Madison Who's Who Ripoff Misrepresentation to a Senior Person False Claims! Long Island City New York

I just got off the phone with a telemarketer from this company.  They did try to get me to buy a lifetime membership for $700+.  I declined.  They then tried to get me to buy a 3 year membership for $500+/-.  I again declined.  They tried to get me to buy 1 year, then 1 month.  I declined all.

I am not sure how they will be for people to communicate with others in their industry.  I just did not see where they could help me in my profession.  They did ask for all they things stated in the original complaint by Theresa, Denville, New Jersey. I think they are pretty pricey.

I have been monitoring some of these threads and noticed that they date back to as far as 2005 and I have also done the background on the company Madison Who's Who to only discover that there are no negative filings to the state attorney general's office and this company is also in very good standing to date with the better business

bureau despite these inaccurate postings I am rebutting. I also did the background on the owner of this site Edward Magedson and found the following just from doing a search on Google and other search engines as well;

Edward Magedsons
underhanded dealings in Consumer Advocacy



1. Edward Magedson, owner of badbusinessbureau.com, ripoffreport.com, and
scam.com has a sordid and criminal past. 
This does not directly influence the validity of the reports, but
instead stands as evidence of this mans character.



A. Drug Arrest (2003)

B. Checking Fraud (1974)

C. Default Judgment $30,041.21 (1995)

D. Civil Complaint for extortion (here)



2. More to the point, Edward Magedson is not Ralph Nader.  This gentleman is not simply trying to
selflessly advocate for the little guy.   
As reported in The Phoenix New Times on January 31, 2007, Mr. Magedson has at least
30 companies now paying him to mitigate bad reports on his web-site.  This same article contains other points which
suggest questionable motives.



A. It doesn't help that the Rip-Off Report has a fairly low standard of
relevance. An entire category has sprung up with people complaining about
adulterous partners. At last count, it had 207 entries.  Magedson pays a team of stay-at-home moms to
vet posts for obscenities and social security numbers. But beyond that, he
admittedly finds few things too scurrilous for publication.  For example. Consider this post about a man
who's identified by first and last name and hometown. The man is,
"Lindsey" complains, "nothing but a loser. He steels [sic] from
everybody including his own family. Not to mention he beats his own mother. . .
. He spends all his time and money on drugs. No wonder he has no
life."  Or, less personal but no
less toxic, the Maryland hospital where nurses are
alleged to "cut bodies open after they kill people" and steal organs.
Or the Scottsdale communications company
that's alleged to have "scammed millions of dollars from honest
people."



B. There's one good reason the darker corners of the Internet are so nuts:
because they can be. And the legal immunity granted to online publishers also
explains the continued existence of the Rip-Off Report.  Companies suing Magedson for libel all learn,
soon enough, that the law isn't on their side. It may irritate them, or even
hurt their businesses and reputations, but they simply can't force him to take
down even the nastiest posts.  "It's
extremely frustrating for a company to have their number-one search result be a
Rip-Off Report," explains Magedson's attorney, Maria Crimi Speth.
"And because it's legal, and because the posts are often anonymous, they
have no one to take it out on but Ed." 
Magedson says he's spent at least $1 million on legal bills. Judging by
the volume of suits he's fought and the size of the case files he's not
exaggerating.  But for Magedson, the
blowback he gets is clearly a great part of the fun.  During his interview at Chompie's, he's
interrupted when one of his four cell phones starts ringing. (All have numbers
ending in 4357, he notes, which spells "HELP.") To his delight, it's
a business owner calling to ask him to remove a report on the Web site.

C.   It's because, as the number of
lawsuits against Magedson has increased, lawyers have learned about Magedson's
willingness to [receive] money from companies to mitigate bad complaints. He
calls it his "corporate advocacy program."  Here's how it works:
Businesses pay Magedson a fee, plus a monthly retainer. And in exchange,
Magedson makes "Editors comments" next to complaints generally
saying that the claims are false.



D.  Of course, the program [paying Magedson] is still much, much cheaper and more effective
than litigation.  Israel
Kushnir,
CEO of the Illinois-based George S. May International Company, says his consulting firm
was tarred by "heinous" complaints on the Rip-Off Report, including one
report alleging that the company's founder was a pedophile who inflicted porn
on his staff at recent staff meetings. Since the founder has been dead since
the 1960s, the complaint was ludicrous. 
The online allegations were infuriating not just to him, he says, but
to the founder's daughter and granddaughter, who currently own the
company.  So, in 2004, George S. May
sued. But Kushnir says he met with Magedson earlier this month and told him
he's decided to drop the case.  "I
realized Ed Magedson and George S. May were simply accidental enemies,"
Kushnir says. "He didn't start his site to attack George S. May. He didn't
even know George S. May. Rather than continue to spend an enormous amount of
money and energy and litigation, I thought, there's got to be a better way to
deal with things like that."  The George S. May Company is going to join Magedson's
corporate advocacy program [pay Magedson
money to remove his business from Rip-Off Report]. (Kushnir declined to say
how much he's paying.) Basically, Kushnir will pay Magedson to reveal the
complainants against the company, and then Kushnir can do what he would have
wanted to do all along address them.

