Oh man, was just about to bump this to post that. Best Times story I've read in a long time.
― ball (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 November 2010 16:44 (thirteen years ago) link
This guy is going to have people suing him, harassing him at his house. The pressure on law enforcement will be enormous to do something as well. Banks and credit card companies will do everything they can to avoid him. But someone else (or maybe Vitaly) will figure out how to do this from offshore and there will be no stopping it.
― ball (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 November 2010 16:46 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah. but if that (anything short of arrest) happens, he says he'll just use a friend's name, and give the friend 1% of the new company.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 28 November 2010 16:47 (thirteen years ago) link
his problem is he doesnt know where the line is, im sure their are companies doing this much more subtly
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 28 November 2010 16:49 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean all youd really need to do is have bad qc and not give a shit abt customer service, both of those steps would lower costs and inspire negative web feedback, this guy is waisting money actively harassing people
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 28 November 2010 16:51 (thirteen years ago) link
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, November 28, 2010 11:47 AM Bookmark
http://brooklyn.blockshopper.com/property/3087270008/56_beaumont_street/
Vitaly Borker 56 Beaumont Street Brooklyn, NY 11235
― ball (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 November 2010 17:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Interesting point from a savvy Felix Salmon commenter:http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/11/29/counterparties-257/#comments
I was intrigued by that DecorMyEyes story too, but the technical thesis that bad reviews can boost PageRank was baffling. I even double-checked with the founder of GetSatisfaction, and as he put it “The article approaches SEO in near-mystical terms. Black Magic”http://twitter.com/tempo/status/89562240 57901056
Almost every site that allows user input, including GetSatisfaction, wraps links in rel=”nofollow”. This tells search engines to not count the link as a vote for the purposes of ranking search results. The prime motivation is to remove the incentive to plaster forums and other places where users can create content with links to boost PageRank.
The story itself was well-written and worth telling, but I was left very frustrated that they’d decided to base it around a bogus theory that should have been caught by anyone with basic technical knowledge of SEO.
― ball (Hurting 2), Monday, 29 November 2010 23:48 (thirteen years ago) link
does google pay any attention to no follow tags tho... ... ...
― ice cr?m, Tuesday, 30 November 2010 02:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I was left very frustrated that they’d decided to base it around a bogus theory that should have been caught by anyone with basic technical knowledge of SEO.
i think it was more based around this fellow's intentionally shocking, reprehensible business practices ("I know where you live," wtf!)
― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 30 November 2010 02:48 (thirteen years ago) link
this crook = anecdotal lead right? larger issue = cybershopping - still scary? new hook = any publicity is good publicity due to an algorithm (poor followthru here)
― balls, Tuesday, 30 November 2010 03:02 (thirteen years ago) link
ONLINE SELLING BULLSHIT: guy who won my Macbook Auction last Monday hasn't paid, if I have to re-sell it'll probably be too late for anyone to buy it for Christmas, so I'll get less
― boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakier (milo z), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 03:04 (thirteen years ago) link
still a great read though! it is hilarious to read knowing this arrogant schmuck has no idea what's coming his way now, if he had just said 'no comment/speak to my lawyers/every business has dissatisfied customers' this story has little impact and maybe even never sees print. and unlike simply selling fake rolexes on the street or whatever this involves interstate commerce and mail fraud all it takes is one bored federal prosecutor looking to boost his numbers to take this fucker down.
― balls, Tuesday, 30 November 2010 03:10 (thirteen years ago) link
exactly ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. hubris and lack of self-awareness brings down a lot of people.
― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 30 November 2010 03:13 (thirteen years ago) link
rip he did it for the lulz
― ice cr?m, Tuesday, 30 November 2010 06:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Well this was predictable:
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/online-retailer-charged-with-fraud-threats/3478/
― ball (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 7 December 2010 14:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Guess who's back: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/business/eyeglass-vendor-imprisoned-for-terrorizing-consumers-is-accused-of-fraud.html
Another customer, identified in the complaint as Victim-8, clicked on an OpticsFast link that generated a shipping label to mail in glasses for repair. When he decided against using the label and refused to pay for it, OpticsFast sent him hundreds of emails, including 456 in a single day. Hundreds of them had “I WIN!!!” in the subject line.Efforts to reach Mr. Borker at the time were unsuccessful, although he was not keeping a particularly low profile. Earlier in the year, he posted a GoFundMe plea for $1,000 to buy long skis for an April trip to Utah. His short skis, he said, would not suffice in deep-powder snow.“Clearly, I don’t want to pay for this upgrade,” he wrote, in what by his standards qualified as a charm offensive. “Please give me money.”
Efforts to reach Mr. Borker at the time were unsuccessful, although he was not keeping a particularly low profile. Earlier in the year, he posted a GoFundMe plea for $1,000 to buy long skis for an April trip to Utah. His short skis, he said, would not suffice in deep-powder snow.
“Clearly, I don’t want to pay for this upgrade,” he wrote, in what by his standards qualified as a charm offensive. “Please give me money.”
― JoeStork, Friday, 26 May 2017 17:11 (six years ago) link