FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Canton, GA. - Sept. 10, 2025 | On September 8th, 2025, it was brought to Tradebank's attention that a certain webpage attached to the Tradebank Canada website contained a misleading headline. The webpage, now deleted, stated “BarterPay is now — Tradebank Canada”. The heading was incorrect, and both the creation of the page, and the indexing of the page in Google Search, resulted from an oversight within the Tradebank staff.
What happened
Around August 1st, 2023, a misleading webpage was created by one of our third-party marketing vendors, who confused ownership or business relationships between the involved parties. The page title read, “BarterPay is now — Tradebank Canada”. Because this page was not included in our sitemap, it wasn’t discoverable in any of our menus.
That being said, the page’s contents were indexed by Google, resulting in:
- Google searches with the terms “Tradebank” and “BarterPay” in the same query would display the mentioned page at the top of the search results.
- AI summaries and responses from Gemini, ChatGPT, and other LLM’s with internet search capabilities would incorrectly return that BarterPay was indeed currently a part of Tradebank.
We were notified of a formal complaint that was submitted to IRTA regarding this page, and immediately began to investigate (on September 8th, 2025, at approximately 8:00 AM).
After a thorough investigation, at approximately 1:00 PM on September 9th, 2025, the page was permanently deleted from the Tradebank Canada website. No other instances of misleading “BarterPay” verbiage or other published pieces of text on the Tradebank Canada website were found.
Although the page is now deleted, it may take some time before the inaccurate information gets corrected in Google or AI search queries.
LinkedIn Video Accusing Tradebank of Malicious Intent
On September 10, 2025, BarterPay’s John Porter posted a video to the John Porter, The Barter Coach™ page, stating “...one of our competitors, Tradebank USA, put up a hidden page on their Canadian website with a headline that falsely stated…”
While we appreciate that Porter considers Tradebank a competitor, we want to be fully transparent on this matter.
Tradebank staff did not create the page that Porter is referencing, and there was no malicious intent found after investigating. The page was mistakenly created in 2023 by a vendor’s employee who wrongly assumed Tradebank Canada had acquired BarterPay.
Unfortunately, a Tradebank employee did not follow up at the time of email communications with the vendor in 2023; something that can happen frequently given the volume of emails we receive daily as business owners and employees. Tradebank did not authorize the creation of the webpage, and we were unaware that it was published. We accept responsibility for not ensuring a thorough follow-up with our vendor at the time, which would have prevented this situation.
We understand that misinformation and AI usage can be a problem. The page was deleted promptly, and we submitted an appeal to Google to expedite the removal of the inaccurate information contained on this page. We also communicated clearly with IRTA and IRTA members what had transpired, and what we were doing to resolve the issue. We believe that deleting the mentioned page quickly, submitting appeals to refresh search results with more accurate content, and an official statement from Tradebank served as the fastest course correction.
Porter's LinkedIn post was later edited on 09/10/2025, to read:
*NOTE: as of today, the page has been removed*
Is BarterPay a part of Tradebank Canada?
No, BarterPay is not a part of Tradebank Canada, and has no affiliation with Tradebank as of 2018.
John Porter was a Tradebank franchise owner from 1996 until 2018, where he subsequently parted ways and rebranded into BarterPay.
While we're aware that John Porter has shared perspectives about our company that don't align with our values or track record, we prefer to let our 38-year history speak for itself. We've built a culture grounded in ethical business practices, and we remain committed to those standards that have served our clients and community well.
Contact
For additional information, questions, or concerns, please contact:
Valerie Hale, CEO
Tradebank International
valerie@tradebank.com
678-533-7133
