see my article Secrets Stolen, No Just the Intellectual Property which describes the experience). Plainly spoken, if you have intellectual property, “Have a strategy!” to protect it.

· Reputation Defense

Highlighting the good works of Michael Fertik’s Reputation Defender, was personally appreciated, as it reoriented my compass with respect to his firm – I’ll be re-engaging the company to learn more about their capabilities. My first encounter with Reputation Defender can only be described as “going sideways” and I have no doubt it was an anomalous event – I look forward to learning more from Michael or his staff, as Sue’s experiences described in Google Bomb, clearly show them to be effective.

· Google Bomb’s call to action

I agree with and wish to associate myself with the call-to-action contained in the book. We are all responsible for keeping our shared online community safe. When self-policing and self-control fail, then we do require meaningful laws availed to law enforcement and prosecutors. Laws having backbone and are easily understood and are flexible enough to anticipate evolution of technology are required. In essence our current situation is analogous to having a population center of millions without a “time-out” corner.

In my opinion, we need alignment of state and federal statutes which will hold accountable those engaging in cyber stalking, invasion of our privacy, personal impersonation and character defamation. In the United States, well meaning legislators are acting individually and from the optic of their constituent states – we need federal action. Furthermore, restraining orders need to have appropriate meat attached to their bones, with a need to integrate 21st century technologies – in the physical world 100 feet is measurable, in the virtual world, geographic borders are obscured – lets bring technological audit trails, access controlled environments and filtering into play.

It is no small task to fill the international voids which provide haven for both domestic and international criminal or malevolent individuals to operate with impunity, but instead of describing the difficulty, let’s get started. I’m all in! If we don’t all step up and contribute, then Sue’s story will be the first of many more to come.

· My personal thank you

In closing, I’d like Sue to know I’ve great personal empathy for the angst which she and her family experienced and I commend her for her display of personal courage and fortitude, from her decision to stand up and not take it any more, all the way through the sharing of her story so that others may learn from her experiences. For John, your work speaks for itself, nicely done sir.

Thank you Sue also for your good works both individually and through your Parents Universal Resource Experts (PURE); it is clear you are one of the good people, and many families no doubt are grateful beyond their ability to articulate for the assistance you provided. Thank you John for your clear explanations of the legal strategy and steps one can take to protect oneself, you’ve empowered many.

--
Christopher Burgess
Christopher is the senior security advisor within a Fortune 100 company. He is also the co-author of Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost, Preventing Intellectual Property Theft and Economic Espionage in the 21st Century
http://www.secretsstolen.com/
Twitter: @burgessct
This reviewer paid for this book

Sue Scheff: Sue Scheff: Google Bomb Book receives praise from CA Defamation Law Blog

California attorney, Adrianos Facchetti, recently reviewed Google Bomb and his comments are amazing. I am always grateful that others are finally hearing and understanding what is happening in cyberspace. It is a growing and expanding problem as small businesses are suffering, reputations tainted, and lives being ruined by a some vicious keystrokes and clicks of a mouse.

Read the outstanding reviews click here.

Sue Scheff: "Google Bomb"! Where was this book last month when I could have used it?

"Google Bomb"! Where was this book last month when I could have used it?

By: Gryphen

Sue Scheff didn't expect she'd make enemies when she founded the child and parenting advocacy organization PURE. But someone began attacking her on the Internet, posting enough defamatory statements to compel her to bring a lawsuit. She won $11.3 million in 2006.In light of what happened to me last month, and what continues to happen to other people attempting to bring out the truth concerning Palin and other GOP leaders, I thought that this might be an important book for people to purchase in order to protect themselves from future attack.

It was written by Sue Scheff and John W. Dozier, who is an expert in "Internet Law", and specializes in representing businesses and individuals who have suffered defamatory attacks via the internet.I am going to purchase this book for my own edification and recommend to my friends, who own blogs and websites, to go out and get themselves a copy as well.There is no telling who the evil minions will go after next and we may as well be ready for them.

