Terms & Conditions

 

1. Services

Effective Date: January 28, 2016

Scambook is an interactive online forum created to provide a place for people to research and share information regarding possible scams, fraud, and companies doing bad business. Equally, our goal is to also provide businesses an avenue to potentially resolve disputes with customers. The following Terms of Use outline your obligations when using the Scambook's websites, mo-bile applications, and services.

Scambook is operated by Business Resolve, Inc. located at:

501 Franklin Avenue, Suite 200
Garden City, NY 11530

In this document, we will refer to Scambook, Scambook.com, Scambook, Inc. and Scambook L.L.C. as any of the following: "Us", "We", "Scambook", and "SB".

In this document, we will also refer to any and all current, past, future or potential users of Scambook, no matter the capacity of use, as any of the following: "You", "Yours", "User", "Users".

This document will be referred to as any of the following: 'Document', 'Terms of Service', 'Terms', 'TOS', 'Terms of Use', 'Disclaimer', 'Agreement', 'User Agreement', and 'Privacy Policy'.

The Scambook Internet site available at www.Scambook.com and all related sites, mobile applications, and the various content, features, and services offered on and in connection with these sites and applications (collectively, the "Sites and Services") are owned and operated by Scam-book and can only be accessed and used by you under the Terms of Use described below ("Terms of Use").

"Content" refers to text, images, photos, audio, video, location data, and all other forms of data or communication. "Your Content" means Content that you submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site, such as ratings, reviews, compliments, messages, and information that you publicly display or displayed in your account profile. "User Content" means Content that us-ers submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site. "Third Party Content" means Content that originates from parties other than Scambook or its users, which is made available in connection with the Site. "Site Content" means all of the Content that is made available in connection with the Site, including Your Content, User Content, and Third Party Content.

2. Legal Agreement

Please read the Agreement carefully before registering for Scambook. By accessing, registering for Scambook, or using any of the sites and services, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If you do not agree to the Terms, including our Privacy Policy (incorporated into this Agreement by this reference) without limitation or qualification, you are not permitted to use Scambook.

Persons who are under 14 years old may not register for Scambook. By registering with Scam-book, you represent and warrant that you are at least 14 years old.

You agree and accept the above and the following:

You understand and agree that while we will try to keep the most updated version of the Scam-book Terms of Use located on Scambook.com/tos, Scambook may, in its sole discretion, modify these Terms of Use at any time effective upon posting the modified Terms of Use on and in connection with the Sites and Services, with or without additional notice to you. You are responsible for regularly reviewing information posted on the Sites and Services to obtain timely notice of such changes, and if you do not agree to the amended terms, you agree to immediately stop using the Sites and Services and to provide Scambook notice to remove you from any distribution lists or other communication list that are available to you through your use of the Sites and Services. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE SITE AND SERVICES AFTER SUCH POSTING (OR OTHER NOTIFICATION, IF ANY) MEANS YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE MODIFIED TERMS OF USE.

3. User Accounts

You must create an account and provide certain information about yourself in order to use some of the features that are offered through the Site. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account password. You are also responsible for all activities that occur in connection with your account. You may not authorize others to use your user identification and password and you may not assign or otherwise transfer your account to any person or entity. We reserve the right to close your account at any time for any or no reason.

Your account is for your personal, non-commercial use only. In creating it, we ask that you provide complete and accurate information about yourself to bolster your credibility as a contributor to the Site. You may not impersonate someone else (e.g., adopt the identity of a celebrity or your next-door neighbor), create or use an account for anyone other than yourself, provide an email address other than your own, or create multiple accounts.

You may not use an account to represent a company. Businesses are encouraged to create and register a Business Resolve account with Scambook to handle customer service interactions with the authors of complaints posted on Scambook, but may not do so using a regular user account.

