Zaki Ameer

A summary of what happened?

Zaki Ameer, a property investment expert and founder of Dream Design Property (DDP), has faced significant legal and public controversies. He is best known for his claims of rapid success in the property investment world, where he went from owning nothing to acquiring 15 properties in a few years. However, his reputation has been marred by fraud charges and accusations of unethical business practices.

Here are three major concerns and accusations against Zaki Ameer:

1. Fraud Charges: Ameer was charged with fraud by NSW Fair Trading after deceiving a client about repayment, claiming in court that he had refunded a disgruntled client when he had not. This fraud charge stemmed from a property deal gone wrong. Although he avoided jail time, he was fined and placed under a community corrections order. The incident has significantly tarnished his reputation in the property sector.
2. Complaints of Unreturned Fees: Former clients and staff members of DDP have raised complaints that Ameer’s company did not honor a money-back guarantee on up-front fees (reportedly around $15,000 per property). Many clients found themselves in debt after paying these fees, only to discover they could not secure financing or receive refunds as promised. These accusations have raised serious concerns about the integrity of his business operations.
3. Censorship Allegations: There have been suggestions that Ameer and his legal team may be involved in attempts to suppress negative press and online reviews concerning his business dealings. While specific details about these efforts remain limited, such tactics are often associated with attempts to protect a business’s public image in the wake of legal and financial challenges.

These concerns highlight the complex and controversial nature of Zaki Ameer’s property investment ventures and have led many to question the long-term viability and ethics of his business practices.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Zaki Ameer trying to hide?

Zaki Ameer‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Zaki Ameer in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Zaki Ameer may be trying to remove from the internet –

Zaki Ameer, founder of Dream Design Property (DDP), has been involved in several controversies and legal challenges that have drawn significant negative attention. Below is a comprehensive list of adverse news, allegations, lawsuits, and complaints against him:

1. Fraud Charges: Ameer was charged with fraud by NSW Fair Trading. The charges involved deceiving a client during a property deal, where he claimed to have repaid a client but had not. Although he was fined and placed under a community corrections order, the incident has cast a shadow over his business practices.
2. Failure to Honor Refunds: Multiple complaints have been made by former clients who allege that DDP did not honor its money-back guarantee. Clients reportedly paid significant upfront fees, only to be denied refunds when financing could not be secured. This has left many clients in financial distress, raising concerns about the transparency of his business dealings.
3. Legal Appeals: Ameer has faced multiple legal challenges, including a recent case where he successfully appealed a fraud conviction. While his legal team managed to reduce the charges and avoid a conviction, the appeal highlights ongoing scrutiny over his business operations and practices.
4. Allegations of Censorship: There are suggestions that Ameer and his legal team have attempted to suppress negative media coverage and online reviews concerning his business and legal issues. This includes efforts to protect his public image in light of fraud charges and client complaints.
5. Negative Client Experiences: Numerous negative reviews have surfaced from former clients who felt misled by Ameer’s business promises. Complaints range from lack of communication and unmet investment expectations to allegations of unethical sales practices. These negative reviews have fueled skepticism about his credibility in the property investment space.

These issues have contributed to a growing perception of Zaki Ameer as a controversial figure in the property investment industry, with many calling into question the integrity of his business operations.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Zaki Ameer (or actors working on behalf of Zaki Ameer), we will inform Zaki Ameer of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Zaki Ameer may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Zaki Ameer, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Zaki Ameer to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Zaki Ameer made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for 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, which Zaki Ameer is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Zaki Ameer

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 include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “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 Zaki Ameer Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Zaki Ameer 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. Zaki Ameer 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 Zaki Ameer 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. Zaki Ameer 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.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always 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 scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), 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.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Zaki Ameer 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 reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming 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 offences, Zaki Ameer either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Zaki Ameer, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

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. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

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.

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. Zaki Ameer is in great company ….

What Else else is Zaki Ameer hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Zaki Ameer] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. 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 industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Zaki Ameer that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.