{"id":21542,"date":"2013-01-14T14:37:19","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T18:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ewm.com\/internalblog\/?p=21542"},"modified":"2013-01-14T14:37:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T18:37:19","slug":"dont-let-your-reputation-or-your-wallet-fall-prey-to-scam-complaint-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=21542","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Let Your Reputation\u2014or Your Wallet\u2014Fall Prey to Scam Complaint Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Web site of suspicious origin is misusing the REALTOR\u00ae trademark in what seems to be an attempt to get money from real estate practitioners.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The site, Realtor-complaints.com, supposedly publishes consumer complaints about real estate agents. However, an investigation by the New Jersey association of REALTORS\u00ae showed a string of complaints against its members, all using similar phrasing. \u201cThis leads to suspicion that these are not all public-submitted complaints,\u201d says Lauren Castellano, director of communications for the New Jersey Association of REALTORS\u00ae.<\/p>\n

Not only that, when agents who have been the subject of a complaint attempt to make contact, the site offers them the \u201copportunity\u201d to pay to have the complaint and their name removed from the site, says Michael Thiel, an attorney for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS\u00ae. NAR legal staff checked the WHOIS <\/a>record for the site and discovered it\u2019s hosted on servers located in the Seychelles. \u201cIt\u2019s recorded as having been initially registered on Jan. 1, 2013,\u201d Thiel says, \u201dwhich makes the site\u2019s claim of having been around since 2002 very suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiel\u2019s office has received a number of calls from members who\u2019ve been informed, via e-mail, that their name is listed at the site. NAR attorneys are investigating and, if necessary, will take steps to have the site shut down. But it\u2019s important to approach with caution any service that claims to either track or burnish your reputation. Online reputation management\u2014and reputation trashing\u2014is a growing enterprise, and there are simple steps you can take to manage your own reputation online:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make sure all of your profiles (on social media sites, at REALTOR.com, and so on) are complete, up to date, and consistent.
\n\u2022 Be proactive in asking customers for reviews in legitimate forums, such as Yelp and LinkedIn.
\n\u2022 Search Google and Yahoo for your name and your company\u2019s name. Save each search as a browser favorite and check them daily.
\n\u2022 Sign up for Google Alerts so that you\u2019re notified when your name appears in a search. Also set up alerts for variations of your name, your company name, and other keywords.
\n\u2022 Ask your customers where they\u2019ve gone to search for information about real estate and other professionals.
\n\u2022 Correct errors quickly. Immediately contact the Web site and be willing to prove your case with information from your MLS or other sources. But don\u2019t be tempted to pay to have information removed. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine a legitimate site requiring you to pay to take down false information,\u201d Thiel says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Web site of suspicious origin is misusing the REALTOR\u00ae trademark in what seems to be an attempt to get money from real estate practitioners. The site, Realtor-complaints.com, supposedly publishes consumer complaints about real estate agents. However, an investigation by the New Jersey association of REALTORS\u00ae showed a string of complaints against its members, all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}