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Company defame competitor via third party

Jman888

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Jman888

Jman888

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A first: Company found guilty of defamation via third party
Samantha Boh MyPaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2014
Desperate to sink a competitor, a jewellery company resorted to buying accounts from users of a popular Internet forum and using them to post comments casting doubts on its competitor's products.
On Feb 25, Vivo Diamonds was ordered by a court to pay rival company JannPaul $85,000 in damages and costs.
It is the first reported case of a company being found liable for online defamation made through a third party.
In October 2012, Vivo posted an advertisement on the online forum Gumtree titled "Make Money. Sell your hardwarezone forum userid". Up to $200 was promised for accounts over three years old.
Vivo received a total of 98 e-mail messages in response to to the advertisement. Of these, Vivo picked two accounts - "feitonglong" and "sacredsoul" - which, according to court documents, were used to make "serious allegations" against JannPaul.
Using the "feitonglong" handle, Vivo posted three messages on Hardwarezone under the thread "Wedding Bells, Proposal Ring Part 2" which claimed that a diamond ring purchased by the user and his fiancee was of "poor craftsmanship".
He said that the $8,000 diamond ring had been worn for only five months and that JannPaul "should be responsible" as the diamond had fallen off due to shoddy handiwork. He also added that his fiancee was devastated and he did not think he would dare to patronise JannPaul again.
Separately, under the name of "sacredsoul", Vivo posted six messages, this time making claims that JannPaul had engaged in deception or misrepresented its products, by removing inclusions - which are impurities in a diamond - and reshaping the heart and arrow designs of a diamond in photographs sent to him.
Part of his posts read: "The amount of contrast in the photos is disturbing. It would be better to request from them a non-edited photo of the real diamond and compare the difference."
Another read: "Editing the photos, removing the undesirable to create beauty and attraction, that to me is just not right."
Vivo had also purchased a third Hardwarezone account - that of forum moderator "Xjedi" - to delete replies from JannPaul, as well as ban its accounts, to "skew the Hardwarezone forums to its advantage".
Vivo's actions came to light after JannPaul hired a digital forensic specialist to investigate the identity of the forum users behind the defamatory comments.
With the help of RP Digital Security and Gumtree, JannPaul contacted individuals who responded to the advertisement, as well as tracked down the IP address of the advertiser behind the advertisement - which was discovered to be Vivo.
The court also granted an injunction to JannPaul, restraining Vivo from further writing, printing or publishing of the messages made under "feitonglong" and "sacredsoul" or similar words that would be defamatory to the former.
The co-founder of JannPaul, Ms Jann Tan, called the past few months "extremely hard and stressful".
"These defamatory posts undermined the trust consumers have in our brand," said Ms Tan. "We are relieved that this issue has finally come to an end and that our names have been cleared".
samboh@sph.com.sg

 

 

 

dun believe anything you read in HWZ? :huh::huh:

 

i want to sell my 12 years old account in mcf, who want to buy? :D

 

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Soya

Soya

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  On 4/3/2014 at 1:19 AM, Jman888 said:

 

i want to sell my 12 years old account in mcf, who want to buy? :D

 

 

 

 

eh....ur nick no resale value coz got no famous MCF trademark name or slogan i.e. "i pay full cash", "tiko ranger", "undertaker", "table wiper', "gay", etc, etc. -_-

 

at most worth paper plus teksi fare.... [laugh]

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Jman888

Jman888

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  On 4/3/2014 at 1:24 AM, Soya said:

 

 

eh....ur nick no resale value coz got no famous MCF trademark name or slogan i.e. "i pay full cash", "tiko ranger", "undertaker", "table wiper', "gay", etc, etc. -_-

 

at most worth paper plus teksi fare.... [laugh]

 

 

but i have a cute and innocent avatar and a low profile, and not a troll [:/]

 

those name you mentioned too high profile which people may not take their comment seriously [laugh][laugh]

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RadX

RadX

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  On 4/3/2014 at 1:28 AM, Jman888 said:

 

 

but i have a cute and innocent avatar and a low profile, and not a troll [:/]

 

those name you mentioned too high profile which people may not take their comment seriously [laugh][laugh]

 

 

good wat, we can go under radar...hahahaha

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Soya

Soya

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  On 4/3/2014 at 1:32 AM, RadX said:

 

 

good wat, we can go under radar...hahahaha

 

 

ahemmm.....why u everything oso "under"?

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Acemundo

Acemundo

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my same thoughts exactly. didn't know there is a value in selling my hwz account which is 10 years old. my mcf account is 11 years old, anyone wants to buy? hehe

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RadX

RadX

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  On 4/3/2014 at 1:50 AM, Mockngbrd said:

kenna real life CSI

 

 

orrgh...u be careful, AWARE sure find you nia...kekeke

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Jman888

Jman888

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  On 4/3/2014 at 1:51 AM, RadX said:

 

 

orrgh...u be careful, AWARE sure find you nia...kekeke

 

 

as a mod, you can surrender/turn him in [laugh][laugh]

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Lala81

Lala81

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lol never even bother putting up own account

Go buy the account ...

 

I mean how hard is it to post few thousand stupid comments in EDMW to get a proper account lol...

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Sabian

Sabian

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  On 4/3/2014 at 2:27 AM, Jman888 said:

 

 

you mean someone bought the account? cos that account is 5 years old :huh:

Dunno man, say so much but no evidence to back it up.

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Acemundo

Acemundo

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  On 4/3/2014 at 2:44 AM, Lala81 said:

lol never even bother putting up own account

Go buy the account ...

 

I mean how hard is it to post few thousand stupid comments in EDMW to get a proper account lol...

bro, I think it is slightly different.

 

an older account (by age) is more credible than a new account with higher number of posts chalked up. hence, if they want to appear credible, they can't go back 5 years to set up the account. definitely less hassle to buy a 5-year old account.

 

even in mcf it is also the same principle. many a times when someone joined not long ago to bash something or support something, the more established members ridiculed their authenticity and objectiveness because they are new and immediately come in to say something to defend or attack something.

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Icedbs

Icedbs

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Vivo had also purchased a third Hardwarezone account - that of forum moderator "Xjedi" - to delete replies from JannPaul, as well as ban its accounts, to "skew the Hardwarezone forums to its advantage".

 

 

The funny thing is, even the the moderator account can be bought......that's bloody dangerous.....as good as selling most of the admin rights to a stranger

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