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APRIL 2015 UPDATE: I am very pleased to report that the new management at Easy-Forex has permanently and irrevocably rescinded this threat. The FPA now considers this issue to be resolved.
Bill K. - AsstModerator
Most messages to the FPA get answered by the Forums Team or the Review Moderation team. Sometimes, things get passed over to Scam Investigations for special handling. This was one of those times.
Every forex broker will have unhappy customers from time to time, but Easy-Forex seems to have at least one extremely unhappy customer. He got angry enough to create a website promoting an upcoming book about what he considers to be the scams run by Easy-Forex. His website is easy-forex-warning.com. On June 18, 2008, he posted about this website in our forums here easy forex scam.
Easy-Forex has decided they don't want other sites linking to the website created by an unhappy customer. Below is the full text of a threatening message sent to us by Easy Forex on December 2, 2008. The only changes are that we removed part of the name of the person who owns the Easy-Forex-Warning website as well as the Easy-Forex representative.
On average, the FPA gets about 3 legal threats each month. Most are resolved with a few emails that explain to the person writing that they have the option of responding to negative reviews or forum postings. This one was unique. Everyone at FPA HQ was shocked that anyone would be crazy enough to try to hold the FPA responsible for the content of an external website. Since our investigator Gerard has shown the best aptitude for wording responses to this sort of thing, he was chosen to write the FPA's official reply.
Gerard sent a followup email later asking Easy-Forex's representative to reply about the FPA posting this. Easy-Forex did not respond to either message.
We decided to forward the message to the owner of Easy-Forex-Warning. He told us that Easy-Forex had complained to his webhosting company. The webhosting company looked at the issue and took no action against his website.
The FPA has never pulled a forum posting or an outside review based on a legal threat against the FPA. We have pulled a very small number of reviews at the direct request of reviewers because of legal issues they encountered or to help facilitate negotiations between a reviewer and a company. After some discussion, we decided to post the text of both email messages. We do this to show our members how some companies will try to damage or destroy their ability to post in our forums. We also do this as a warning to other companies that might try these types of coercive tactics. The FPA will never submit to this form of blackmail.
We have not gone over all the evidence of scam and fraud that the owner of Easy-Forex-Warning has posted on his site. We invite FPA members to visit his site and to form their own opinions. We ask you to remember that Easy-Forex was willing to resort to threats and intimidation to keep you from seeing the materials posted there.
Easy-Forex-Warning.com - The website Easy-Forex.com does not want you to see
Click here to see the first posting of a link to the Easy-Forex-Warning.com website inside the FPA's forums
.
Bill K. - AsstModerator
Most messages to the FPA get answered by the Forums Team or the Review Moderation team. Sometimes, things get passed over to Scam Investigations for special handling. This was one of those times.
Every forex broker will have unhappy customers from time to time, but Easy-Forex seems to have at least one extremely unhappy customer. He got angry enough to create a website promoting an upcoming book about what he considers to be the scams run by Easy-Forex. His website is easy-forex-warning.com. On June 18, 2008, he posted about this website in our forums here easy forex scam.
Easy-Forex has decided they don't want other sites linking to the website created by an unhappy customer. Below is the full text of a threatening message sent to us by Easy Forex on December 2, 2008. The only changes are that we removed part of the name of the person who owns the Easy-Forex-Warning website as well as the Easy-Forex representative.
To whom it may concern,
Re: Libel publicity against easy-forex
1. For the past few weeks, a forum operated by you has been publishing a link to an internet site under the domain name easy-forex-warning.com (The "Site"), which includes, inter alia, defamatory, slanderous and libel publicity against easy-forex, its functionaries and its employees. The Site presents easy-forex as an entity which is taking fraudulent actions against its clients.
2. According to easy-forex inquiry, the domain owner is Mr. Dan H***, which is currently undergoing legal proceedings with easy forex, arbitrating in court.
3. This kind of defamatory publicity in the forum operated by you, contains distorted and untruthful allegations regarding easy-forex, and is the direct outcome of Mr. Dan H***’s and/or anyone of his behalf efforts to damage easy forex. These allegations cause and have caused substantial damage to easy-forex itself, and its reputation.
4. Moreover, publishing the site infringes easy-forex intellectual property rights on the domain Forex Trading | easy-forex.
5. Taking an active part in Mr. Dan H***’s all-out war against easy-forex, by publishing the Site in the forum operated by you, without examining its content even after being notified that such a publication is occurring simultaneously with legal proceedings, infringes easy forex’s intellectual property rights and damages our company’s reputation and/or good will.
6. In order to reduce the damage already caused to easy forex as a result of your aforementioned actions and omissions, you are hereby requested to immediately remove the Site link from the forum operated by you.
7. Nothing in the aforesaid shall be considered as waiver of any of easy-forex’s rights and/or claims towards you.
Regards,
Easy - Forex Ltd.
Note: Please do not hesitate to contact me directly at: c*****@easy-forex.com
On average, the FPA gets about 3 legal threats each month. Most are resolved with a few emails that explain to the person writing that they have the option of responding to negative reviews or forum postings. This one was unique. Everyone at FPA HQ was shocked that anyone would be crazy enough to try to hold the FPA responsible for the content of an external website. Since our investigator Gerard has shown the best aptitude for wording responses to this sort of thing, he was chosen to write the FPA's official reply.
Hello C*****,
I am one of the FPA's investigators. Normally, I deal with scam complaints, but the forum moderators thought I should take a look at your email and reply to it.
Allow me to give my interpretation of each of your 7 points.
1. An individual who obviously has a disagreement with easy-forex posted a link to his external website. The FPA has no control over this external website. The individual did not request a formal FPA scam investigation, so the FPA did not investigate this issue further. If easy-forex-warning.com really does contain libel, then your argument is with the owner of that website, not with the FPA.
