The idea is innocent enough: sign up for a Google alert to notify you whenever your client's name is mentioned in that series of tubes that is the Internet.
However, just because Google sends you an e-mail with your client's name next to a word like "scam" doesn't mean that you need to fire off that strongly worded letter just yet: Take a deep breath, count to ten, and then follow the link to make absolutely certain that it is, in fact, your client who is being disparaged.
This will probably be the new protocol hung over the postage machine at the office of Lazar, Akiva & Yagoubzadeh. The California-based firm recently accused the blog Boing Boing of causing "possibly irrevocable damage" to its client, Academic Advantage. Apparently, the firm found the words "academic advantage" and "scam" in the same sentence in one of BB's posts. The catch? First, the post was on research exploring the academic advantage exhibited by some people with autism, and had nothing to do with Lazar's client, a tutoring service. Second, the word "scam" was found in a comment following the blog entry.
The firm's letter spins a different narrative, however, stating that:
"It is clear there is no purpose to this web address but to falsely accuse the Academic Advantage of being a scam or at least associating the Academic Advantage with a scam. There is absolutely no helpful reason for the website to have the words 'Academic,' 'Advantage' and 'Scam' which leads me to believe it was created for malicious purposes."
The benefit-of-the-doubt explanation I've come to involves a lengthy history of accusations of AA's scam-itude, a form letter, and an overworked paralegal or summer clerk. Either way, things didn't end well for Lazar, Akiva & Yagoubzadeh. Per an article in California Watch, the firm was let go by Academic Advantage as a result of the ensuing media fracas.
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