http://lapbandsurgery.us/

First of all why the hell would a person post NAKED pictures of his dead wife to prove any point? Almost all of the pictures are of different women. The one in the halloween costume I've seen before in joke emails. This is a bunch of BS and I hope it doesn't turn anybody away from getting the lapband that truely needs it. I found the link to this on Yahoo! Answers from someone asking if the lapband was safe. Three or four people were directing her to that site so she decided to steer clear of the surgery. Sad...VERY sad!

You can report it to the domain if you want. I'm sure theres something in their policy about fraud but what they consider to be fraud may not be the same as others. It's always a start thought.

Why do people do crap like this? I understand if this was real and he was wanting to warm people but come on! I hope that someone is able to close this fools site down!!!!

Ive been doing some research and found a bunch of teenagers that are bragging about how they made the site. see: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=214352 I left them a nasty message and told them they have 24 hours to take the site down or else im calling the fbi. Hopefully they will.

I also made a post....I doubt saying you are calling the cops will do much...I doubt my post will do any thing either...it's just a good thing a post was made here discrediting it....otherwise some others may also believe it's true.

Not much to be done about it, really. Esp. not by the FBI. But do read my full post. The internet is still, legally, a free information domain. Meaning people can post pretty much whatever they want about whatever they want as long as 1) They aren't selling a product backed by false claims or falsely misrepresented, 2) They do not violate existing laws. (Not that one and two are mutually exclusive). For example, pornography claimed to be from consenting adults that is actually from minors is still prosecutable. Technically all this guy has done is tell a story. All he has to do is - well, nothing. If it came down to doing something he says, "It's a joke" or "It's a parody, like the 'redneck photo album'," and that's the end of that.

However, what he has done, probably unknowingly, is used a registered trademark falliciously. "Lap-Band" is not a generic term like "band", it is a registered trademark that is copyrighted by Allergan, Inc. Technically it cannot be reproduced without their permission. Had the creator of that site been smart, he would have called it "gastric banding", which is generic. But he did not.

And guess what - a little birdy sent Allergan an email this morning. I'm sure they'll be less than thrilled to learn of the slander and misrepresentation going on about their product, using their copyrighted trademark.

(And Carlene - no posting of physical addresses. For the sake of the board, for one, and for your own sake as well. If you do that, you're technically in violation of the UA - unless your particular source doesn't have one posted - of the domain registry service).

Ive been doing some research and found a bunch of teenagers that are bragging about how they made the site. see: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=214352 I left them a nasty message and told them they have 24 hours to take the site down or else im calling the fbi. Hopefully they will.

It's awesome that you found the "brag" site. I'd never heard of "link-baiting" before. But, from what I gathered there, the whole point is to create a site that is so offensive that people talk about it on message boards like this and post the link. That generates traffic to the site. So, the best defense is to *not* post the link, and to *not* go to the offending site. I wonder whether the person who posted the link would consider editing the message to remove it? Just a suggestion based on newer info than you had when it was posted!

Tami

The only problem about responding on their site is ..thats exactly what linkbaiting is. To bring more people into his site is just what he wanted. But, trust me, if he wants to play lame lil games then hmmm.. I'v read the rules and it says more than one can play. :croc: