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I was watching the nature channel the other night (my fav) about how much this mother cheetah had to work all day to find food for her 3 cubs… basically it is what her whole day revolved around… as nothing else was more important than those that depended on her.  Most frustrating was that every time her hard work, constant running and extreme commitment paid off and she finally acquired food for the family, and the cubs would catch up to get some nourishment, these nasty vultures who spent the day with nothing to do but just chill on a branch watching her struggle, would simply come to steal, harass, intimidate and essentially threaten the safety of the mom and her cubs, until they were forced to abandon their meal, and go start all over again in order to stay alive.  I kept thinking, that mom could tear those dirty birds apart if had to, but for the well being of her cubs, she always had to pull them back for safety, and just walk away defeated with her head down until she could shake it off and try again for the best interest of those that depend on her- because again- nothing else was more important.

As miserable as I thought that was in such a distant land, and couldn’t believe that such a thing could even exist, it occurred to me that sometimes we find ourselves in a very similar situation with our own set of vultures bringing pain to our lives as well-

I for one had two issues this week alone that made me think of the above happening to me- and thought I might share them with you.  Why?  Not because a vulture will ever change their ways- I really don’t think they have the capacity, strength or skills to do so.  I really just want to expose the dangers of these dangerous forces to my friends, family, anyone who can benefit, and especially to the 500+ dedicated co-workers that depend on me and the thousands of family members they are responsible for and must support… so that like the cubs, we can all learn first hand from watching and being exposed to what bad forces do to people like us, so that we can better protect ourselves in the future.

Now first of all, I have grown to accept that on behalf of the 500+ amazingly hard working and talented co-workers at rockit ranch and our venues, I have been given the job of having to be the one that needs to communicate about our products and services for the benefit of consumers who need and appreciate them, and of course in effort to attract customers to our employees who support themselves and their families by working to feed and please our guests.  And I get that part of that means in order to do the best job for all, I literally need to put myself out there many times in person, online, whatever,… and that can lead to some exposure where I personally have to take the bad w/the good… and I have had no choice in life but to be ok with that… and therefore I totally am… so know this has nothing to do with my personal situation as I am used to it, as much as it is about how much it kills me to think you are a possible target too, whether direct, or if part of our team, indirectly through attack on me… so hope this helps you…

My first run in came this week when my partner Arturo Gomez informed me that somehow the website www.rockitbarandgrill.com he had built, rebuilt and cared for over the last 5 years was taken from us.  How?  Well I guess the website address came up for renewal, the notice came as an email that went straight to his junk mail, it expired, someone who preys on these situations bought it that second for $29, and said we can have it back for $40,000.  Fun huh. 

From what I hear, this man just sits online watching for opportunities on the internet like above where people have spent time working to create something of value for themselves and waits until there is an opportunity to take it away w/o doing much work.  A vulture basically.  I tell ya, we were sick to our stomachs all week- a week where we were opening a new rockit bar and grill with 125 new co-workers all so sad that what we had worked years to create this communication platform for ourselves, a site that we had asked everyone we depend on to go to if interested in learning more about our team’s hard work and passion, all of which had just been taken away and held in our faces publicly for ransom. 

Worst was, he now controlled the content of our site address and purposefully sprayed our opening page with damaging words, references and imagery… including provocative pictures of random people… to harass, scare,… and ultimately force us to pay more than we could afford to end the embarrassment and threat to our pursuit of supporting our employees and their families, through hard work, as we were loosing interested customers every minute.  Thousands of people all around Chicago that we had worked hard to get to visit us online everyday, including all that simply googled us for info, were now seeing our site w/ our name peppered with this false info and damaging imagery.  Ya, it really hurt- but worse was it killed us to know we were putting our co-workers and their families in jeopardy every minute we didn’t do something about- something to take them out of that position of making customers confused and deterred, and ultimately somewhere else far away from us.

