A company is trying to sue an anonymous Yelp troll for ~$8 million
Jun 29, 2015, 23:19 IST
REUTERS/Jim YoungLink is trying to sue a negative Yelp reviewer, but the person is anonymous.The Link Corporation is a construction company based in Palo Alto. On first glance it seems like a normal local business - providing people with services to build and remodel homes and offices. But it seems the company's Yelp page has gotten out of hand and Link has decided to take its reviewers - who are anonymous - to court.
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According to a recently-filed lawsuit, which just appeared on Scribd, a series of allegedly fake reviews were posted on the company's Yelp page. The allegations made by these Yelp reviews caused the company harm, and so Link is seeking damages.All of the reviews were posted under different names. Link is suing the people behind these fake accounts. One problem: The court filing admits that it is "ignorant of true names and capacities." So that leaves Link only one option: It must sue the fake accounts in the hopes that it will lead to the unmasking of the real trolls. Link's Yelp page currently contains only positive reviews and it seems Yelp has already cordoned off the questionable posts.The lawsuit names eight "causes of libel," meaning phony Yelp reviews. And for each one Link claims it has "suffered loss of its reparation and injury to its business all to its general damage in the sum of $1,000,000." Each defendant, as of now, is being named by the screen name used for the Yelp reviews.So, if this lawsuit proves successful, the construction company stands to make as much as $8,000,000. Of course, first it would have to find the actual people (or person) behind these Yelp accounts. On Reddit, a man claiming to be the owner of Link responded to some of the questions. "All of the reviews are from 1 person," this person claims. The Reddit comment adds, "we know who it is but in court you must prove who it is."Business Insider reached out to Link to learn more about the lawsuit. We'll update the post when we hear more.You can read the lawsuit below.Link Corporation Lawsuit by techblogger161