Sue Scheff: Google Bomb book lands in LA Times! (4 part series)

Last week was fantastic as Google Bomb book launched into book stores and Amazon numbers were remarkable! The LA Times did a 4 part series leading up to the official release date of September 1st. Here is part one, which is where Google Bomb begins! An engaging and dynamic foreword by Michael Fertik. For those that know me, I have always stated that my attorney, David Pollack vindicated me in a court of law, and it was Reputation Defender that brought my virtual image back to where it was prior the malicious and defamatory attack on my organization, my name and my family.

Part 1

Sue Scheff didn’t expect she’d make enemies when she founded the child and parenting advocacy organization PURE. But someone began attacking her on the Internet, posting enough defamatory statements to compel her to bring a lawsuit. She won $11.3 million in 2006.
In this exclusive preview of the book “Google Bomb,” Brand X brings you the story of what the lawsuit means, Sue’s own perspective and 10 tips to protect yourself online. The series begins today and will continue through Tuesday, when the book goes on sale [on sale now].
We begin with the foreword by Michael Fertik, CEO and founder of Reputation Defender:

Google is not God. Google is not the First Amendment, and it is not the truth. It is a machine. It may be the best machine invented in the past fifteen years, with myriad benefits for human knowledge and collaboration, but it is still just a machine that operates on rules devised by people. For that reason, it is both inherently fallible and subject to deliberate abuse.
It may be amazing that we actually have to say that Google isn’t God or the equivalent of freedom of speech or informational gospel truth. But it is clear that many of us believe that what shows up on the top of Google results is the most important, best, most accurate, most complete, most reliable, and most up-to-date information about the subject we are searching. From what is publicly understood about Google, it seems that the search engine scientists who work there try very hard to make the most democratically valued information rise to the top, on the basic operating theory that the wisdom of the crowd will, over time, tend to favor the best and most comprehensive websites that discuss a particular topic, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral, cabbages or kings.

But despite what may be Google’s best efforts and intentions, the machine gets it wrong at least as often as it gets it right. The errors and omissions of the world’s search engines visit punishing consequences on the victims of erroneous, obsolete, incomplete, or false information. Nonetheless, despite this mixed (and possibly worsening) track record, the rising primacy of Google as the world’s most important data channel seems to hoodwink many of us into believing what we see when it comes up on the top of Google search results. The theory goes: if it shows up on Google, it must be true and it’s somehow the best information about the subject being searched.


It is clear that people make decisions based on what they find in the top positions on Google: multiple visual “heat maps” published on the Internet have shown that the vast majority of Google users look at the top few results and ignore everything below them.

This is important for all of us, as we have become as searchable as the subjects we crave information on. What shows up at the top of Google can make or break our professional lives, our chances at romance, and our ability to get into the school of our dreams. It is far easier to harm someone and destroy their reputation on the World Wide Web than it is to make that person look great or even plain vanilla neutral. Blogs and discussion forums often enjoy more prominence in search engines than newspapers and other edited professional journals. Under the rules of search engines as they exist today, odd blog and forum corners of the Web can be turned into powerful launch pads of interpersonal attack.

There are real-life consequences when someone aims to destroy someone else on the Internet. It’s all too easy to destroy another person on the Web. In cyber-slamming cases, victims are often intimidated into silence because they feel powerless and helpless, and their first instinct is to shut themselves up so that things don’t “get worse.” Sue, a victim herself, is a rare individual because she decided to stand up for herself on the Web, defend herself in the courts and online, and go about protecting herself and others in an assertive way. You may or may not agree with everything Sue and John have written, but we can all agree that the narrative they tell is an important one for the emerging discussion of Internet, speech, and the speech-shaping powers of Google.

Part 2 Do you know what Google is Saying about you?
Part 3 Ready to protect yourself online? OK, let’s get started
Part 4 The top 10 ways to protect yourself from e-venge

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