Profile Defenders or Profile Defenders Lawsuit Removal service is an Online Reputation Management company owned by Richart Ruddie. It was started in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The company has mentioned Profile Defenders charges $10,000 to remove a web page from Voice Media Group. .
In 2014 Ruddie said that Google was making things more difficult for reputation management companies, stressing the value of good content and high-quality backlinks.
By 2016 Profile Defenders had found an effective tactic using takedowns: filing bogus lawsuits, which Vice's Motherboard called "trumped-up lawsuits". The Washington Post detailed 25 court cases, at least 15 who had false addresses for the defendant. The court cases had similar language and the defendant agreed to the injunction by the plaintiff, which allowed the reputation management company to issue takedown notices to Google, Yelp, Leagle, Ripoff Report, various news sites, and other websites. Two of the court cases were linked to Profile Defenders, and two others to Ruddie, using the company names "RIR 1984 LLC" and "SEO Profile Defense Network LLC", and one directly in Ruddie's name.
RIR 1984 LLC was dissolved on October 12, 2016 just days after a Washington Post article appeared exposing the de-indexing scheme. and Richart Ruddie's partner David Lynn withdrew from Profile Defenders less than one week earlier.
Ruddie was named as a defendant in a 2012 lawsuit and temporary restraining order by Billy Walters for using Walters' name on his own gambling site.