@ksansom wrote:
I'm offering this because when i first started to MS 13 years ago, I was scammed out of around $500 and lost about the same amount due to not having any help or anyone to call.
My $.02; Many of us were around online and MSing 13 years ago, and offering free advice to those who were being scammed, or about to be scammed, and have continued to do so...for free, throughout that time. I'm sorry that you didn't find a link to the previous MS board where many of us shared and helped others back when you started out. It would have saved you a lot of trouble, and your long journey to discover much of the information about mystery shopping that you are attempting to sell for a profit now would have been much easier.
You have an absolute right to package up and sell this information for profit, but it would probably benefit you to understand the point of view from a group that includes many who have been at this longer than you, which is that it is somewhat offensive.
You claim to be "an extremely nice and good person," but have come here with a claim of lawsuits for slander, defamation, and loss of potential sales/income against an anonymous group of mystery shoppers, and the forum owner, with an apparent endless list of law firms that will back you up. Let's have a civil and rational discussion about that.
These do not seem like the actions of a nice/good person. They seem more like the actions of someone trying to dominate a market and profit from it by utilizing bullying and scare tactics. Where is that women-helping-women attitude from your side?
And as far as a lawsuit goes, I believe you need to have a proven value for a product to sue for loss of sales. You can market a PBJ recipe all day long for any price you want, but you cannot sue for loss of sales when others point out that said recipe is commonly available for free.
One thing I have learned about attorneys in my time is that they are often profit driven. They generally do not work for free, and very few of us, if any, turn a profit from dispensing advance about mystery shopping. The mystery shopping industry in general does not make a lot of money. Most people doing this full time on all sides are just getting by. Many others fail to even do that. This leaves very little opportunity for collecting any judgement for slander, or anything else, providing you could actually win case after locating the majority of people involved, which you most likely cannot.
Feel free to screenshot this and show it to your attorney. That will save you all a lot of time, effort and money. You can also save up to $10k by not launching said advertising campaign, doing some research and realizing that the market for this may not be as great as you think. Much of the information you are attempting to monetize is publicly available. For free. Just like my advice. Completely free.
That said, if you want to Venmo me $5 I have a great PB&J recipe