The Blog of P.U.R.E. and Sue Scheff

" Wit's End " is now available for pre-order from a number of online retailers! Where to Order: Sue Scheff's "Wit's End on Amazon Sue Scheff's "Wit's End on Buy.Com Sue Scheff's "Wit's End on eRuditor Wishing everyone a safe, healthy and happy New Year!

As the kids get older, Christmas becomes different - now I am blessed with a grandchild, and of course, as all grandparents think - the most beautiful one..... Life is definitely wonderful! All the bumps and turmoil brings us to where we are today since life is not perfect. 2008 will bring my first book - " Wit's End!" published by Health Communications Inc . In January I will be announcing my second book with HCI that will continue to help people in today's sometimes crazy world and the issues we are faced with today..... I will announce it very shortly. Merry Christmas to all and take the time to enjoy your loved ones - family and friends.....

New Zealanders are employing "reputation protection" companies to eliminate inappropriate content about them on internet sites such as Facebook, fearing it could damage their employment or dating prospects. Dubbed "digital housekeeping", the online clean-up is one of the issues trend-spotters say will emerge in 2008 as the public wakes up to the potential dangers of social sites, blogs and online reviews. American company Reputation Defender is spearheading the trend and has five Kiwi customers on its books. Director Michael Fertik says four of them are paying the company US$9.95 a month to undertake detailed internet searches hunting for inappropriate, hurtful or inaccurate information and negotiating its removal if required. Fertik says customers mainly use the service to ensure they impress employers who routinely check social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace before going ahead with job interviews. But many clients are also concerned about pote...

In today's crazy world of Cyberspace - it can be a free-for-all to literally destroy longstanding reputable people and organizations with a stroke of a keypad. With this, priceless services like Reputation Defender have become in demand. As a client of Reputation Defender , I can personally attest to their remarkable services as well as their compassion to help people that are being harmed via the Internet. I was a victim of Internet Defamation and now a survivor of it - not only because I won an unprecedented $11.3 Million jury verdict for damages, but because I fought back! I am not a spokesperson for Reputation Defender, but I am certainly a very satisfied client and completely amazed at their dedication to keep the Internet a safe place for everyone. For those that believe that it is about hiding the ugly, think again - Reputation Defender is selective and does their due diligent. I am proud to be their client. When I went public about retaining this service, it was a diffic...

As a Parent Advocate I believe in keeping parents informed and up to date on today's teens the the issues they face. I have recently launched two new websites to bring you more information on the following subjects: Teen Suicide and Teen Criminal Mischief

Fighting against Internet Defamation can be an uphill battle - but there is finally light coming through. I meet with a Florida Senator for our second meeting and a very prominent lawyer joined us. Free Speech will always be in place, but it will not allow defamation or reckless regard for the truth. I will continue to be a voice in this arena and hopefully you will see some major changes and new legal avenues and ACTION soon. Stay tuned - there is much more coming.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and we have many things to be grateful for. My family as well as families throughout the country will be celebrating this day of gratitude. Proudly, my organization continues to help people throughout the world as well as my continuous fight to help those that are being abused in Cyberspace. With the help of wonderful services such as Reputation Defender , who I am personally thank for their hard work, there are many new legal doors opening that I want to thank. This will help keep the Internet a safe place. We have a long way to go, however the fact that prominent people are stepping forward to help means there will be positive movement. With the recent tragic stories of teens on MySpace and more, it is time to step up and be that voice. On this holiday of gratitude, it is also a time to reflect and move forward to continue to help and share with others. I have endured the wrath of people obsessed with me, my daughter's fight to survive a program that...

THE FIGHT AGAINST INTERNET DEFAMATION STRENGTHENS! As attorney's and judges are reviewing these cases, the recognition for action is loud and clear. Fight back - it is your right! Recently I have personally meet with both a prominent Senator and a well-know attorney. Both were completely astonished at the reckless regard for the truth that lingers on the Internet and agree, it is time to fight back! More and more lawyers are considering these cases on a contingency basis. Free Speech will not condone defamation and it has become more clear that there is a blatant disregard and lack of respect for the first amendment right. I am proud to be part of this movement to help other victims that will rise above people that believe free speech will protect them.

