
Fraudsters Jailed for £37m Copycat Website Scam - IntronExon
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43309881
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Lazare
What interesting to me is just how prevalent this sort of thing is. For a long
time (at least 10 years), students applying for financial aid in the US are
routinely told to 1) fill out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student
Aid) and 2) not click the top few results when they google it because they'll
be semi-scam sites that charge you money to "help" you fill out the form[1].

Which is, as near as I can tell, exactly what these people have been convicted
of doing? Maybe these people shaded the truth a bit more; the FAFSA
application sites tend to have disclaimers. Eg [https://www.fafsa-
application.com/](https://www.fafsa-application.com/) has a fairly prominent
disclaimer, presumably because they believe anything less will get them sued.

[1]: Although when I tested it just now, it seems Google has got better about
filtering them out of the organic results, at least, since I went through
college. Which is good for students I guess.

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lopmotr
It makes sense for private companies to repackage government "services" in a
more applicant-friendly way, and of course take a cut for doing so.
Governments are notoriously bad at doing it themselves, especially visa
applications. I suppose being open about it and not impersonating the
government is the key difference between ethical and not.

~~~
sdhgaiojfsa
> I suppose being open about it and not impersonating the government is the
> key difference between ethical and not.

That and being honest about how much value you are bringing to the table. If
you don't actually improve on the free version, it is unethical to sell.

And you should never use language to imply a value proposition where there is
none. For example, someone else posted a link to some green card scammers. One
of their claims is:

> "USAFIS GUARANTEES 100% participation in the Lottery!"

This may be true, but it is still an unethical statement. It hints that this
is a net positive vs. the free application the USG provides, but in fact any
valid, submitted application participates in the lottery.

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chrismcb
>... Any valid, submitted application...

Didn't you answer your own question? They claim if you use their service then
your application will participate, this they are claiming your application
will be valid and submitted. Id you don't use their service then there is a
chance your application will not be valid or submitted... Isn't that a
positive? Maybe not enough of a positive to justify the cost, but their claim
isn't unethical.

~~~
sdhgaiojfsa
I doubt they have the capability to cause whatever information you provide to
magically become valid. Perhaps they do additional checking and notify you if
there is an error. If that is what it is, then that is what they should say.
The sentence as worded implies that any application has some chance of not
participating in the lottery if made through ordinary channels.

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intralizee
Reading this article is remarkably comical. I understand what they did is
labeled as criminal. Yet it's funny how a lot of businesses are similar and in
this world they're legal.

"They showed no regard for the unnecessary costs they imposed on their victims
- I would say they treated them with contempt." \- Hmm that isn't new.

~~~
crtasm
Businesses that don't pretend to be an official government service are
_fairly_ dissimilar from this case, but yes - I agree with the sentiment!

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nutmeg
There are a couple of Reply All episodes that talk about almost this exact
same scam. Fake taxi service lost and found sites, fake DMV sites etc.

[https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/76-lost-in-a-
cab](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/76-lost-in-a-cab)

[https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/78-very-quickly-to-
the...](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/78-very-quickly-to-the-drill)

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sprite
This site does something similar for green card lottery:
[https://www.usafis.org](https://www.usafis.org)

They do offer a clear disclaimer though.

~~~
usaphp
My friend has actually won a green card through a website like that
(unofficial) he forgot about ever applying and people from this website spent
considerable time and effort to contact him and let him know that he won, they
called his Russian phone number and got a hold of him miraculously, I am
pretty sure had he applied directly through the official dvlottery site, he
would never know that he won. so sometimes this type of sites do what they
say.

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pavel_lishin
I wonder how they processed payments, and what their "getaway" plan was,
beyond "let's hope we don't get caught".

~~~
superasn
Yes the money trail would have been quite crucial in tracking them down I
suppose. I don't think they could be accepting Bitcoins on a govt. looking
site.

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pfisch
freecreditreport.com

