News
What Happened?
We recently discovered through the Google Transparency Report that a negative article on Gulf Brokers had been illegally removed from the Google Search Index or tried to be removed after a fake DMCA notice was sent to Google.
Frivolous defamation cases aren’t the only tools influential people use to silence investigative journalism. Reporters worldwide, including those at Critical Intel and in its network, also face bogus accusations of copyright infringement aimed at getting hard-hitting stories taken down or de-indexed by search engines like Google.
DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was imposed in 1998. The Act checks copyright infringement by criminalizing re-publication or representation of the copyright protected content. DMCA also, criminalizes the act of circumventing the DRM measures and safeguards the online content creators.
Gulf Brokers appears concerned about sensitive information posted online and has decided to take action. In this article, we’ll look into what happened, including how we determined that the takedown requests were fake, the likely reason for abusing the DMCA process, and the possible effects of organized takedown attempts.
Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)
By analyzing the fake DMCA notices, we hope to shed light on the reputation management industry, revealing how Gulf Brokers and companies like it may use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking them to allegations of fraud, tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking…
FAKE DMCA #1
Sender(s): Daniel KnowelsDate: August 16, 2022Fake Links: https://www.gulfbrokers.com/Original Links: https://www.cashbackforex.com/brokers/1854/gulfbrokersLumen Database: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/28464354
FAKE DMCA #2
Sender(s): Tara GregoryDate: August 12, 2022Fake Links: https://www.gulfbrokers.com/Original Links: https://www.isitascam.com/ny/gulf-brokers/Lumen Database: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/28433749
FAKE DMCA #3
Sender(s): Jason BlakesDate: October 14, 2022Fake Links: https://www.gulfbrokers.com/Original Links: https://forexrating.com/tr/brokers/gulf-brokers-ltdLumen Database: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/29159605
FAKE DMCA #4
Sender(s): Simon SergeyevDate: February 15, 2023Fake Links: https://www.tumblr.com/trustpilotday/709327715901325312/gulf-brokers-gulfbrokerscomOriginal Links: https://www.otzovichka.ru/catalog/gulf-brokers-gulfbrokerscom/Lumen Database: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/30746973
FAKE DMCA #5
Sender(s): Victorine MartineauDate: February 15, 2023Fake Links: https://www.tumblr.com/brokersreviews/709390549068742656/Original Links: https://seoseed.ru/otzyvy-o-gulf-brokers-obzor-brokera-gulfbrokers-com/Luman Database: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/30757028
Evidence and Screenshots
Only Gulf Brokers Benefit from this crime..
Since the fake copyright takedown notices were designed to remove negative content for Gulf Brokers from Google, we assume that either Gulf Brokers directly or someone associated with Gulf Brokers is behind this scam. It is often a fly-by-night Online Reputation agency working on behalf of Gulf Brokers. In this case, Gulf Brokers, at best, will be an “accomplice” or an “accessory” to the crime. The specific laws may vary depending on the jurisdiction. Still, the legal principle generally holds that if you actively participate in planning, encouraging, or facilitating a crime, you can be charged with it, even if you did not personally commit it.
So, who is Gulf Brokers?
Gulfbrokers.com, a Seychelles-based broker offering trading in forex, commodities, and CFDs, has faced several customer complaints and concerns. Major issues include:
Regulatory oversight: While the Seychelles Financial Services Authority regulates Gulf Brokers, some traders feel this does not offer sufficient protection compared to brokers regulated by more stringent financial authorities(Forex Peace Army).
High-pressure deposit tactics: Several users report that after initial successful trades, they were pressured to deposit more money. Following these deposits, many experienced significant losses, with trades turning negative, leading to financial loss and frustration (Scam Detector) (Forex Peace Army).
Difficulty withdrawing funds: Some users have raised concerns about challenges in withdrawing their money, which adds to the frustration of those who already experienced financial losses (Scam Detector).
Mishandling of investments: Some clients complain about mismanagement of funds and poor financial advice, which led to substantial losses, sometimes as much as 100% of their investments (Scam Detector).
Potential Consequences for Gulf Brokers
Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.
Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also involve passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states, including Florida, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.
Additionally, under Florida law, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.” Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).
Is Gulf Brokers Committing a Cyber Crime?
Gulf Brokers used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Gulf Brokers could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.
Faced with these limitations, some companies like Gulf Brokers have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.
Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Gulf Brokers is certainly keeping interesting company here….
The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.
Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.
What were Gulf Brokers trying to hide?
Gulfbrokers.com has faced various accusations of fraudulent practices, which primarily revolve around the following issues:
Loss of funds through manipulative trading practices: Some users claim that after making initial profits, they were encouraged to deposit more funds. Subsequently, their trades turned negative, leading to significant financial losses. This pattern has raised concerns that trades may be manipulated to cause losses after users have committed more money(Scam Detector)(Forex Peace Army).
Withdrawal difficulties: Numerous users have reported issues with withdrawing their funds, accusing the platform of making the withdrawal process unnecessarily difficult or slow. In some cases, users allege that they were unable to withdraw any money at all, which is a common red flag in investment scams(Scam Detector).
Pressure to reinvest after losses: Many users claim they were pressured to reinvest even after incurring heavy losses, with brokers promising better returns if they continued. This tactic is seen as a way to keep investors trapped in a cycle of losses(Forex Peace Army).
Regulatory concerns: While Gulf Brokers is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA), this regulator is not viewed as stringent as others from more established financial centers. This has led some to question the level of investor protection offered(Forex Peace Army).
Think twice before giving your money to Gulf Brokers (and its partner in Dubai, K&V Group). Their marketing claims of secure investments are misleading. Investing inherently involves risks, and some losses are expected. However, losing 100% of my investment due to Gulf Brokers’ mishandling of funds and poor financial advice is unacceptable. Then they blamed me for their mistakes and refused to take responsibility for the losses. Beware of their hidden fees and charges that were not explained at the beginning. Their brokers lack the experience and professionalism to manage investments effectively. I lost over 60K USD with their recommendations of investing in commodities and stocks in just 2 months.
more at https://www.trustpilot.com/review/gulfbrokers.com?stars=1
Reputation Agency’s Modus Operandi
The notices I found use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.
Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the copiers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers, alleging that the true original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the true original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.
How did Gulf Brokers purport this DMCA Fraud?
As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Gulf Brokers creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.
The company copies the negative content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.
The company then sends Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming that the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.
In committing numerous offenses, Gulf Brokers either premeditated action or was unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Gulf Brokers, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.
The Reputation Laundering
Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.
The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.
In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.
This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions. For instance, in 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) initiated legal action against the law firm Prenda Law, which had filed multiple fraudulent copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of a pornography production company. These lawsuits were premised on alleged infringements of videos that Prenda Law uploaded to file-sharing platforms, followed by the issuance of takedown notices. The EFF argued that such takedown notices were fraudulent and, thus, constituted perjury. While Prenda Law was ultimately sanctioned and its principals disbarred, no criminal prosecutions for perjury occurred.
Not In Good Company
Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators.
Ironically, the manipulation tactics to remove public-interest information from the internet are backfiring on Gulf Brokers, who are now associated with the worst of this world. Here are some of the specimens who share the internet space with Gulf Brokers –
Miguel Octavio Vargas Maldonado
Miguel Octavio Vargas Maldonado appears to be the former foreign affairs minister of the Dominican Republic. His name is listed next to more than 500 links to news articles, blogs, social media posts, and YouTube videos targeted for removal or de-indexing. Many of the articles refer to questions over his political fundraising practices. They include accusations that Vargas had received donations from an individual who would later be convicted of drug trafficking. Some targeted links remain active, while others return 404 errors or “file not found.”
José Antonio Gordo Valero
José Gordo joined OneCoin in 2015 and has been named in an indictment for the OneCoin scam in Argentina. The articles listed next to Gordo’s name in the documents reviewed by Rest of World include references to his role at the company.
Diego Adolfo Marynberg
He appears to be the same Marynberg connected to funding right-wing causes, including settlement efforts in Israel. Reports also alleged that his company received preferential treatment in acquiring Argentinian bonds worth millions of dollars. More than 70 URLs appear next to Marynberg’s name in the documents, including pages from the Israeli newspapers The Times of Israel and Haaretz and Clarin, one of Argentina’s most prominent news sites..
Majed Khalil Majzoub
Majed is an influential businessman with close ties to several governments, including the administration of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Majzoub’s name appears next to more than 180 URLs, mostly from independent outlets. Of the two URLs that pointed to articles from Germany’s Der Spiegel, one now returns an error message; the other, which appears to refer to relations between Venezuela and Colombia, directs to an unrelated story about Brexit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Gulf Brokers commit a cyber crime?