A letter from Sue Scheff (Founder of Parent's Universal Resource Experts – P.U.R.E ) In recent news, the United States Government Accountability Office ( GAO ) has conducted a study revealing concerns about abuse and deaths in certain programs for struggling teens. At P.U.R.E. we are deeply touched by the publicized reports, which found thousands of cases involving abuse and even death at facilities licensed to help troubled teens. This reality hit home with my daughter and myself and inspired me to create Parent's Universal Resource Experts (P.U.R.E.) My organization helps to educate parents that are searching for safe alternatives for their children as well as create awareness in an industry that can be daunting for the desperate parent. I offer sympathy to the families that have been affected by any ill treatment and as always, would like to encourage all parents considering this level of care to take the necessary steps to ensure your child's safety and well-being. The...

Today Sue Scheff and Michael Fertik ( Reputation Defender ) appeared on the Fox News Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. The discussion of Internet Defamation is growing larger and expanding throughout the country. Free Speech will always have its' place on the Internet, however it doesn't condone defamation . Libelous comments can be held accountable as in the Sue Scheff vs Carey Bock case. A jury deliberated for several hours over the slanderous and libelous posts and found damages in the amount of $11.3M . Currently, after Carey Bock Levine was denied to have the judgement set aside, the garnishment of her wages will start shortly. Mike and Juliet are excellent hosts and understand that this issue is a growing concern today.

The law of Defamation has come under renewed scrutiny with the advent of the Internet. This is largely because it is the nature of the Internet to give the average, anonymous person an opportunity to express their opinion well-beyond any previously defined venue. Consider the fact that a person of modest means now has the ability to publish a statement, article, or news item across the world in an instant, without an editor checking the facts. Thereafter, the item will linger on the 'Net for months, or even years, impossible to recover and amend, if the "facts" are erroneous. Therefore, it is inevitable that problems are going to arise. The main issue to remember when dealing with the Internet is that people still have their basic legal rights intact on the Net, and - likewise - the Internet is not as completely anonymous as the typical person may presumes. What is Defamation? The law of defamation has been defined in the West for centuries, and the Internet variety holds...

Recently I have been updating posting informational articles on parenting teens and today's teen issues. Click here . There are a variety of articles from different media outlets on subjects such as teen depression, bullying, teen suicide and more. As a parent advocate, being an educated parent can help your through the adolescent years.

Be sure to check out the Book Reviews for parents, I will be adding to it frequently. Many parents want to share what has helped them, so this is a good starting point.

Parents are the #1 Reason Kids Don't Do Drugs... Empower Your Teen To Say "NO" To Peer Pressure! Recently a parent shared this new resource to help other parents determine if their teens are using substances. To find out more click here .

As P.U.R.E . goes into an 8 th year of helping parents and families, I am very proud that I have been able to be touch so many lives. This past year has been the most incredible year but 2008 will be the best with the release of my first book - Wit's End! It is so exciting and already there are many requests. I have been interviewed with many prestigious and reputable journalists and the experiences have been so fantastic. Being able to be a voice against Internet Defamation as well as a Parent Advocate is where I am right now. Being slandered on the Internet is not fun, but helping parents that are desperate is very rewarding - so I am so fortunate to be where I am.

I just wanted to let you know I started a new Blog about books that are brought to my attention that either I have read or parents are recommending for other parents. Click here to read more about it.

As a Parent Advocate and a victim of Internet Defamation - I turned to Reputation Defender not only for myself, but for parents that have teens and kids on MySpace and other Internet Forums. Monitoring your child's online profile can help you prevent them from getting hurt on the Internet. Today's society can cause a lot of distress with people online defaming, slandering and harassing - especially kids. Protect your family online - check out the new website of Reputation Defender for "my child." Since I have disclosed I retained Reputation Defender , there will always be people that want to dispute their services - however when you have the truth on your side, and understand that Reputation Defender is not about erasing who you are - but rather about bringing the truth to light. With many businesses and organizations - there will always be people that don't agree with you or simply you can't satisfy all clients and customers. I certainly am not perfect and...