So now what?  Ya there is a swarm of problems with the obscene images, our name taken, enormity of damaging internet exposure… all by pain brought by just one vulture… and all I can think is… it’s just one bad person… do I fight him for all the wrongdoing?  Or do I walk away and try again, asking my partners and co-workers to start their years of work all over again to build trust in a new site name?  But how long does all that expose my co-workers to the dangers and threats that this person is bringing to us online every minute of every day?  Or do we turn our back defeated and try again in a different way, by working harder all over again to hopefully create more money, in already a tough economical situation, that we didn’t anticipate needing for this and therefore don’t really even have, to pay this bad person to make the threat and damage go away right now, for the safety of those I have to look out for that need customers today to pay bills and support their families?  I guess I have to?  I guess I will just walk away feeling defeated with my head down until I shake it off and try again for the best interest of those that are depending on me- because again- nothing else is more important. Right?

And literally, as I am dealing with this all last week, my second run in with a vulture is occurring simultaneously from a different angle.  This time it is someone impersonating me online and being damaging about it for no reason other than because they can, and because obviously they want to.  It started when I joined Twitter as it seemed like a way that a lot of people are communicating with groups of people these days about what they are up to- and of course- as discussed- that is my job for the team- so it is my job to try it out.  For those that don’t use twitter- it basically allows you to send little updates as to what you are doing to people that know you and want to sign up to stay in touch w/you- they call these people “followers” and the updates “tweets.”  My account name is and always has been www.twitter/billydec.com  and it is the only one that is legitimate.

I say legitimate because apparently someone decided to take what I had developed and make it their own.  (sound familiar?)  They took my name and picture and started their own account as an impersonator.  (only this time they called themselves the real billy dec).  Many friends thinking it was the real me would sign up as their follower- why wouldn’t they.  The impersonator would even go to my own twitter account and copy and paste my updates (my words) into their fake one so that it actually was saying what I was saying, which was what the real me was doing.  They also took it a step further and went to my twitter page and solicited my followers I had built up over time (my friends, family, contacts,…) holding themselves out as the real me, asking them to follow “me” (which was them) on “my” new account- what they called the real one- literally impersonating me in a very direct manner.  The impersonator sat there building confidence that it was really me communicating with my friends, family, contacts,… that they attracted to their account using with my name, my picture, my words,… and then to make it all worse, they suddenly would say something horrible that would be completely damaging to these relationships, my reputation, my character,… and as in the case above, all that I worked for, was now being taken from me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Twitter knows this is horrible mean spirited behavior so specifically prohibits impersonation like this… “You must not abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate other Twitter users.” And as much as I feel I am hardly worth the infatuation, appreciation, time, and obsession one must inherently have to maintain a parody account on me 24/7, this was no parody as it violated Twitter rules there as well.  Twitter specifically states that “The profile information on a parody account must make it obvious that the profile is fake.”  This impersonator obviously blew that in more than one way.  So what do you get when people don’t do anything productive and use all that extra time to wait til you have something they can take from you in whatever mean way they want not following any sort of honor, reason or rules? Sounds like just another vulture to me-

So what do I do?  I followed all the rules, followed all the direction to complain as twitter requested,… and nothing happens. And I get it- twitter is a world wide phenomenom with a couple dozen employess I hear?  It takes time.  Although, every minute of every day the person impersonating me with intent to do damage causes me to loose credibility, friendship, relationships, trust,… all of which I use not to personally benefit w/more high fives to 21 yr olds on the weekends which I could care less about, but really damages my abilities used to provide my role and service to my guests, the people I care about, and the team of 500+ co-workers and their families… all of whom are being threatened every time I don’t perform for them.  I feel bad this is happening to them- not me. 

So, I think, maybe I can just talk to this person?  Maybe if they were exposed to all sides they would know what it feels like to be responsible for the pain they cause to so many people?  How do I do that though when they hide behind this impersonator lifestyle and account?  Well, they must do this so that they can make someone like them, get someone to laugh with them, have someone give them some attention,… they don’t do this for personal pleasure alone to keep to themselves as that is just way too sad… so someone must know who this person is out there?   So what do I do, I figured I would just offer $1000 cash to the first person to correctly give me the name of whoever is behind this.    At least then I can maybe talk to the person, maybe show them a way to express their hate, love, obsession,… in a way that the law allows, or bare minimum, as this is a possibility too, maybe then I can prevent giving them so much trusting access as I tend to do with all sorts of people if they are potentially standing right next to me as a customer, a neighbor, a business contact, a friend of a friend,… scary huh? 

