You will find out about the Internet extortion scam which IC Talent and ICA productions and the owner of the two companies have been victim of going back to 2003/2004.
NOTE: The report dates from 2005, before the racketeering charges were filed against magedson and his sites.
The defamation about IC Talent and its owner was likely perpetrated by a competitive unlicensed modeling/acting school which saw their business tremendously diminish 8 years ago when IC Talent, a licensed Institution in the State of California opened up.
Desperate to see how good and legitimate a business ICA/IC Talent is, IC Talent’s competition realized that they could not compete at a fair business level. So they decided to slander the licensed institution and its owner cowardly and anonymously on the internet.
Unfortunately, once you have fake complaints on ripoffreport.com, magedson who owns and co-owns more sites, starts optimizing the posts, adds more of his own and then asks you for a lot of money to remove them. Read about our story above and if this happens to you: A) Do not respond to ripoffreport postings, it will only rank up the defamation B) Do not try to negotiate with magedson, he will charge you extortion money you cannot or do not wish to pay.)
You can’t sue someone who moves all the time, has no assets and has servers in China! You will just spend thousands of dollars for nothing like the IC Talent Institution did.
ED MAGEDSON IS THE MAIN SUSPECT IN A FBI INVESTIGATION ALONG WITH HIS EXTORTION SITES: RIPOFFREPORT, BADBUSINESSBUREAU, ETC…. INDEED, RACKETEERING CHARGES ARE BEING FILED.
Conspiracy and Racketeering (RICO) proceedings as well as claims for defamation and invasion of privacy are being issued against ed magedson, again the owner of ripoffreport, Bad Business Bureau etc…
ICA, now ICA Productions and the IC Talent licensed acting school in the State of California and its owner are not only victims of Ed Magedson’s extortion scam on his own sites, HIS EDITORIAL CONTROL GOES BEYOND HIS SITES:
BEWARE OF OTHER SITES WHICH MAGEDSON OWNS AND MORE SITES WHICH HE USES IN AN ATTEMPT TO AD CREDIT TO THE DEFAMATION ON RIPOFFREPORT.COM MAGEDSON FILLS OUT “FORUM” LIKE “POSTINGS” ON SITES SUCH AS: scam.com.
Scam.com may be a site where people unload their anger or dissatisfaction, yet, to my surprise, after I contacted them, they removed magedson's link and defamation!
It gives them a lot of credibility in my eyes because they apparently check on the legitimacy and veracity of the postings on their site. Other legitimate sites such as mamapedia.com, topix.com and backstage.com, which magedson attempted to post on, after verifying the source, removed the defamation.
If you go to any of the sites I just mentioned and search for IC Talent or ICA, the magedson slander was taken out. The only sites where the defamation perpetrated by magedson remains are his own.
Exposing the racketeering:
This next site, owned by a different company than IC Talent is the most thorough and delivers a powerful message of caution against extortion, defamation and slander:
This other site owned by another company than IC Talent used our site and created their own. The "swiney" result speaks for itself:
IC Talent's owner also owns ICA productions. She is a producer, an animal activist, a business owner and a teacher and she is not the only person who wishes to warn the public against the ripoffreport site owned by ed magedson:
Next is a company (Mini Vacations), which was also the victim of the extortion site. Under the pretense of getting an authorization from corporate for the release of funds to pay off magedson they managed to obtain a written demand of extortion by magedson:
EXTORTION EMAILS FROM MAGEDSON TO MINI VACATIONS:
Notice how magedson the extortionist indicates shamelessly to Mini Vacations:
"""WE FEEL THAT AN UPFRONT FEE OF $7,500 SHOULD BE REQUIRED, MADE PAYABLE TO BADBUSINESSBUREAU.COM FOR ANY OTHER SUBSTANTIATED RIP-OFF-REPORTS THAT COME UP IN THE FUTURE, THERE WILL BE A $50.00 CHARGE AND WE WILL NOTICE YOU BY EMAIL THAT A REPORT HAS COME IN. WE WOULD ALSO ASK AFTER ALLREPORTS ARE PROPERLY UPDATED THAT AN ADDITIONAL DONATION BE MADE TO BADBUSINESS BUREAU OF $3,000 WHICH WILL PROMOTE TO CONSUMERS AS A GOOD WILL GESTURE AND WILL GUARANTEE MUCH MORE IN GOOD WILL AND ADVERTISEMENT THAN THE MONEY PAID"""
Notice how he indicates after writing some faux concerns for Mini Vacation' s customers: ""DO NOT FORGET TO SEND THE WHEEL BARREL WITH THE DISCUSSED CONTENT. ONE BARREL FULL WILL BE SUFFICIENT"""
Once a company pays up, there is no limit. Imagine $50 every time magedson removes/alters posts while he is the one writing them!
Google: ed magedson, you will find valuable sites like this one:
Here is more, Federal Financial, a company which owner spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to locate Ed Magedson and get him arrested:
Some companies managed to sue the ripoffreport federally and won, but ed magedson moves all the time, never removed the defamation, his servers are in China (!) and because he has no assets, he never paid up!