2. Very possible, but who owns easy-forex-warning.com and whether he has engaged your company in a court battle is irrelevant to your complaint against the FPA. Even if the court system in your country forbids litigants from making external postings while an issue is under trial, that would not be binding on a foreign website. Once again, your argument is with the owner of easy-forex-warning.com, but you seem determined to pick a fight with the FPA.
3. We provide an open forum where traders and companies may engage in open discussion protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. If you can prove in a court of law having jurisdiction that any statements made INSIDE the FPA's website are libelous, then I will see to it that they are swiftly removed and that the person who posted those statements has some sort of restrictions placed on his ability to post new items in the FPA's forums. Beyond that, I can see no possible liability for the FPA. Can you show me the error in my logic?
4. If the easy-forex-warning.com website somehow impinges on your intellectual property rights is a matter between your firm and the owner of that website. If there is anything INSIDE the FPA's website that infringes on your firm's intellectual property rights, please clearly explain what it is so that I can have the situation investigated and, if necessary, fixed.
5. I see ZERO relevance regarding whether the owner of easy-forex-warning.com is in a legal battle with you or not. If you can show me exactly what portions of his website infringe on your intellectual property rights and could be considered slanderous, I will check and see if posting a warning about these issues would be a reasonable course of action.
Further, the FPA has links to well over 1000 forex companies in our reviews. By your argument, if any one of those companies engaged in fraudulent behavior, made libelous statements about a company or individual, or somehow violated someone else's intellectual property rights, then the FPA would be liable for publishing a link to it. I find your legal logic to be flawed.
6. You have yet to show how we are liable because of content on another website that someone posted a link to. Please cite the relevant statutes of US law. I cannot imagine how an external link makes the FPA in any way liable for the entire content of an external website. I await any evidence from you regarding any possible legal violations caused by materials inside the FPA's website.
7. So, you want the FPA to censor postings that refer to an external website that you don't like based on a deeply flawed legal argument. You say that if the FPA instantly does 100% of everything you ask, you still reserve the right to go after the FPA as if we had actively promoted and endorsed the entire contents of an external website and refused to do what you ask. I'm not sure how I can intepret this as an incentive to jump through hoops at your command.
And now, my reply...
1. It appears that you would have us prevent any person who joins our forums from making any negative postings about a company or providing any external links without us having to have our legal team consult with that companies legal team about the possible implications of any items internal AND external to the FPA's website. Is your firm offering to pay for the staff of 500 or more lawyers that the FPA will have to hire, or would you prefer that the FPA site be labeled as "Censored by legal threats, no freedom of speech permitted - per Easy-Forex.com"?
2. You should realize that the FPA has never censored or removed a single outside review or forum posting based on legal threats. Considering the inherent nature of a review site, we find the armor of the First Amendment to be very effective against such assaults. So far, you have threatened legal action against the FPA, but failed to provide a single shred of evidence of actual wrongdoing on either the FPA site or on the easy-forex-warning.com site. Do you really expect the FPA to engage in full scale censorship based on no evidence?
3. Coming after the FPA with both a legal threat and a followup of "even if you do what I want, I may just sue you anyway!" threat in your item 7 is a really foolish approach to gaining cooperation. Didn't they teach you anything about the gentle art of persuasion in law school? Even a common street thug knows to tell his victims "Cooperate OR I'll hurt you" instead of "Cooperate and I reserve the right to hurt you anyway if I so chose."
4. Now that this item has been brought to my attention, can you explain why the FPA should not go ahead and do an investigation and publish a report on the FPA's website and email a link to thay report to the FPA's list of over 30,000 traders? Any such report would naturally have to contain links to the easy-forex-warning.com site.
5. Can you think of any reason why I should not immediately send a copy of your message to the owner of easy-forex-warning.com so that he can see how you are trying to destroy all external links to his website? Surely, he should have a right to know about this so that he can have a chance to state his side of the argument.
6. Is there any reason why the FPA should not make a mention on the review page we have for easy-forex about the fact that I and others here in the office view your heavy-handed tactics as threats and harassment in an attempt to crush the legal rights of all traders?
7. Can you tell me which financial regulators easy-forex.com is registered with so that I can check their codes of ethics to see if this sort of threat against an independent review site is a violation of those codes?
8. Just how many websites have you sent these threats to? How many of them actually rolled over, did what you asked, and then begged for mercy?
9. Could you go ahead and detail exactly what rights and claims you think you actually have against the FPA?
I look forward to your reply,
Sincerely,
Gerard B.
FPA Investigations
Gerard sent a followup email later asking Easy-Forex's representative to reply about the FPA posting this. Easy-Forex did not respond to either message.
We decided to forward the message to the owner of Easy-Forex-Warning. He told us that Easy-Forex had complained to his webhosting company. The webhosting company looked at the issue and took no action against his website.
The FPA has never pulled a forum posting or an outside review based on a legal threat against the FPA. We have pulled a very small number of reviews at the direct request of reviewers because of legal issues they encountered or to help facilitate negotiations between a reviewer and a company. After some discussion, we decided to post the text of both email messages. We do this to show our members how some companies will try to damage or destroy their ability to post in our forums. We also do this as a warning to other companies that might try these types of coercive tactics. The FPA will never submit to this form of blackmail.
We have not gone over all the evidence of scam and fraud that the owner of Easy-Forex-Warning has posted on his site. We invite FPA members to visit his site and to form their own opinions. We ask you to remember that Easy-Forex was willing to resort to threats and intimidation to keep you from seeing the materials posted there.
Easy-Forex-Warning.com - The website Easy-Forex.com does not want you to see
Click here to see the first posting of a link to the Easy-Forex-Warning.com website inside the FPA's forums
.