'Internet Lawyer' Charles Carreon Has A New Best Friend And He's An SEO Expert Who Hates Anonymous Critics

from the the-streisand-school-of-reputation-management dept

The internet makes for some strange bedfellows. The fact that I can't think of any other examples right at the moment should not detract from this truism. Internet = strange bedfellows and we all know it. Here's some proof:

This article is about the importance of having a great Internet Attorney.

I have one, and he is my friend and an outstanding Internet Attorney that has done wonderful work that protects me and helps me grow our business. His name is Charles Carreon, and I highly recommend him based on the merit of his outstanding work.

Go ahead and re-read those sentences. Marvel at the fact that they were written post-Oatmeal-meltdown (March 22 of this very year). Gaze in bemusement at the proximity of the name "Charles Carreon" to the phrase "outstanding work." Gather your jaw from the floor when you realize an SEO expert with an interest in reputation management put that sentence together and displayed it publicly without a hint of irony.

This glowing testimonial was dropped in my lap via an Adam Steinbaugh tweet. (Steinbaugh has done some great work pursuing the Craig Brittain/IsAnybodyDown.com "revenge porn" story.) Adam Steinbaugh @goodreverend

Looks like Charles Carreon hired an SEO guy. Article about unmasking critics probably not the best way to start. http://gototom2.blogspot.com/2013/03/charles-carreon-internet-lawyer.html?m=1 …

10:50 PM - 24 Mar 13

As Steinbaugh points out, Tom Forrest, the author of this bizarre puff piece, is particularly irked by some anonymous commenters who have complained about his SEO business, HTP Company. We'll get to that in a moment, but let's take a break to hear more about this "Charles Carreon - Internet Lawyer."

I can tell you from personal legal experience and several law suits I have had to file, that this is a "Pay me a smaller amount now, or Pay a big old bag of money later" proposition.

We know you think you are saving money by not hiring a Lawyer to take care of this, then years later when you are in a law suit you wish you would have listened to previous good legal advice and properly protected your Internet assets...

You want and need an Attorney that has many years of strong experience doing this, and Charles Carreon is this type of Attorney.

There you have it. "Charles Carreon" and "years of strong experience" contained in the same sentence, possibly opening the door to an alternate universe where Internet Lawyer Charles Carreon's reputation hasn't been thoroughly dismantled by Internet Lawyer Charles Carreon.

After shoving a few words together in an approximation of a paragraph, Forrest moves on to his real area of concern.

Today a hot topic of Law and SEO is the strange and difficult issue of reputation management. How do we know what to believe on the Internet when we have sites like RipOffReport and Yelp, etc.

Oh! I know! Pick me!

We know what to believe by considering the experiences of others, something both these sites collect. True, one is more slanted than the other, and generously-sized grains of salt should be taken with every exceedingly negative/positive review, but both are handy additions to any consumer's "toolkit."

Forrest isn't done with RipOffReport, though.

I have talked and emailed with Ed the owner of RipOffReport, and even though his believes and morals on this topic are different then mine and frankly Ed's position (the owner of RipOffReport) upsets me. He is a very clever guy with a good team of Attorneys that fight everyone as long and as hard as they can so he does not give out any information about who files the reports.

Not only is he clever, but he has some protection via Section 230, something people who complain about people complaining should familiarize themselves with. No one should feel compelled to give up info about a critical commenter just because someone else is upset. RipOffReport gives every complained-about company ample room to respond. But, if you're one of those types who feels the best defense is a good lawsuit -- that's where Internet Lawyer Charles Carreon comes in.

This is where you need a good Attorney if a lot of money is on the line and you need to legaly force RipOffReport to disclose information about who really wrote the complaints. It will cost you at least $20,000 and most likely much more to prove who wrote something negative and false about your company, and then to take them to Court and collect will cost even more money, at least $50,000.

Or, you know, save all that money and respond with evidence that the claim is false, using links, citations and other information. It's a whole lot cheaper and it keeps you from being portrayed as a thin-skinned legal bully, something Internet Lawyer Charles Carreon has some first-hand experience with.

Now, Internet Lawyering is good and all, but sometimes you gotta be your own pimp.

So this is not an inexpensive endeavor, it is less expensive to hire a good SEO company to push down the negative and perhaps false articles and complaints. This can also work the other way, you can push up negative complaint articles about your competitors if you so desire.

Also an option. Or you could consider handling complaints in a courteous, professional manner. Your choice.

Now, while this is both extremely bizarre and rather entertaining, one wonders exactly how strong Tom's SEO-fu is if he's unaware of Internet Lawyer Charles Carreon's problematic relationship with the Internet. Or maybe this is a weird symbiotic relationship. After all, Carreon would need the services of a top "reputation manager" just to bring his credibility level up to "dubious" or "somewhat suspect." Bundling reputation management, SEO jargon and Charles "Streisand" Carreon in the same post leads one to believe that either Forrest is blissfully unaware of Carreon's actions or they're both teaming up to unmask some critics and drag their respective reputations out of the mud. Whatever the real answer is, it bears watching, with popcorn on standby.