Complaint Review: Rip-off Report

Obviously we have ticked off the right people! ..those you exposed and hurt the most are certainly all out to get us, one way or another...and... Obviously you have noticed the absence our website from the Internet for the last 4 days...

First, here is what has happened...
On Thursday, May 27, 2004, at about 1300 hours Greenwich Mean Time our website, ripoffreport.com, was taken / forced offline. We know that it was a coordinated Denial of Service attack, employing thousands of machines from within the United States. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated in countering and eliminating this ongoing threat, eventhough we have sought the advice of the greatest minds in the industry.

$50,000 Reward Offered!...
For the next 5 days RipoffReport's reward will jump from $20,000 to 50,000 (paid over time) for information leading to a judgment against or the arrest and conviction of the people or companies responsible for this disruption to the freedom of speech of our advocates. We do not take this matter lightly, and believe we have not only a constitutional right, but a duty to all Americans to help expose fraud, corruption and deceit. We will not be swayed by such attacks.

In no way should our reward offer be consider a counter-productive effort, detracting from the great efforts of law enforcement personnel. In fact, we are working closely with them and are sharing information with them. We expect to have not only a solution but also a resolution to this problem, which affects the basic liberties granted to us by the US Constitution. We have been in the fore, not only involved in standing up for the individuals rights, but also in the creation of laws which reinforce these rights.

We would request that all of you help us in one voice to find, punish and put away the elements that feel they are above the law. Since we have been knocked out by this DOS attack, the supporters who have jumped in to help with leads, ideas on better security, and the outpouring of support, overwhelm us. Rest assured, based on efforts from various government agencies, security analysts, and our technical team, we will be back on line shortly. This is our commitment to the American people, not to be bullied. Corporate terrorism cannot and shall not win."

If you have valid tips on the perpetrators please email them to info@ripoffreport.com. If you wish to help support the fight you may also make donations to:

The effect of this event...
Since we have been temporally shut down by these hackers-for-hire and their snake-in-grass employer(s), we have received thousands of e-mails from governmental and law enforcement agencies desperate for victim information, upon which they have become so reliant, businesses that use us before taking on new clients, and the millions of loyal readers we never actually realized until now how valuable our service is to them. I never knew they appreciated and would miss our service as much as they do. Actually, so many loyal viewers read Rip-off Report every day before or instead of the mainstream news... here is the degree of popularity that was effected.

We jumped from about 4 million to 5 million hits a day in the space of only three months in late 2003. Then from over 5 million, to over 8 million hits to our pages a day, and we added servers and equipment to improve speed and performance. We accomplished this seamlessly without any interruption of service. ... The problems we encountered this past week had nothing to do with our rapidly increasing popularity, but we had the victim of a "Denial of Service attack" on top of all our new traffic, which is a federal crime, pursuant to the Patriot Act of 2001.

COSTLY EQUIPMENT & PROGRAMING NEEDED...
Finally, in order to mitigate this ongoing threat to our service, we will install more equipment later next week along with newly-developed, highly-advanced and very costly protection program, not only in order to get us up and running, but also to help us avoid this from happening again.

AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING...
Leading investigative authorities will be working with us, and we have some good sound leads, and we are offering a $50,000 (payable over time) reward, effective until June 15, 2004, for information that leads to judgment against or conviction of the company that commissioned these culprits. Again, we will not go after the hackers, who did this if they cooperate with our investigation, we are primarily looking for the company or individuals who commissioned this upon us.

NOTE:This is the same type of attack, which took down CNN, Yahoo!, ZDNet and E*Trade in February, 2000, used such Linux-based programs, as Trinity, or Tribal Flood Network (TFN), which utilized chat rooms to take these powerful websites off line. The attack on us was just as virulent. This is now a serious federal crime under the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001, which bears serious criminal consequences.

We are here for you, the consumer, so we may help you protect yourself and others from being victimized... Stay tuned for developments in our detection of these companies or individuals who attacked us. We will also publicize if there were winners of the reward, however, the identities will likely be kept confidential for their protection, if requested by them. .

We are desperately asking for donations, since we don't charge consumers for our service... see donation options below..

Again you can see and hear the voice of the people up and running again.. www.RipoffReport.com

TAX Deductible Donations may be sent to:
Rip-off Report Consumer Advocacy Foundation
PO Box 470
Tempe, Arizona 85280

Any other donation for general expenses (will NOT be Tax deductible) can be sent to....

badbusinessbureau.com
PO Box 470
Tempe, Arizona 85280

OR, you can click on the Donate link on our Home Page and use Paypal.

ED Magedson Founder, Author of www.ripoffrevenge.com
EDitor@RipoffReport.com
badbusinessbureau.com
www.ripoffreport.com

Don't let them get away with it.
Make sure they make the Rip-off Report!

We are not lawyers.
We are not a collection agency.

We are Consumer Advocates.
...the victims' advocate

We are a Worldwide Consumer Reporting News Agency
...by consumers, for consumers