Gripeo Fake Reviews, another huge Indian scam, how to remove

We have already covered Gripeo recently, which is the iceberg point of a huge scam apparently covered by a butch of Indians/Pakistans that write fake articles between one Tikka Massala and one Bollywood Movie with a company and a bank account opened in the USA.

The website in the last 3 years changed business model. They monitor the web looking for negative reviews on people and companies, or also from the complaints they receive. Usually, they scan websites like DirtyScam, Fintelegram, Complaintsboard, Scampulse and so on … and simply copying-paste the complaint content.

They use also a (fake name) of Nathan Howards as the company CTO, as well use a shelf company BitReputation LLC based in the USA to get paid via bank transfer. In the last weeks, these idiots sent a massive email against all those asked to remove the fake reviews. Maybe they were not getting enough money.

They bought an old expired domain with a high Google ranking, that’s why all their reviews are on the first Google page. And all the articles are well back-linked with other 1200 websites. It means a huge scam behind!

We can see here (update April 2023) their Organic Search, Traffic and Backlinks, it’s a well-done job! With the aim to scam and get paid, they are seriously more scammers than Fintelegram!!

They are constantly adding more and more backlinks (you can buy online, and the price is quite cheaper). And 70% of the traffic comes from the USA as we can see here.

You can also read the Semrush report about them https://www.semrush.com/website/gripeo.com/overview/

To push their ranking, Gripeo posts constantly (via the automated Zapier) on Facebook and Twitter, same bullshit articles in order to have maximum exposure.

Yes, they want to make money with their “paid solutions“, a nice way to say: Pay us and we remove!

See here the massive email they sent

And they also kidding about you, if you refuse to pay them!

Now let’s see on Facebook, Reddit, Complaintsboard and Trustpilot all the other victim’s feedback:

on Facebook, we found also a page with over 900 likes managed by a Gripeo victim https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091373841960

as well as a Facebook Group with over 1200 members and victims https://www.facebook.com/groups/119062001150472/

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/q7ln90/gripeocom_scam/
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetardedExtortion/comments/12i0sqi/gripeo_tried_to_extort_me/

ComplaintsBoard https://www.complaintsboard.com/gripeo-b123823

Trustpilot https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.gripeo.com

Let’s see the website history and how changed in the last 2 years https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/gripeo.com

See now how they are professional and how they understood how to make money!!
They also issue you an invoice for the “Content Marketing Campaign” they provide! I never saw that in my life!!!!

Our opinion is quite simple: If you don’t want to be their chicken and start to pay their extorsions (because the 3000$ is just the start after they will post the same articles on other websites, and they constantly ask you for money to remove them), you can prepare a criminal case. They are serious criminals and must be stopped via Interpol, Europol, Eurojust and the FBI.

If you email them asking to remove, they will never do, then we suggest launching a DMCA defamation removal (prepared by an expert or also a lawyer) firstly to Cloudflare https://abuse.cloudflare.com/dmca, this is the first step that gives you one of the proofs you need for the criminal case. We’ll write in the next article how to prepare a criminal case against them, let’s continue here by disclosing our investigations.

Their domain is registered with Godaddy, and they use Cloudflare to cover their hosting, we are analysing which one of these is it:
www.ccihosting.com and the complaint can be addressed via email to abuse@ccihosting.com,
www.kinsta.com and the complaint can be addressed via email to DMCA@kinsta.com

Here you find the guide on how to submit a DMCA takedown https://kinsta.com/blog/dmca-takedown-notice/

The company they use to cover their “scam” is BitReputation LLC, a real and existing company in the USA, and here you find the official company registration with a fake office in

1309 Coffeen Avenue STE 1200
Sheridan, Wyoming 82801
USA

Here you can read or download the official company’s corporate documents opening

Let’s see now their company’s social also on Crunchbase or their fake website bitreputation.com it’s just an installed WordPress template with fake information (maybe the real one, is a fake Indian address).

We found also 2 links here, the same company’s name BUT this time with an address in Florida (can be always the Gripeo scammers or a pure coincidence).

https://www.bbb.org/us/fl/fort-myers/profile/internet-marketing-services/bitreputation-llc-0653-90401651

5237 Summerlin Commons Blvd STE 400
Fort Myers, FL 33907-2158
Get Directions
Visit Website
and a phone number (863) 323-2770

and here is the Linkedin of someone that appears like the company director (that match with the previous address, Forst Myers) https://www.linkedin.com/in/s-choudhary-097197210/ (the name starts with S, the surname Choudhary is an Indian surname).

Now let’s connect the company based in Sheridan, Wyoming, USA, with the (maybe) operative address in Fort Myers, Florida, USA. Google Maps helps us to understand the distance

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Sheridan,+WY,+USA/Fort+Myers,+FL,+USA/@35.4515336,-102.5254679,5z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x5335fa943c6fad65:0x293a47fe7b11d57b!2m2!1d-106.9561791!2d44.7971939!1m5!1m1!1s0x88db420189a85429:0xc62908530aba258a!2m2!1d-81.8723084!2d26.640628

They ask to get paid via wire transfer to this bank account:

Beneficiary Name BitReputation LLC
Account Number 9800697507
Beneficiary Address 1309 Coffeen Avenue, Ste 1200. Sheridan, WY 82801

Receiving Bank Details
ABA Routing Number 084106768
Bank Name Evolve Bank & Trust
Bank Address 6070 Poplar Ave, Suite 200. Memphis, TN 38119

Mercury.com uses Evolve Bank & Trust as a banking partner.

Receiving bank, 57D Account with the institution

SWIFT / BIC Code FRNAUS44XXX
Bank Name First National Bankers Bank
Bank Address 7813 Office Park Blvd. Baton Rouge, LA, 70809. USA
Reference field: Account 9800697507 for BitReputation LLC at Evolve Bank & Trust

In the next article, we’ll speak about how to prepare information for your lawyer and prepare a criminal case against these scammers, disclosing all the proof we have in our hands.
How to report Gripeo fake reviews to the FBI, FTC and Fraud.org

Read the previous articles:
Repdigger.com, the Gripeo.com bullshit website backup
Gripeo.com – The online slander defamation Mafia!
Dirtyscam.com, Gripeo.com and the online reputation business
An inside look at the slander industry, where reputations are destroyed