Consumer Law

World Progress Report Gaming Search Engines to Bury Reports Linking It to Scammers

By Paul Levy

by Paul Alan Levy

I reported a couple of weeks ago that Vision Media TV Group, whose scam directed at unsophisticated non-profit groups thirsting for free publicity on public TV had apparently resurfaced under a new name, World Progress Report.  Since then, a few others have taken up the report (for example, Techdirt and Consumerist).  More remarkable is the response from World Progress Report, which has been churning out press release after press release about series that it is supposedly preparing to show on public television (put a big asterisk after both ?show? and ?public television), teaching consumers how to recognize ?ponzi scams,? ?mortgage scams,?and ?foreclosure scams.?

At first, my reaction was to think about how ironic it was that the crowd behind World Progress / Vision Media was taking credit for showing up scams.  And wasn?t that cute?

But there is a more sinister explanation for this scam spam.  By this new strategy, World Progress Report is loading up the search results both for its own name, and for its name combined with the word ?scam,? with reports about its supposed public television programming.  As a result, the information that impartial critics are calling it a scam are being buried in a welter of search results for its own self-promotion.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on September 24, 2010 (boomark / email).