Not sure that giving someone a fat envelope of cash for an anonymously given name was the best route… but it was legal, worth it to me to know, and for all that care, it is still out there as what I say I actually stand behind as it is real and I mean it- unlike some people out there- who obviously don’t live that way.  Wondering- was that bad?  Is there another way to try to help the situation?  I am open to anything.  Is there a better way to make effort to protect myself, my role, my responsibility for those that depend on me?    I have to do whatever I can- right?  I mean, I have to act in the best interest of those that are depending on me- because again- nothing else is more important- right?

In the end, I don’t expect that you can change that bad people will exist- its nature.  I just know, part of nature is also teaching the ones you love how to avoid those that try to hurt you if you can- so whatever the case- this is all about you, the ones I care about- just be careful- they are out there- they’re watching- waiting- protect yourself- and protect what you have created for those that depend on you. 

Much love, Billy

 

 

17 Responses

  1. Luis

    Hey billy really sorry to hear that. It really sux that there are these types of people out there just waiting on the moment to strike. Hang in there. It should all work out in the end.

    You made a typo in regards to your Twitter info. You wrote http://www.twitter/billydec.com and I it should be the .com after twitter. http://www.Twitter.com/billydec!

    Best wishes and hope all ends well and more success to you!

    Reply
  2. steve

    Hey Billy,

    First of all, having had the domain squatting situation happen to me before, its a terrible feeling after managing a site for so long. I’m really sorry to hear some douche not only squatted the name, but took it upon himself to smear you and the restaurant. Since your site is back and you didn’t mention the outcome of the situation, I’ll assume it ended unfavorably, but its still libel to impersonate your business and your employees… Just hope some justice can come from that situation someday. At least the fakebillydec was more compliant…

    What I wanted to say was how your post really speaks towards a larger issue with online reputation in general. Reputation through human contact is obviously credible and controlled through the context of the situation, but transfer that online where context is no longer controlled and credibility is based off of the perception of the individual. Combine the network effect with anonymity of the user and a real problem starts to emerge. The greater your reputation is in real life, the more you have to lose and the bigger target you become. Just hope you can grow stronger from this and not recluse your involvement with emerging mediums like twitter.

    Best of luck with the new Rockit in Wrigleyville, can’t wait to check it out.

    Reply
  3. Pam

    As far as your business website is concerned, cybersquatting is illegal. You have a poor man’s trademark if you don’t have a registered one. Sue. Filing suit or having an attorney write a letter to the registrar should be all it will take to regain control of it.

    I hope Twitter solves your twitter account soon. 🙁 That so sucks. I just registered my blog name also because someone is cyberstalking me at the moment and when he thinks of it, he is just likely to do the same to me. I’ve been using a twitter account with just my name. Now I have control of both. Thanks for the warning.
    Pam

    Reply
  5. Tracy

    Unbelievable. Really, it’s truly disturbing to know that there are such vultures around us all. I am very sorry to hear about what happened, and all the years of hard work on parts of many that has seemingly been taken away. However, we all believe in rockit ranch and everyone behind the scenes. So with this being said, I believe your positive motivation, rational outlook, and sense of stability will prove victorious. We are a family, and we are reminded of this everyday through the culture of the rockit ranch family. I thank you for this. While there will always be vultures lurking around every corner, they are loners, but family will always help and support through good and bad.

    Reply
  6. Kim

    Wow.

    I just signed up for your blog…thanks for sharing. It is awful that these things happen to people who work so hard and make it a point to play by the rules. I will pass this ‘warning’ on to my boss and other small business owners that I know. Kudos to you for sharing in the hopes that you can save someone else from this experience.

    Kim

    P.S. I went to Sunda for the LHI event hosted by Jennifer Monti and thought the restaurant design was gorgeous and the food we sampled was delicious! Congratulations!

