
A Facebook Scam Siphoned Millions of Dollars from Unsuspecting Boomers - laurex
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-subscription-trap-free-trial-scam-ads-inc
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_bxg1
> The fake celebrity scandal hinted at in the ad is the hook that gets people
> to click so they can be pitched on what appears to be a no-risk, product
> trial for a small shipping fee, such as $4.99.

Maybe it's different for people who didn't grow up on the internet, but this
checks nearly ever box in my automatic this-is-a-scam heuristic. It reads as
not even trying; it's practically a cliche at this point. Amazing that it
still works at this scale.

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shaneprrlt
This reminds me of this article from a while back:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-
scamme...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-scammers-
need-suckers-and-facebook-helps-find-them)

I worked for a company that hired media buyers that came from this shady
world, most of them are the most degenerate people I've ever met. They target
people in lower-income parts of the country with "530 FICO Scores" (in the
words of a previous coworker). 9 out of 10 times, they couldn't legitimately
market a product to save their life if they couldn't rely on scare tactics,
snake-oil/miracle cures, and other shady tactics such as "free trial re-
billing".

They view running an online business as "building a cash printer" and view
customers as prey to target. They have a million tactics to keep FB campaigns
going such as amassing more credit cards than you'd think a bank would issue
(since FB blocks cards from offending accounts), relying on off-shore account
farms for fresh Facebook ad accounts, cloaking their landing pages, etc. I
once heard a story about a marketer that would pay college students $100 and
give them a free laptop with TeamViewer running as long as they stayed logged
into facebook and could create ad accounts on their behalf.

Needless to say my time at the company was short, as I was not a fan of the
aggressive tactics being used to market the products. Most of the media buyers
had substance abuse problems, and the sick mindset turned me off to digital
marketing completely until I had the opportunity to network and work with more
ethical advertisers and founders of ecommerce brands.

These people ruin the internet and slow progress by damaging customer trust in
shopping online.

Background: I'm an engineer, but I joined a DTC brand startup a couple years
ago doing basic front-end work just so I could be in that environment every
day learning the problem space and getting domain expertise in ecommerce and
B2C customer acquisition. I've worked with more legitimate brands, and I'm
currently building a product for the industry (on top of Shopify's platform),
but I can't wait for the day that these scammers are completely rooted out.

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galaxyLogic
"Credit card companies also play a key role by largely refusing to grant
charge-backs to people who have been roped into a subscription without their
knowledge, according to Baker."

If you get rolled into subscription without agreeing to that isn't that the
same as someone charging you for what you didn't order, so aren't the credit
card companies supposed to refund you ?

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Scoundreller
> Dr. Oz also dedicated an episode to a different San Diego company that was
> using an image of the show’s host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, to sell weight loss
> supplements.

Dr. Oz must be a great target since he sells a lot of junk as it is and his
viewers eat it up.

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goldenkey
From a cursory search, it appears the CEO died in March in a helicopter crash
along with other employees. Wondering why this article is coming out now, if
somehow everything got unveiled due to the deaths?

[https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-
tr...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-tragic-end-
young-entrepreneur-s-ultimate-experiences-n979286)

