Are you a Rip-Off Report spinoff?

Not at all. The goal and mission of KnowNothing.Net is similar to that of Rip-Off Report in the sense of helping consumers and victims that have been scammed and ripped off. However, the way of helping out differs.

Rip-Off Report is a website that gives the average Joe or Jane a media to which they can publishing their stories. The website also has information and resources on scams and what to watch out for.

Like RipOffReport, KnowNothing.Net does have a media on which people may post their comments and expeiences with companies, products, or services. While one goal of the forums is to allow people to post their experiences, it is also there so that you can request and get support from me as well as other members of the community. Furthermore, I will be monitoring the forums and looking for possible unethical companies. A company you post about may end up as an Investigative Report.

Your average Rip-Off Report contains the details of what happened to the consumer. Very rarely have I seen people dig deep in to the information about the company that ripped them off. Digging deep includes reverse tracing information, researching additional information about the companies, as well as compare and contrasting this information. This is what I do. I investigate the companies and publicize what I find.

This does two things:

It provides detailed information for consumers, researchers, investigators, and government agencies. This information can be used in investigations against the unethical companies.
It helps to legally protect me. Whereas Rip-Off Report is protected under the CDA (Communications Decency Act) because the reports are publicized by individuals and not directly by Rip-Off Report, my reports are publicized by me. Therefore, I am legally responsible for any information that may be considered slander or libel. By providing detailed information and evidence to back up what I say, I am protecting myself. In addition, it makes is so much harder for people to simply say that I am just "bitching and whining." It's called investigative research.

I have actually written an article for Rip-Off Report. At the top of this website is the article entitled 10 Things To Help Detect A Fraudulent Business. I originally wrote that article for Rip-Off Report. The article is listed on the Rip-Off Report website under the Consumer Resources section.

Finally, I'm not sure why some think everything is a pissing contest. I'm not here, nor will I ever be, to try to put Rip-Off Report or any other consumer advocacy website out. If one would get a true understanding of frauds and scams then they would realize very quickly that there's more than enough scams and cons out there to fill up multiple consumer advocacy websites. In any case, the more websites educating consumers and ousting unethical companies the better.