E. There's an e-mail
Magedson wrote to a class-action attorney several years ago. The attorney had
contacted him about working together to help the clients on the site but
walked away when Magedson asked him for $800,000.

The article is
available for reading, with many other choice excerpts illuminating Magedsons
tendency to perform consumer advocacy only when it directly benefits himself.

3. Anonymity on
Rippoffreport.com.  There is no diligence
done on anonymous postings on Ripoffreport.com. 
Magedson shows willful negligence allowing individuals to make
unmoderated claims in regards to supposed rip-offs.  There is right to face your accuser, and no
way to remove a complaint.  We are subject
to complaints by ex-employees who may well have been terminated after being
late multiple times.  Instead, they can
libelously claim that we freely break New York state labor law.

4. As pertains to
Madison Whos Who.  The Whos Who
business is extremely competitive and occasionally cutthroat.  Many companies are formed by disgruntled
former employees, and any bad press for one company is good press for the
rest.  Slander can reap great rewards in
luring customers to any given network, and as such Ripoffreport.com provides an
excellent forum as such.

In summation, the
old saying dont believe everything you read applies doubly to this
situation.  We are indeed the victim
here, not the transgressor, and would like the chance to defend ourselves.  We ask that you disregard  the posts on Ripoffreport.com, or at least
question their relevance and purpose. 
Thank you for your consideration.

R. Thompson

In fact, a complaint was filed with the NY State Attorney General's office.  I know, because I filed it.  Madison Who's Who is a scam!

I have been monitoring some of these threads and noticed that they date back to as far as 2005 and I have also done the background on the company Madison Who's Who to only discover that there are no negative filings to the state attorney general's office and this company is also in very good standing to date with the better business bureau despite these inaccurate postings I am rebutting. I also did the background on the owner of this site Edward Magedson and found the following just from doing a search on Google and other search engines as well;

Edward Magedsons underhanded dealings in Consumer Advocacy

1. Edward Magedson, owner of badbusinessbureau.com, ripoffreport.com, and scam.com has a sordid and criminal past.  This does not directly influence the validity of the reports, but instead stands as evidence of this mans character.

A. Drug Arrest (2003)
B. Checking Fraud (1974)
C. Default Judgment $30,041.21 (1995)
D. Civil Complaint for extortion (here)

2. More to the point, Edward Magedson is not Ralph Nader.  This gentleman is not simply trying to selflessly advocate for the little guy.    As reported in The Phoenix New Times on January 31, 2007, Mr. Magedson has at least 30 companies now paying him to mitigate bad reports on his web-site.  This same article contains other points which suggest questionable motives.

A. It doesn't help that the Rip-Off Report has a fairly low standard of relevance. An entire category has sprung up with people complaining about adulterous partners. At last count, it had 207 entries.  Magedson pays a team of stay-at-home moms to vet posts for obscenities and social security numbers. But beyond that, he admittedly finds few things too scurrilous for publication.  For example. Consider this post about a man who's identified by first and last name and hometown. The man is, "Lindsey" complains, "nothing but a loser. He steels [sic] from everybody including his own family. Not to mention he beats his own mother. . . . He spends all his time and money on drugs. No wonder he has no life."  Or, less personal but no less toxic, the Maryland hospital where nurses are alleged to "cut bodies open after they kill people" and steal organs. Or the Scottsdale communications company that's alleged to have "scammed millions of dollars from honest people."

B. There's one good reason the darker corners of the Internet are so nuts: because they can be. And the legal immunity granted to online publishers also explains the continued existence of the Rip-Off Report.  Companies suing Magedson for libel all learn, soon enough, that the law isn't on their side. It may irritate them, or even hurt their businesses and reputations, but they simply can't force him to take down even the nastiest posts.  "It's extremely frustrating for a company to have their number-one search result be a Rip-Off Report," explains Magedson's attorney, Maria Crimi Speth. "And because it's legal, and because the posts are often anonymous, they have no one to take it out on but Ed."  Magedson says he's spent at least $1 million on legal bills. Judging by the volume of suits he's fought and the size of the case files he's not exaggerating.  But for Magedson, the blowback he gets is clearly a great part of the fun.  During his interview at Chompie's, he's interrupted when one of his four cell phones starts ringing. (All have numbers ending in 4357, he notes, which spells "HELP.") To his delight, it's a business owner calling to ask him to remove a report on the Web site.

