old geezer must have his toupee on too tight and has limited the flow of blood to his brain
”
We’ve all read a post or tweet like this and we all recognize that not all comments about a company found online are pos- itive and not all reviews are glowing. How we respond to neg- ative reviews and negative comments varies. Article 15 of the NAR Code of Ethics states: “REALTORS
® shall not know-
ingly or recklessly make false or misleading statements about other real estate professionals, their businesses, or their business practices.” If the person who wrote the post is a REALTOR
®
and the comment is about a real estate professional, than the Code of Ethics can come into play when determining poten- tial action. Many people are turning to the legal system and claims of libel and defamation in response to negative online comments. Defamation is a false statement that is published or spoken, about an identifiable person or entity that causes harm. A recent case out of New York involved a consumer frustrated with the service provided by a home improvement contractor. In Mr. Sandless v. Fanelli, Ms. Fanelli hired Mr. Sandless (Matt Gardiner) to refinish the floors in her living and dining room. Ms. Fanelli wasn’t pleased with the completed work or the corrective actions of the company after her com- plaints, and posted many online reviews on Yelp including the following:
“this guy mat the owner is a scam do not use him you will regret doing business with this company I’m
going to court he is a scam customers please beware he will destroy your floors he is nothing by a liar he robs customers, and promises you everything if you want s### then go with him if you like nice work find another he is A SCAM LIAR BULL###ER
”
Mr. Sandless filed a defamation suit against Ms. Fanelli and was awarded $1,000 in damages. In his ruling the judge said that this post crossed the line from opinion to libel. “Terms such as ‘scam’ ‘con artist’ and ‘robs’ imply actions approach- ing criminal wrongdoing rather than someone who failed to live up to the terms of a contract.” A representative from Yelp who commented on the outcome of the case said “We fre- quently find that a better course of action, rather than suing your customers is publicly responding to a critical review in the same forum.”
Real estate brokerages need to identify who the spokesper- son for the company will be in making any comments or responses in advance of any potential negative online com- ments. While your immediate response to reading a negative review may be anger, it’s important to take a step back before responding and remember that frequently the best response to a negative comment is a positive comment from a pleased
24IGEORGIA REALTOR®
client. If you find yourself in the position where you want to turn to social media to vent about a negative encounter with a peer, conduct a conscientious review of what you’ve writ- ten and ask yourself “What do I want to accomplish with this?” “What are the potential ramifications of this post?” and my favorite “Would my mother approve?”
Social Engineering and Phishing
“Heads up, my FB account was hacked. Ignore any pm’s from me
”
“Another doppelganger FB account is out there— if we’re already friends, don’t accept a new friend
request from what looks like me— if we’re not already friends, then why are you reading this?
” I think most of have seen a posting like this or experienced
a situation where someone we’re already friends with on Face- book will appear to send us a new friend request. The con- cept of phishing is relatively simple; someone will “bait” us with a message, an e-mail or a friend request and we (the target or the “fish”) will take the bait and open an attachment that con- tains malware or provide information that can be used to harm us. Social engineering is the addition of manipulation of the target into taking action. In the case of one of my friends who posted that she had
been hacked, I had received a message from her account earlier in the day where she told me that she was traveling overseas and had lost her passport and wallet and desperately needed me to save her and wire her money. Since I had waved to her in the carpool line that morning, I was fairly certain she didn’t need me to rescue her. However, not all of her friends who received that message would have seen her that morning and based on her social media activity and frequent overseas travel, her plea for help would not be so easily dismissed. How to protect yourself? Pay attention to your passwords, this seems pretty basic and it is. Avoid the obvious “Password123” or your name and birthdate combination and don’t use the same password for multiple accounts. Install updates, this is also very basic but is often forgotten. Applications are updated to repair flaws that hackers have found in the system, install- ing the update is how you fix the flaws and keep the applica- tion running smoothly and safely. Verify that your friend is actually sending you a request before acting on it and don’t open attachments or click on links that you weren’t expecting to receive. IBM urges its employees to “Be Smart” in their social media usage and those words of guidance are very appropriate in their simplicity. Be Smart in what you post, Be Smart in what you share and Be Smart in how you interact with others.
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