Complaint Review: Ford Banister

This review, and others on this site and on my Avvo profile, eerily similar, appeared recently, purportedly written by a person I have never heard of describing a situation that is not at all familiar to me or to my staff. It seems some person is seeking to use internet defamation for some unknown purpose, perhaps to attempt to intimidate, harass or because it is all they can imagine to do. As an intellectual property attorney, this presents me with what might be referred to as a teachable moment. What can you do when a person, operating through the perceived anonymity of the internet, begins posting false and defamatory statements about you online?

In March of 2017, Ms. Wendy Lee Sulda, a teacher of special needs children in Shenzhen, China, approached me to report that she was being threatened by a shipping company that she contracted with that does business through the domain shippingquest.com. When Ms. Sulda posted some truthful negative reviews online about their bad service and fraudulent practice of providing low ball quotes and then jacking up the price after they have possession of their customers' good, the people behind ShippingQuest issued a series of bizarre threats, then purchsed Ms. Sulda's natural name as a domain upon which they placed a photo of her stolen from one of her social media profiles under the heading "Erotic Massage" and surrounded by sexually suggestive images which gave the overall impression that Ms. Sulda, rather than being a teacher of special needs children, was a prostitute. Due to this heinous act, I filed suit against the company doing business through the domain at shippingquest.com in March of 2017.

It was difficult for us to serve shippingquest.com with the complaint as they closed their virtual office they had maintained for about ten years in New York a few days after the suit was filed. shippingquest.com knew about the suit as it was reported on by Courthouse News just days after the suit was filed and www.shippingquest.com offered a comment. What they did not do is defend the lawsuit against them. Rather, Plaintiff had to conduct a very in depth investigation that uncovered perhaps one of the most bizarre set of facts that might be imagined. We traced the IP address from which the threatening messages came and then subpoenaed Comcast which revealed that the owner of the IP address was one Winston Dan Vogel. Winston Dan Vogel we found was also the co-registrant of the domain shippingquest.com, along with Albert Abramov and, it appears, the sole owner and operator of shippingquest.com.

On January 29, 2018, a judge of the federal district court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a judgment in the amount of $100,000 plus attorney's fees and costs against ShippingQuest.com, LLC, Price Break Shipping USA, LLC, Winston Dan Vogel, Albert Abramov and Javier "Chaim" Sajnovsky. I believe that a verdict awarded by a jury would have been much higher but there is unfortunately no right to a jury to determine damages where a a default judgment is entered. I am still working to collect this judgment on behalf of Ms. Sulda as none of the judgment debtors have taken responsibility for their actions.

To review the threats that were directed to Ms. Sulda and to read the judgment order against shippingquest.com, visit the site that Ms. Sulda placed online to tell her story at shippingquestscams.com. shippingquest.com tried to have shippingquestscams.com taken down by filing a complaint with ICAAN alleging trademark infringement. I answered the the complaint on Ms. Sulda's behalf and it was subsequently dismissed. I am very proud to represent Ms. Sulda and to have tracked the people behind shippingquest.com to obtain a judgment against them. I am also proud to now represent three other individuals who were defrauded by the people who run shippingquest.com. Due to the circumstances of the identity theft case and what I discovered during the course of the investigation, I am dedicating to obtaining justice for anyone who is similarly victimized. The fact that at just about the time Ms. Sulda placed her site online at shippingquestscams.com, obviously fake, false and defamatory reviews began appearing on this site only leaves me more determined defend the interests of consumers.

So in this teachable moment what have we learned about dealing with internet defamation? You can sue, sure. You can go through a process with the platform host to try to have a review deleted. These are bioth good options in different circumstances. Or you can seize the platform that the sad persons hiding in the shadows, afraid to emerge, anonymous warriorsof the keyboard, leering over their poison pens, just created for you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this rebuttal. For genuine reviews of my law practice, see my website at trademarkviolation.us or my Avvo profile. If you would like to help Ms. Sulda collect her judgment, have information about shippingquest.com, Winston Dan Vogel, Albert Abramov or Javier "Chaim" Sajnovsky, or if you have been a victim of shippingquest.com, you may contact me at ford@fordbanister.com.

Best Regards,

L. Ford Banister, II, Attorney and Counselor at Law.

Out of an Abundance of Caution *Attorney Advertising*