C.   It's because, as the number of lawsuits against Magedson has increased, lawyers have learned about Magedson's willingness to [receive] money from companies to mitigate bad complaints. He calls it his "corporate advocacy program."  Here's how it works: Businesses pay Magedson a fee, plus a monthly retainer. And in exchange, Magedson makes "Editors comments" next to complaints generally saying that the claims are false.

D.  Of course, the program [paying Magedson] is still much, much cheaper and more effective than litigation.  Israel Kushnir, CEO of the Illinois-based George S. May International Company, says his consulting firm was tarred by "heinous" complaints on the Rip-Off Report, including one report alleging that the company's founder was a pedophile who inflicted porn on his staff at recent staff meetings. Since the founder has been dead since the 1960s, the complaint was ludicrous.  The online allegations were infuriating not just to him, he says, but to the founder's daughter and granddaughter, who currently own the company.  So, in 2004, George S. May sued. But Kushnir says he met with Magedson earlier this month and told him he's decided to drop the case.  "I realized Ed Magedson and George S. May were simply accidental enemies," Kushnir says. "He didn't start his site to attack George S. May. He didn't even know George S. May. Rather than continue to spend an enormous amount of money and energy and litigation, I thought, there's got to be a better way to deal with things like that."  The George S. May Company is going to join Magedson's corporate advocacy program [pay Magedson money to remove his business from Rip-Off Report]. (Kushnir declined to say how much he's paying.) Basically, Kushnir will pay Magedson to reveal the complainants against the company, and then Kushnir can do what he would have wanted to do all along address them.

E. There's an e-mail Magedson wrote to a class-action attorney several years ago. The attorney had contacted him about working together to help the clients on the site but walked away when Magedson asked him for $800,000.

The article is available for reading, with many other choice excerpts illuminating Magedsons tendency to perform consumer advocacy only when it directly benefits himself.

3. Anonymity on Rippoffreport.com.  There is no diligence done on anonymous postings on Ripoffreport.com.  Magedson shows willful negligence allowing individuals to make unmoderated claims in regards to supposed rip-offs.  There is right to face your accuser, and no way to remove a complaint.  We are subject to complaints by ex-employees who may well have been terminated after being late multiple times.  Instead, they can libelously claim that we freely break New York state labor law.

4. As pertains to Madison Whos Who.  The Whos Who business is extremely competitive and occasionally cutthroat.  Many companies are formed by disgruntled former employees, and any bad press for one company is good press for the rest.  Slander can reap great rewards in luring customers to any given network, and as such Ripoffreport.com provides an excellent forum as such.

In summation, the old saying dont believe everything you read applies doubly to this situation.  We are indeed the victim here, not the transgressor, and would like the chance to defend ourselves.  We ask that you disregard  the posts on Ripoffreport.com, or at least question their relevance and purpose.  Thank you for your consideration.

R. Thompson

Theresa,

You are an out an out liar! There is no program at Madison for $708.95 I suspect that you work at Cambridge Who's Who and since Randy the owner has lost his mind and is firing everyone and can no longer afford to purchase leads and can not compete with Madison you are going to come on here and slander Madison Who's Who because Madison is now currently the largest circulated Who's Who in the world!

The date of the rip-off was April 5,2006. The date I wrote this report was April 17, 2006. I just receved an e-mail today stating I was received in the Madison Who's Who. They are again asking for my application. This is how the first farse stated. Do not answer this e-mail it is a hoax. Don't fall for it because it will cost you mucho bucks.

The date of the rip-off was April 5,2006. The date I wrote this report was April 17, 2006. I just receved an e-mail today stating I was received in the Madison Who's Who. They are again asking for my application. This is how the first farse stated. Do not answer this e-mail it is a hoax. Don't fall for it because it will cost you mucho bucks.

The date of the rip-off was April 5,2006. The date I wrote this report was April 17, 2006. I just receved an e-mail today stating I was received in the Madison Who's Who. They are again asking for my application. This is how the first farse stated. Do not answer this e-mail it is a hoax. Don't fall for it because it will cost you mucho bucks.

The date of the rip-off was April 5,2006. The date I wrote this report was April 17, 2006. I just receved an e-mail today stating I was received in the Madison Who's Who. They are again asking for my application. This is how the first farse stated. Do not answer this e-mail it is a hoax. Don't fall for it because it will cost you mucho bucks.