Cash4Gold's Response to Laratro Quote in MSNBC Article

The purpose of this blog is to lay out critical arguments of Cash4Gold and provide informative responses. Due to the immense attention the company has received since the airing of its Super Bowl ad, there is need to more clearly articulate the purpose and processes of the company, and to clarify any misconceptions.

An MSNBC article was posted today, covering mainly old news. There was one surprising quote, however, from Joe Laratro. You may recall that Laratro, once employed by Cash4Gold as a consultant, independently contacted a website with a monetary offer to have them remove a blog critical of Cash4Gold. Not only does he no longer work for the company, but his actions were done independently without the knowledge or approval of anyone at Cash4Gold.

This fact was contradicted by a comment Laratro gave to MSNBC:

"The man who sent the e-mail, Joe Laratro of marketing firm Tandem Interactive, challenged Aranson’s account.

"'Everyone (at Cash4Gold) was well aware of what was going on,' he told msnbc.com."

Cash4Gold vehemently denies that it had any knowledge of Laratro's activities. In fact, Laratro issued the following clarification/statement today:

"Cash4Gold was not aware of all of the tactics being using in my reputation management services. I have been interviewed several times about Cash4Gold’s knowledge of my emails to the cockeyed blog. I have said it was just part of the client strategy, and specifically Cash4Gold was not aware of any emails to the Cockeyed Blog. I have also said it was my idea and my tactic. Another question that has kept coming up was if any other Web sites were paid to remove negative comments. I did not pay nor did I suggest paying any other sites to remove negative comments."

It can be assumed that this was a misquote since Laratro reconfirmed that his actions were made independent of the company.

Even so, Cash4Gold takes responsibility for hiring him as a consultant (he no longer serves the company) and has had to suffer the unfortunate consequences of his actions.