ED MAGEDSON DOES NOT HAVE ANY UTILITIES UNDER HIS NAME.
ED MAGEDSON HAS NO RESIDENCE UNDER HIS NAME.
ED MAGEDSON HAS A FEW LAWSUITS OUT OF FLORIDA AND DIFFERENT STATES IN THE US.
ED MAGEDSON HAS A FEW UNSATISFIED JUDGEMENTS AGAINST HIM.
ED MAGEDSON IS IN HIDING!
IN JUNE 3RD 2004 WHEN THIS SITE FIRST CAME OUT, ED MAGEDSON IMMEDIATELY ADDED A FAKE COMPLAINT TO THE COLLECTION HE POSTED ON HIS SITE ABOUT IC TALENT, THEN PART OF ICA, ACCUSING US OF BEING A SIMILAR COMPANY TO ONE OF THE FRANCHISED MODELING SCHOOLS.
"Our companies ICA productions and IC Talent would love to sue and we have spent over $100,000 in private detective fees attempting to find magedson, along with huge attorneys' fees." says Goldnadel.
However, magedson and his sites are protected by the same law which keeps pornographic sites harmless when people post inappropriate comments. Such law states that a site is not liable for content written by another party. Helene Goldnadel and ICA productions/IC Talent know for a fact that magedson not only published "complaints" on his sites, which veracity he did not check, but he additionally made up his own posts.
Such editorial control is against the Law. Furthermore, editing the defamed party's responses and charging money for such responses is racketeering AND ASKING FOR MONEY TO REMOVE DEFAMATION IS EXTORTION.
All of magedson's victims are looking forward to the day when his computers are seized by the FBI and it is then proven that he posted the defamation and slander. Once your competition and/or a previous disgruntled employee start the defamation, it is really easy for magedson to pick up from there, achieve ranking on Google by optimizing the now, numerous “posts” and then... Ask you for money.
WARNING: IC Talent and ICA (International Creative Artists) wish to warn individuals such as disgruntled employees or competitor type of businesses, seeking to harm IC Talent, ICA and or its owner, and/or employees, and/or graduates, by posting defaming comments on magedson's site.
All the companies and individuals suing magedson and his shaddy extorsion business will eventually have access to information pertaining to the identity of the parties who posted the slandering, defaming comments. Including of course magedson himself, his employees and partners. Such criminals will be sued to the full extent of the Law.
As I am updating the links on this site which was created in 2004, I will share that I am one of the IC Talent employees with a family to feed and a deep love for children and the film and TV industry.
As I am putting this text together for Helene and the company, I decided to sit with her in order to get a sense of how she feels about the magedson extortion scam which has been haunting her for years: Helene Goldnadel is the kind of person who keeps on going no matter what is done to her, because she knows she is in the right.
"I would never have collided with this character if it weren't for the anonymity of the Internet", says Helene Goldnadel, the owner of ICA and IC Talent. Ed Magedson isn't anybody I would ever have had any type of contact or conversation with. Magedson has no skills, no education.
All he has is those sites and within his racketeering business, there are about ten business owners and individuals who pay him off monthly like the cyberspace “garbage collector” he is. It is incredible to think that, years ago, magedson would have been sitting on the curb with a cup in hand, yelling at every person going by and calling them names.
Now someone like him can do it on the Internet and attempt to get paid for it. Not by me", says Goldnadel, "I did nothing to that man, I don't know him and he on the other hand does not know who I am and he doesn’t care how hard I work in order to empower our children and talent. I catch myself at times regretting not having negotiated a monthly amount with him like those ten businesses that are keeping the racketeering alive.
I then realize that I just couldn’t support extortion. I, unlike magedson have to look at myself in the mirror every morning and notwithstanding the signs of aging outside, I have to like what’s inside. I’m a person of integrity and honor, says Goldnadel, ultimately, a higher judgment will prevail".
Important links about ed magedson and ripoffreport.com:
(More business owners and companies’ testimonies of his “shake down”, extortion and racketeering business.)
Ed Magedson, founder and editor of Ripoff Report is an emotional terrorist who makes millions of dollars a year from publishing false and offensive content masquerading as ‘consumer advocacy’. As is evident in this Forbes article, Magedson seems to take delight in his power to hurt people. Magedson apparently did not like the Forbes article and very soon after derogatory content was published on Ripoff Report about the author, Adam Tanner. Magedson regularly publishes the home addresses, phone numbers and even birth dates of minors on webpages containing false content about their parents (such as referring to them as prostitutes, pedophiles and/or deadbeat dads and mothers).
Even if the webpage on Ripoff Report contains a legitimate consumer complaint, Magedson refuses to remove terms such as ‘fraud’, ‘whore’ ‘skank’ or ‘drug dealer’ unless he is paid by one method or another. Magedson regularly refuses to remove identifying details and photographs about children even after their parents literally beg him for months to at least remove the content about their kids. This may prove to be Magedson’s ultimate downfall!