4. Conduct

a) By posting information on Scambook, you warrant and represent that the information is truthful and accurate.

b) You certify that your post is based upon your own experience and is your genuine opinion of the product, service, person, or business and that you have not been offered any incentive or payment to write this review.

c) You will not post more than once regarding the same person/business that relates to the same issue. Any new or additional information that you have shall be filed as an Update or Rebuttal/Comment to the post.

d) You will not post any defamatory or illegal material or any material that infringes or violates another party's intellectual property rights.

e) You will not post on Scambook with the sole intention to harass or bully any particular individual, including, but not limited to content that may be perceived as cyberharassment, cyber-stalking, cyberbullying or an unclassified form of a "revenge post".

f) You will use Scambook in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations.

g) You will not post, distribute or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights except as otherwise permitted by law.

h) You will not take any action or assist, encourage, induce, or request that anyone else take any action which may impair or negatively affect the visibility or ranking of Scambook pages in search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo! or the like.

i) You will not insert or cause to be inserted any HTML, JavaScript, PERL, or any other form of computer code into any Scambook user account data field or into any webpage on Scambook.

j) You will not upload, or cause to be uploaded, viruses or other similar malicious code.

k) You will not do, or aid anyone else in doing, anything that could be disable, overburden, or impair the proper working of Scambook, such as a denial of service (DDOS) attack.

While we do not and cannot conduct an in-depth detailed review of every message posted by users of the Service, and are not responsible for any content of these messages, we reserve the right, but are not obligated, to delete or remove any content (up to and including the name of the person or business that you complain about) in any post that contains information that may be perceived by Scambook as any of the following:

a) Profanity (i.e. strong or vulgar language or content);

b) Obscenities;

c) Hate speech or the like;

d) Obvious instances of pure harassment or bullying;

e) Threats of physical violence or damage to property;

f) Images or information relating to minor children (e.g., pictures that contain images of minor children should be modified to exclude the child/children prior to uploading to the website);

g) Private personal information including, but not limited to:

        1)national identification numbers (e.g. U.S. Social Security Number);

        2) credit card numbers or related information;

        3) bank account numbers;

        4) account passwords;

        5) full birthdates (e.g. MM/DD/YYYY);

        6) home addresses of individuals unless the home is used for business purposes;

        7) images of child/obscene pornography;

        8) images that contain signatures (e.g., signatures on letters or contracts should be modified to exclude the signature prior to uploading to the website);

        9) unsubstantiated allegations of serious criminal acts (Reports with such content may be flagged for additional review/information, without notice, and be the cause of delay in posting or the posting being rejected altogether); and

        10) commercial advertisements, link building, and the like. (If you want to advertise on Scambook, e-mail [email protected] with "ADVERTISING REQUEST FOR COMPANY NAME").

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, and without notice, to reject entire messages submit by users of the service for failure to conform to any of the Terms stated herein. We also reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to update posts with Editorial Notes/Comments by Scambook that explain why certain action was taken, to inform viewers of our policies, and/or provide our opinion about a situation, etc. Placement/location of such Editorial Notes/Comments is at our sole discretion. Editorial Notes/Comments by Scambook will usually, but not always, be written in bold and signed "-Scambook".

Although we reserve the right to make exceptions from our own policies at any time and for any reason, content removal will generally comply with the standards described within these Terms. Nothing within these Terms may be construed as a promise to remove any content.

5. Content

Opinions, advice, statements, offers, or other information or content made available through Scambook are those of their respective authors and not of Scambook, and should not necessarily be relied upon. Such authors are solely responsible for the accuracy of such content.

Scambook does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information on Scambook and neither adopts nor endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made. Under no circumstances will Scambook be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from anyone's reliance on information or other content posted on Scambook.

User Content (including any that may have been created by users employed or contracted by Scambook) does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Scambook. We reserve the right to re-move, screen, edit, or reinstate User Content from time to time at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you. We have no obligation to retain or provide you with copies of Your Content, nor do we guarantee any confidentiality with respect to Your Con-tent.

6. Dispute Resolution

This Agreement and Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to any applicable conflicts or choice of law provisions. Neither the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods ("CISG") nor the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act ("UCITA") shall apply. For any dispute arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or Privacy Policy, the parties hereto irrevocably consent to binding arbitration in New York, under the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Association, and the parties hereby waive any objection that arbitration in such city is inconvenient. You understand that you hereby agree to waive any right you may have to a trial by jury. You hereby agree to waive any right you may have to participate in any class, collective, group, or representative action or proceeding arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or the Privacy Policy. The prevailing party in any such arbitration action shall be entitled to collect from the non-prevailing party, in addition to any award, all reasonable costs, fees, and expenses, including, without limitation, attorneys' fees and court costs.

