
Lyft spam on Facebook - kawera
http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/internet/216911-inside-the-world-of-lyft-spam-on-facebook
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patrickfl
Could it be possible that it is Lyft affiliates that are doing this on their
own for affiliate commissions? Not saying it is right, but at least it isn't a
marketing strategy from the central office.

I wonder why they aren't at least doing some crafty Photoshop and merging
images of 2 different people to create a unique persona. There was a guy here
on HN that did that a few years back it was a pretty popular post.

Possibly even worse than Lyft spam are infinite scrolling websites such as
these. Ctrl +A? I don't think so. How do you tell where the article ends? I
was in "skimming mode" and 1/2 way down the page before I realized I was
reading another article.

~~~
Dr_tldr
Well I'm sure Lyft it shocked, absolutely shocked to discover that there's
spamming going on here.

It's not like they could develop basic accountability tools or read the
thousands of complaints consumers have sent to them directly or do a google
search. All of those things are impossible to do with present technology,
which is why Lyft is the real victim here.

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Scoundreller
I see plenty of similar Uber spam too. We had an election recently, and had
plenty of

"Uber is hooking you up with _free_ rides to your election polling station*

* Valid for first time customers only"

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DaveWalk
Lyft (or someone collecting affiliate money?) using spam Facebook accounts to
post coupon codes on several event pages. The author suggests that these shady
marketing tactics are limited by Lyft's resources and market share. Ironic
that even in marketing it sounds like they are mimicking Uber to the best of
their ability.

~~~
dubcanada
affiliate spamming is not really something new. It's annoying and terrible,
but it's been around for as long as affiliate itself.

~~~
jsprogrammer
The affiliate strategy is basically: spam for us and we'll give you a cut.

~~~
JoshTriplett
Respectable affiliate programs will cut off affiliates who promote affiliate
links via spam.

Less respectable affiliate programs quietly ignore whatever affiliates do.

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dsugarman
From this post, it seems like the only coupon code referenced is 'Murica'. If
it was Lyft doing this, they would probably have different codes for each bot,
seems more likely that it is an affiliate.

It's like the old adage, "Whoever gets the commission is on a bot creating
mission"

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
It definitely doesn't seem like that would be a referral code from a driver,
since I'd expect those to be more unique and auto-generated. I doubt drivers
have the privilege of writing their own coupon codes like this, but I could be
wrong.

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Scoundreller
As Rideshare guy has figured out, it's more profitable to sell picks and
shovels than it is to be a gold miner.

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bstanfield
One of the ways I've seen botnets skirt this problem is by using cartoon
profile pictures. Cartoon bots don't work quite as well on Facebook as they do
on Twitter and Instagram (where they're only used to inflate favorite/follower
stats, not to sell stuff). Unfortunately, it's probably hard to convince
someone to hail a Lyft if "social proof" is coming from someone with a cartoon
face.

With that said, these bot puppeteers _could_ feasibly get around identity
theft/copyright/social proof issues by using CC0 stock photography sites.
There's plenty of free photos out there for people to use, i.e. as profile
pictures.

Not that it'd be any more ethical, but at least it would be legal.

~~~
rdancer
It would still be fraud, but at least it would not be copyright & publicity
rights infringement.

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us0r
Related: Sanford Wallace is suppose to be sentenced today for spamming
Facebook.

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/25/spammer_wallace_face...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/25/spammer_wallace_faces_jail_facebook_scam/)

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iLoch
How does the author know these are spam accounts and not simply individuals
who have chosen to lock down the publicity of their Facebook profiles? My
profile looks pretty barren if you're not my friend, too.

