Everyone makes mistakes but sometimes mistakes and just a fraction of truth can be fabricated into a web of lies causing a feeding frenzy for scam artists to take advantage of.
Your online reputation can take a hard hit and you find yourself climbing out of a hole that someone else dug for you. Why? Because these scam artists get their kicks out of hurting people; usually they’re jealous or filled with vengeance, but ultimately, they themselves are the con artists scamming the business person out of big bucks to make these lies disappear.
Anyone can say anything about anybody online. People can hide behind their computers, staying low on the radar, and spreading untruths. That’s exactly what happened to Wendy Stevens. It was a difficult season in her life 17 years ago when she admittedly made a mistake. Reacting on emotion, with no intention to hurt anyone, Wendy was ultimately forgiven by society and the people she offended for that $700 mistake. Due diligence shows her reported conviction of 17 years ago which she has made full restitution for. Completely open about this low point in her life, Wendy has nothing to hide, and she’s never tried to cover anything up.
In recent years, a scam artist has taken full advantage of Wendy’s minor fraud case and taken one truth and wrapped these outrageous lies around it – slandering Wendy Stevens as a scam artist herself. Wendy has maintained a life of integrity, and there is absolutely no truth to these recent allegations. They've created a sensation on the Internet, talking about a scam in which they have actually falsified. In today’s world, we can take any name or celebrity, even “Mother Theresa” or “Oprah” and brand their name with the word scam. Someone could take a “John Smith” who is a pedophile in Seattle and take a “John Smith” who lives in Nashville and tag him to what is an actual public record of someone who has a legal conviction.
Did you know that some people actually make a living as online extortionists for hire? If you Google “Kirk Kennedy,” you will find that you can actually hire him to smear an online reputation and then pay him again if you want to retort that smear. He’s got you coming and going. It’s like tar and feather. You can go win a court order if you want to invest half a million dollars. You're still going to have the residue of some tar on you.
There is the Freedom of Information Act that protects...You can say anything you want, and some people will say, "Wait a second. Can't you cite slander, libel, defamation, or file a lawsuit?" Yes, you can but the challenge is this – Google will not delist a blog unless you have a signed order from a judge. This scam artist literally posted Wendy Stevens’ private information including: social security number, driver's license, and other personal information from her life in a blog format for the world to see as if it was all the truth.
Online bullying has gotten so bad in our society. Wendy recommends writing to your congressman or your senator. But people are recognizing, we have to be held accountable for what we say, and we better be really clear, not on what someone says they said but make sure you're quoting something that's a reliable source.
It’s been the biggest lesson for Wendy Stevens, and she believes it’s part of the reason she experienced her own meltdown. It’s important for everyone to realize we're all capable of mistakes. Is the conviction real? Absolutely, it is. It's in Wendy’s book. She’s spoken about it from countless stages across the world. She asks her audiences, “How many of you have done something you're so embarrassed about or ashamed of?” Almost everyone’s hands go up.
Wendy states, she has friendships that are 40 years, 30 years, 20 years old and when someone picks up the phone who doesn't know her yet, someone who may have just met her in business, those people who seek out either references, referrals, people on LinkedIn…They say, “Hey Wendy, what is this?”
Wendy Stevens refuses to give in to online extortion. In the end, Wendy lets her results and proven track record with her clients speak for itself. She lives her life above and beyond reproach. She provides more value than ever in exchange because that's been a part of her journey.
In the end, this has been a path for Wendy to truly recognize; forgiveness is the most important thing. It's something she’s dedicated part of her online future to – for people to recognize where the real sources are and what to believe is truth.
How do you find out what's true and what's not? That's something that's important but for her own personal circumstances, the whole point is to recognize, we don't know what we don't know. We do know that all truth comes to life with time.