Yes, filing a fake DMCA notice is illegal. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows copyright holders to issue takedown notices to protect their works from unauthorized use online. However, submitting a false DMCA notice can result in legal consequences.
Under the DMCA, a person knowingly submitting a false copyright claim can be subject to penalties, including damages. DMCA notices require the filer to certify, under penalty of perjury, that the content in question infringes their copyright. If the notice is found to be fraudulent or made in bad faith, the filer can face.
What are the potential consequences for Gulf Brokers?
Civil lawsuits: The affected party can sue for damages, legal fees, and other costs.Perjury charges: False certification in a DMCA notice can result in perjury-related penalties, which vary by jurisdiction.Other legal penalties: Fines or other penalties depending on the case
Did Gulf Brokers commit a Civil or a Criminal offense?
Perjury is a criminal offense, not a civil crime. It involves intentionally lying or making false statements under oath, typically in a court of law or other legal proceedings, such as affidavits or depositions.
Criminal charges: Perjury is prosecuted as a criminal act, and a conviction can lead to fines or imprisonment, depending on the severity of the false statement and its impact on the case.Felony status: In many jurisdictions, perjury is classified as a felony, which carries more severe penalties than misdemeanour offences.
So, while it may affect civil cases, the crime of perjury itself is strictly criminal.
What is the Streisand effect?
The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms.
Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible.
Can Gulf Brokers purge its Digital past?
Once information is uploaded to the internet, it can be replicated, shared, archived, or stored across multiple servers. If you delete the original post or file, copies may remain accessible in other places, such as web archives, screenshots, or other users’ devices.
In practice, completely erasing content from the internet can be extremely difficult due to how widely information can spread and be stored. Thus, the idea that “the Internet never forgets” reflects the challenge of entirely removing digital content once it has been shared.
What is our next move?
Critical Intel will, in its capacity, do all it can to hold someone responsible for this incident. Here is what we are preparing for –
Since Gulf Brokers made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and our original review on Gulf Brokers, including but not limited to user contributions, remain a permanent record for anyone interested in Gulf Brokers.
A case perfect for the Streisand effect…
What else is Gulf Brokers hiding?
Click here to visit the Google Search page for ‘Gulf Brokers’. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)
To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with us. If you have any information on Gulf Brokers that you want to share with us, kindly email us at [email protected].
All communications are confidential and protected by our WhistleBlower Policy.
References and Citations Used
Over thirty thousand DMCA notices reveal an organized attempt to abuse copyright law.
Reputation Management, or Internet Conspiracy
Fraudsters are abusing Google with fake copyright complaints, and it’s getting worse.
Exposed documents reveal how the powerful cleaned up their digital past using a reputation laundering firm.
Over thirty thousand DMCA notices reveal an organized attempt to abuse copyright law.
Companies Use Fake Websites and Backdated Articles to Censor Google’s Search Results.
Bad Reviews: How Companies Are Using Fake Websites to Censor Content
The invisible campaign to censor the internet
Leaked files reveal reputation-management firm’s deceptive tactics
How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists
Fighting the Fakers: A Guide to Dealing With Bogus Copyright Complaints on Google
Many thanks to Lumen for providing access to their database.
Photo by DALL-E 3 – “a representation of Gulf Brokers censoring the internet and committing cyber crimes”
Our report on Gulf Brokers is, therefore, very critical because it makes Gulf Brokers an entity of suspicious character, stupid enough to commit perjury, impersonation, and fraud to manage their (sic) reputation or lack thereof.
We will file a counternotice to restore the removed article(s). In this case, that was straightforward; in other cases, the sheer volume of automated DMCA takedown notices makes it hard for the victims to respond, particularly if they’re not a large media corporation.
You need an account with Lumen to explore these requests in detail. Accounts aren’t generally available, given it’s a non-profit operating a massive database potentially open to abuse. Still, they do provide access to non-profits and researchers. Kindly provide us with login credentials.
We don’t understand why the US authorities haven’t prosecuted these rogue reputation agencies; their business model appears to rely upon fraud.
We asked Gulf Brokers for a comment or a rebuttal to this investigation. If we do not hear from them, It will seem reasonably likely that they commissioned the takedown attempt.