    Reply
  7. debbie

    Billy, I often wonder why the people on this planet that are smart enough to create the scams don’t use their brains and talent for the greater good. It is so frustrating to be the victim of that, we find ourselves angry, and yet staying angry enough to fight zaps your soul, spirit and energy, something those who network for a living cannot be without. I hope that you and your crew can find some peace and perhaps something good out of this mess. My only advice would be to not allow it consume you, that can paralyze.

    Deb

    Reply
  8. Lester Burgher

    Oh Billy,

    I’m sorry for your annoyance. It sucks when one of the most driven, focused and talented people I’ve met get sideswiped by a situation like that. You’ve accomplished so much in your life, and there are enough legitimate challenges that we all face…..it’s so discouraging when your efforts are couteracted by someone else’s greed or stupidity.

    Keep up the fight.

    Reply
  9. Sonya

    Dear Billy:

    I’m sorry to hear that you have gone through that. You are an amazing person with a big and beautiful heart and it is disheartening to learn that opportunistic idiots are being mean and hurtful. Keep sharing your blessings and doing what you do. This too shall pass and good will prevail. I wish you all the best and I’m sending you a thousand hugs.

    Sonya

    Reply
  10. Friend

    This is really a situation that should be investigated by the media. It’ll make a great story for an local investigative reporter….you must have that connection! (Turning a negative around)Plus they have cyber authorities and agency that can surely find out this impersonator! Just like they catch all the internet predators of child pornagraghy…It would eat at me until I discover this perbitrator and let him feel the heat of the public while pursing him like a felon!! Most of all it will reach the larger public mass beyond twitter….hang it there…good will always prevail over evil…thats just the way it is!!

    Friend

    Reply
  11. hope

    Some people are unbelievable!! You really handled it well and the site looks great. I do hope that if you can go after this guy you do. So many of us are working our butts off to make a living honestly it really ticks me off to hear things like this. I’m sure he wasn’t even thinking of all the people he impacted. Selfish idiot.

    Not sure how much this helps now, but I have all my urls on auto pay, so they automatically renew.

    Reply
  12. David Leslie Anthony

    I’m truly sorry to hear that Billy!! I had to deal with a similair problem whereby I had a “David Anthony” in London emailing ‘wanna-be models” all over the world that “he was casting for Glamour Magazine in the U.K.”. Both myself and Conde Nast (Vogue, Glamour, etc.) and I were getting phone calls and emails from girls asking if “I were casting”. The person was telling these girls that”all they had to do was send him $1500.00 for papers”. Both Conde Nast and I had to get both the London Police AND Interpol on this fraud! That’s WHY I now use my middle name on everything!! I’m STILL dealing with this bullshit from time to time. It DOES hurt a hardearned name and reputation!

    David Leslie Anthony

    Reply
  13. Frank

    While I have some sympathy for the situation with your website you have to understand what happened is like what would happen if you did not pay a property tax bill on one of your clubs. The legal authority in question will sell the property at auction and excuses like losing the bill in your business partner’s mail won’t hold up.

    Just like real world properties, domain names with age and popularity have value, some a lot of value. Letting them expire almost insures that someone will snap them up, especially if they have a desirable name. 1000’s of these transactions happen everyday through domain registrars like GoDaddy and Ecom. There are sites that aggregate this data and make it available like Freshdrop.net. Virtual real estate is a big business.

    It is unfortunate that the person who snagged your domain is being a nasty jerk about it. $40K is quite unreasonable. On the bright side, there are several options you can pursue to combat this, depending on the situation.

    Reply
  14. John

    Hi,

    Wouldn’t a better analogy be that the mother cub killed the food and then paid no attention to when it would go bad and spoil. Then after it spoiled and her cubs were hungry, she went back to it and saw the “vultures” eating it because they can eat bad meat. The vultures didn’t touch it until after it expired and assumed the mother no longer wanted it. The “vultures” are hungry too and the meat has value to them and the mother did let it go bad. If the meat was truly important to the mother then she should have taken better care of it.

    Just my opinion.

    Reply

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