With this unprecedented jury verdict (not a default verdict) of $11.3M - comes more slander! If you are reading ugly and malicious information about me, you can understand why. The defendant - Carey Bock - who attempted to get the judgement set aside - was denied with a strong order set down by the Judge. She is being held liable for the defamation and invasion of privacy she created to myself and my family. I have also received a mass amount of media attention from prominent news outlets such as 20/20 ABC News i-Caught, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes and more. All these reputable journalist did their due diligence on my case. Freedom of speech is here to stay - Defamation is not acceptable.

Whatever can hurt you the worst, has the equivalent power to help you the most. For all those that have written me of their stories of Internet Harassment and Abuse - I received this in my email today. It is worth passing on to everyone.

Just a quick note of thanks to all the people that have emailed me about my story on 20/20 ABC News i-Caught. I appreciate all your notes and I am overwhelmed at the amount of abuse that is on the Internet. Personally, I will always have my critics, as many people that are making a difference have, but being able to speak out and help others has been rewarding. Thanks again to all that wrote. A special thanks to Micheal Fertik and the team at Reputation Defender and MyEdge for helping me to come forward and speak out.

Tuesday, August 14 th , 2007 - Sue Scheff and Michael Fertik , CEO of Reputation Defender were featured on 20/20 ABC News new series - i-Caught . Sitting down with renown Journalist, Martin Bashir , Sue Scheff and Michael Fertik share the seriousness of maintaining your Online Profile and fighting malicious and online attacks.

On Friday, August 10 th - Michael Fertik , CEO of Reputation Defender was featured on The Today Show on NBC . His service to help people monitor their online profiles and reputations has become a priceless service for many people that are becoming victims of Internet ugliness. Reputation Defender is not about chilling your first amendment right, it is about bringing the truth to the top! Unfortunately there are people that want to hurt others and their new weapon is using Cyberspace to literally attempt to ruin others with a few keystrokes. Personally, I am a client of Reputation Defender and hold them in the highest regard. Recently I won an unprecedented case of $11.3M in a jury trial for damages for Internet Defamation and Invasion of Privacy. Since this victory - the campaign to discredit and destroy me as escalated since some extremist believe the First Amendment allows them to defame others. The First Amendment does not condone defamation. I was a victim " Caught in...

Sue Scheff and Michael Fertik , CEO of Reputation Defender , recently were on the BBC and NPR Talk Radio with Dan Damon. The National and International attention that ReputationDefender is attracting is due to the overwhelming use of slander and defamation on the Internet. With today's Cyberspace world - more people will Google others to get information about them. It is critical to monitor your online reputation. Like Identity Theft, this can be devastating and potentially ruin businesses and people's lives. As a victim of Internet Defamation, I have decided to share my success story after the horrors of slander, defamation and invasion of privacy I endured.

Calling In Pros to Refine Your Google Image By Susan Kinzie and Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, July 2, 2007; A01 At the height of the cyber-abuse, Sue Scheff , a consultant to parents of troubled teens, would type her name in a Google search box and brace herself: Up would pop page after page of attack postings. Sue Scheff is destroying lives. She is a con. She takes kickbacks. She is the biggest fraud there ever was. The stream of negative comments began in 2002 after a woman who had sought advice from Scheff turned on her. The postings appeared on PTA Web sites in Florida , where Scheff lives. On bulletin boards and online forums. There were even YouTube videos threatening her. She sued for defamation and won an $11.3 million verdict , but the attacks only got worse. In December, Scheff turned to ReputationDefender , a year-old firm that promised to help her cleanse her virtual reputation. She no longer dreads a Google search on her name. Most of the links on t...

Reputation Defender and MyEdge is a service that is priceless in an age where a few keystrokes can literally destroy years of a reputable buisiness or person. Forbes, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Orlando Sentinel, New York Post and many other major news outlets have featured Reputation Defender and their unique services.