Ripoff Report publishes maps of the home location along with photographs of the children on many of the webpages. Magedson is a monster who, by these actions puts children in danger from pedophiles. He appears to ‘get off’ from his power enabled by a high Google page rank and ability to inflict harm and this is portrayed in the Forbes article as well as numerous blog posts.
There is current evidence that Magedson actually paid a troll who was publishing content on Ripoff Report to include photos of minors because he was ‘angry’ with the children’s father. Magedson will only remove content if he is paid thousands of dollars. Ed Magedson purports to be the voice of the consumer but he is an extortionist who pays his minions to write false material. In fact, Magedson’s self described ‘reputation hitman’, Darren M Meade was recently indicted in a US court on a range of charges including extortion and witness tampering.
So it was quite amusing, but not surprising to learn that Magedson has somehow annoyed members of Anonymous and 4chan. According to various reports, Magedson is in hiding because people want to kill him. I don’t condone violence but I cannot say that I am surprised. The video showing his residence that was published by a member of 4chan was removed from YouTube within hours because Magedson complained. I am informed that is will be back online 100 fold very soon.
Clearly, although Magedson uses ‘freedom of speech’ as an excuse to earn $15 million a year from his various extortion activities that are masked as consumer advocacy. Magedson does not believe that the re-publication of factual information or opinion applies to information about him and sends his attorneys Maria Crimi-Spethand Adam Kunz to shut down, more often than not unsuccessfully, the dissemination of anything he does not like. In fact, as is evident in a range of documents submittedinto the Iowa case, the removal of material from Ripoff Report for substantial payment is rife. In fact, this extortion has been going on for more than a decade.
This is Magedson’s home address. He owns a luxury house in an upmarket suburb, Fountain Hills, near to the city of Phoenix Arizona. Ed Magedson’s home address is registered with the county court so it took a mere couple of keyboard clicks for anonymous members to find it.
Ed Magedson
15821 E Jericho Dr
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
Magedson bought this house in 2009 and a Google search for the address displays extensive maps of its location as well as photographs and specifics of its layout.
If my blog host and server company receives a complaint from Magedson’s attorneys (Jaburg & Wilk) let me say this: Before you consider taking this post offline, please check the Maricopa County Court Documents. I think that you will find that Magedson’s address is a public record. Anonymous found it quite easily. Please also look at this list of URLs from Ripoff Report. It is clear that Magedson publishes the addresses and location of minors because he is cruel and gets a kick out of his power to not remove them even though it relates to children. Ed Magedson clearly likes the power to destroy lives afforded to him by Ripoff Report but apparently Magedson has pissed off some people with more power and resources than him.
I have heard rumours that a drug cartel is looking for Magedson because he refused to remove a ror report that included location details about one of their people’s family. I can imagine that by nature of their business drug traffickers don’t like their identity and location publicised on the internet. I cannot say if this rumour is true. Magedson is prone to cry to the police or FBI with exaggerated tales that there have been death threats against him. For the record, I have not heard first hand that members of a drug cartel that does business in the south west of Arizona (he only lives a couple of hours drive from the business center of the most powerfull drug cartel in that area) is looking for Magedson. It is just a rumour. However, from what I have read, it is not wise to cross these people if one values their life.
From what I have read, even bodyguards are not sufficient protection because they can be bought off or persuaded. Magedson is notoriously cheap and I doubt he would pay enough to ensure loyalty. Plus those cartels have way more capital and resources than Magedson. I doubt whether the loyalty of any bodyguard to a client would extend to giving up his families lives. Maybe it is better to take the extra cash and see the client’s head on a stick than those of their families? All I am saying that Magedson has pissed off too many people by refusing to remove material from the website. If I had dissed a family member of a drug cartel I would not even trust people on the payroll let alone bodyguards, especially if one liked to party with young guys, or order take-away food.
So while Anonymous and 4Chan are his current problems at least they are displaying their grievances in the public domain. Moreover, they are not violent and Magedson is in no danger of personal harm from them or their associates. But I doubt whether Anonymous and 4chan are his biggest problem. It is just a question of who gets him first, the Feds or the cartel. If I were in his position I would be knocking on the Feds door. Magedson has hurt a lot of people but he has also pissed of some who are more powerfull than those that can be kept at arms length by his attorneys. I do not condone violence or drugs and I have no links to those that do. But I have done a lot of research over the last four years for my case. All I am saying is that if I were Magedson I would worry that my head would turn up on a stick in affluent Fountain Hills and my body south of the border and not trust anyone, let alone those he pays for protection and other services.
It seems that our victims’ advocacy is not the only people to stand up to Ripoff Report. After four years of reading emails, blog posts and comments from victims detailing their unanswered pleas to this despicable extortionist to remove humiliating, false and offensive material from Ripoff Report this video shows an actual extortion attempt: