A Groupon Rep forged my signature and I caught it before the deal was published. Here is the story. My lawyer has reached out to a Groupon Exec in the past who forward the ordeal onto their legal team.This was a last ditch effort to rectify the situation. Someone from Groupon created an email in my name on yahoo, changed the email contact in the EchoSign contract, forged my signature and included my bank information from a previous deal. EchoSign will not automatically sign your name on the document as Groupons co-workers stated before. The deal is still showing signed and completed 4 months later. Groupons lawyers have not returned my lawyers phone calls in the past few weeks. My email address aaronfoster55@ is structurally similar to wildfiretraining66@. I know that WildFireTraining66@yahoo was created in my name and that the email address was closed shortly after I contacted Groupon. Several people from Groupon have told me this is a verified company they were doing a deal with; I know its not and can prove it. Your own customer service rep told me that email address didnt exist in your database.There is also no other company in the DC area with a name similar to my own, let alone one that is based around fitness. On Twitter , a Groupon Exec mentioned that they reached out to me in November to apologize - that is also not true. One of the escalation team members stopped responding to my emails once I pointed out his story was incorrect and needed to have more research done. However, on December 13th a new rep called me to ask if Id like to run a deal. Groupon has proved to me that they either have a systemic problem with misinformation, lack of internal investigation, or lying and /or covering up - Im not sure which or all. Groupons lawyers have alluded to an cease and desist letter when I had most of my documentation loaded onto my website; this type of letter is usually followed up by a defamation/slander law suit. This is a bully tactic many large companies have used in the past. The law suit, by definition, will have no valid basis since everything Ive documented is factual and honest. I expect the story of a Groupon Rep forging a small business owners signature or trying to bully me will not attract the type of attention Groupon wants; especially with the documentation I have. If Groupon does decide to pursue a defamation/libel law suit it will draw more attention to what the events that led up to it. I run a small business helping people with fundraisers and creating healthy paths and have nothing to hide. This whole ordeal taking place on the steps of DC will draw more attention and potentially deter other companies from doing business with Groupon which isnt my intention. In closing Id like to tell you that my intent is not to damage Groupons reputation but to help them fix what could potentially be a very damaging story... Im hoping this is a one time event that Ive invested 4 months of my life into. Im not dropping this until we can come to an amicable agreement and rectify the situation. I would prefer an email response for documentation purposes but should you feel the need to call and Ill be willing to listen. Electronic Forgery: The misuse of computer networks, the internet, and various avenues within the online community in order to defraud potential victims of identity theft is classified as electronic – or online forgery. Electronic Forgery is quite common within the digital age, which can include the illegal and unlawful reproduction of endorsements in the form of electronic signatures in order to illicitly assume the identity of the victim of identity theft.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 23:20:31 +0000