InternetGoogle -Proof PR? Andy Greenberg , 05.25.07, 6:00 AM ET Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook." Google Scheff's name now, however, and the first few pages of results are far less controversial: They include Scheff's own sites about teen pregnancy , her upcoming book, and, until recently, recipes for broccoli casserole and pork chops . That last one might seem strange to Scheff's friends, who know she doesn't cook. "The truth is, if it doesn't go in the microwave, I don't make it," she admits. Related Stories: Grading Google So who wrote the cooking advice at sue- scheff .net? Not Sue Sche...

Web can ruin reputation with stroke of a key Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, May 6, 2007 The first postings appeared soon after Sue Scheff, who runs a Web-based referral service for parents with troubled teenagers, advised a woman from Louisiana to withdraw her twin sons from a boarding school in 2002. Scheff is "a con artist," "a crook" and "a fraud," according to the messages, which peppered blogs and Internet forums for parents of troubled teens. Soon, calls to Scheff's Parents Universal Resource Experts dropped by half, said Scheff, 45, who lives in Weston, Fla. "People would say: 'You know, I just read this about you online. How do I know I can trust you?' " Scheff, whose 6-year-old service usually draws a lot of traffic, is a victim of an emerging phenomenon: online smear campaigns, which can wreak havoc in the victims' professional and business lives at the touch of a few keystrokes. "It is happening ... o...

Why You Should Spy on Yourself By M.P. MCQUEEN April 21, 2007 More people are running background checks. On themselves. Used to be, the best way to pry into someone's past was to hire a gumshoe. However, today everyone from prospective employers to identity thieves -- and even first dates -- can do surprisingly sophisticated searches, looking for skeletons in your closet. Schools, too, are dialing up their snooping. Wharton and Columbia Business schools are using investigators to weed out fibs and padded resumes. Harvard recently added a former professional screener to its undergraduate admissions staff. In the past few years, 47 states, including Connecticut, Missouri, Nevada and Pennsylvania, have released records from some courts online, with case files ranging from gun possession to littering violations. Specialist companies like ChoicePoint Inc. and Reed Elsevier PLC's LexisNexis Group quickly mine and sell information like this to companies for a fee. HOW TO CHECK YOURSEL...

April 9, 2007 A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs By BRAD STONE Correction Appended Is it too late to bring civility to the Web? The conversational free-for-all on the Internet known as the blogosphere can be a prickly and unpleasant place. Now, a few high-profile figures in high-tech are proposing a blogger code of conduct to clean up the quality of online discourse. Last week, Tim O’Reilly, a conference promoter and book publisher who is credited with coining the term Web 2.0, began working with Jimmy Wales, creator of the communal online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to create a set of guidelines to shape online discussion and debate. Chief among the recommendations is that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship. A recent outbreak of antagonism among several prominent bloggers “gives us an opportunity to change the level of expectations that people hav...

The Capital-Journal Published Tuesday, February 06, 2007 Once dismissed as foolish, Internet addiction is now getting second look from parents worried about teens' time online. Oh, what a tangled Web we weave, when first we practice to... get online. Many Topeka teenagers admit they never feel quite right until they have checked their MySpace, Facebook or e-mail accounts in the morning and when they get home from school and again before bed. None, however, believe they are addicted to the Web. Since the term "Internet addiction" was introduced in the late 1990s, Web users and medical professionals have dismissed the idea. Some think the long hours of isolation characteristic of too much Web use are just a by-product of other mental issues such as depression. But Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, said the idea is gaining popularity. Parents are starting to research the addiction as they watch their teens become more attached to the com...

Peeka-Boo! Kathleen ParkerWashington Post Writer's Group March 11, 2007 WASHINGTON -- It seemed like a good idea at the time. How often have we all pasted that cartoon balloon over the mental image of a youthful indiscretion? Thank goodness no one had a camera, we might add. Now everybody has a camera, and youthful indiscretions are captured for all time. And suddenly, we're not so young anymore. The MySpace-Facebook-dot-com generation has come of age, and some are finding that their silly stunts have come back to haunt them as they enter the grown-up marketplace. Others are finding that their private moments are not so private after all. Three young women featured anonymously in a recent Washington Post article told horror stories of their attempts to find jobs, only to discover that they may have been disqualified by online postings by virtual strangers. Gossip and graphics included. One, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and Yale law student who had gotten articles published in law ...