7. Right To Use Content

We may use Your Content in a number of different ways, including publicly displaying it, refor-matting it, incorporating it into advertisements and other works, creating derivative works from it, promoting it, distributing it, and allowing others to do the same in connection with their own websites and media platforms ("Other Media"). As such, you hereby irrevocably grant us worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, assignable, sublicensable, transferable rights to use Your Content for any purpose. Please note that you also irrevocably grant the users of the Site and any Other Media the right to access Your Content in connection with their use of the Site and any Other Media. Finally, you irrevocably waive, and cause to be waived, against Scambook and its users any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to Your Content. By "use" we mean use, copy, publicly perform and display, reproduce, distribute, modify, translate, remove, analyze, commercialize, and prepare derivative works of Your Content. Scambook and its licensees may publicly display advertisements and other information adjacent to or included with Your Content. You are not entitled to any compensation for such advertisements. The manner, mode and extent of such advertising are subject to change without specific notice to you.

8. Restrictions

Scambook is under no obligation to enforce the Terms on your behalf against another user. While we encourage you to let us know if you believe another user has violated the Terms, we reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action at our sole discretion.

You agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to use the Site to:

a) Violate our Content Guidelines, for example, by writing a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other businesses, or compensating someone or being compensated to write or re-move a review;

b) Violate any third party's rights, including any breach of confidence, copyright, trademark, pa-tent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right;

c) Threaten, stalk, harm, or harass others, or promote bigotry or discrimination;

d) Promote a person, business, or other commercial venture or event, or otherwise use the Site for commercial purposes, except if expressly permitted by Scambook;

e) Send bulk emails, surveys, or other mass messaging, whether commercial in nature or not; engage in keyword spamming, or otherwise attempt to manipulate the Site's search results or any third party website;

f) Solicit personal information from minors, or submit or transmit pornography; or

g) Violate any applicable law.

h) You also agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to:

        1. Violate the Terms;

        2. Modify, adapt, appropriate, reproduce, distribute, translate, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display, sell, trade, or in any way exploit the Site or Site Content (other than Your Content), except as expressly authorized by Scambook;

        3. Use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other automated device, process or means to access, retrieve, scrape, or index any portion of the Site or any Site Content;

        4. Reverse engineer any portion of the Site;

        5. Remove or modify any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice that appears on any portion of the Site or on any materials printed or copied from the Site;

        6. Record, process, or mine information about other users;

        7. Access, retrieve or index any portion of the Site for purposes of constructing or populating a searchable database of business reviews;

        8. Reformat or frame any portion of the Site;

        9. Take any action that imposes, or may impose, in our sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on Scambook's technology infrastructure or otherwise make excessive traffic demands of the Site;

        10. Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site, user accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Site through hacking, password mining or any other means;

        11. Use the Site or any Site Content to transmit any computer viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses or other items of a destructive nature (collectively, "Viruses");

        12. Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Site, or otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site;

        13. Use the Site to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes; disrupt or interfere with the security of, or otherwise cause harm to, the Site or Site Content; or

        14. Remove, circumvent, disable, damage or otherwise interfere with any security-related features of the Site, features that prevent or restrict the use or copying of Site Content, or features that enforce limitations on the use of the Site.

9. Indemnity

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Scambook, its officers, directors, employees, agents and third parties, for any losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) relating to or arising out of your use of Scambook, including, but not limited to, any breach by you of the Terms of this Agreement. SCAMBOOK SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS, SPECIAL, INDI-RECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, EVEN IF A PARTY HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SCAMBOOK'S TOTAL LIABILITY, AND YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ANY CLAIM UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO SCAMBOOK IN THE MONTH IN WHICH A CLAIM GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY HEREUNDER OCCURS. THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE IN EFFECT TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

10. Removal of Information at User's Request

Scambook holds a permanent record of posts, including disputes which have been fully re-solved. In order to maintain a complete record, information posted on Scambook, subject to the Terms outlined herein, might not be removed. By posting information on Scambook, you understand and agree that the material you post will become part of Scambook permanent record and might not be removed even at your request.

Should the Author of a post want his or her post removed, for any reason, they must email [email protected] directly from the email address they created their Scambook account with. Their email should include a PDF attachment of a notarized document proving they are the author of the post. Please note, there is a $250 fee (per webpage) for each takedown request for Web Server and Maintenance services rendered. This fee can be paid to [email protected] via PayPal.

11. Proprietary Rights/Grant of Exclusive Rights

By posting information or content to any public area of www.Scambook.com, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Scambook an irrevocable, perpetual, fully-paid, worldwide exclusive license to use, copy, perform, display and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

12. Independent Parties

Nothing in this Agreement shall create an employer-employee, partner, joint venturer or agent relationship between Scambook and you.

13. Disclosure of Information

Except as provided otherwise in its Privacy Policy, or the Terms stated herein, Scambook will keep confidential all information supplied by you to Scambook, and shall use or disclose such information only for the purposes for which such information was collected, or as required by law.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, from time to time, Scambook may receive subpoenas seeking the identity of an Scambook user. You understand and agree that Scambook may or may not use discretion to object to the disclosure of information. In the event Scambook does not object to the disclosure, it may forward a copy of the subpoena to you at the email address you provided in your account registration so that you may take action on your own behalf. In the event you fail to respond to our e-mail and/or you otherwise fail to timely object to the subpoena or make other arrangements with the requesting party, Scambook may, without notice, comply with the subpoena which may disclose your identity without incurring any liability to you.

Although, you are legally entitled to publish your comments anonymously, at the discretion of Scambook, the personally identifying information of any user who is found to have posted numerous complaints about the same company and/or individual using different pseudonyms (be it through the same account or multiple accounts) or has made a post that is perceived by Scam-book to be acting with malice intent by posting in violation of the Terms set forth herein, may lose the confidential protections afforded by this section.

In its sole discretion, Scambook may also disclose your identity to any federal, state, or local law enforcement agency (including federal and state attorneys general) for the limited purpose of allowing such agencies to contact potential victims of consumer fraud and/or investigate other unlawful acts.

You further agree and understand that in order to facilitate the resolution of complaints; Scam-book may disclose your identity to any person(s) or company who joins our Business Resolve or other paid programs that promote dispute resolution. Disclosures made under this section shall be limited only to posts submitted on or after the date the company joins our program(s) and shall only occur where the company has agreed not to sue you and has agreed to waive any/all claims it may have it against you based on any Reports you have posted on Scambook.

You further agree to release and hold Scambook harmless from any claims that Scambook dis-closed your identity pursuant to these Terms and conditions.

14. Disclaimer of Warranties

SCAMBOOK MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, WITH RE-SPECT TO THE SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF RELIABILITY, USEFULNESS, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THOSE ARISING FROM THE COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, DEALING, USAGE OR TRADE. By agreeing to these Terms of Service, you acknowledge that SCAMBOOK does not guarantee specific results whether stated, implied, or otherwise expected.

15. Refund Policy & Duration

Our Scambook and Business Resolve programs have various features and packages that are paid per use features. By enrolling in any Scambook or Business Resolve package that is fee based, you understand and accept that the monthly fees will be charged on a monthly basis using the payment form you put on file with us upon registration. These monthly charges stay in affect until you cancel your membership with us. After 30 days of using our services, no refunds will be granted. If you are not satisfied with our services and cancel within the first 30 days of signing up, we will refund your money - no questions asked.

16. Non-Compliance

If you do not agree with any of these Terms of Use please do not use this site. By using this site you will be deemed to have irrevocably agreed to these terms.

17. Copyrights and Trademarks

All rights, title and interest (including all copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights) in this Web Site belongs to Business Resolve, Inc. All logos, images and text are © 2008-2015 Business Resolve, Inc. All rights are reserved.