
ScamVille Lawsuit: Facebook, MySpace, Zynga And More Face Possible Class Action - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/12/the-scamville-lawsuit-facebook-myspace-zynga-and-more-face-possible-class-action-suit/
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flavio87
why is nobody talking about the fact that google adsense runs the exact same
scam ads? they even run on techcrunch, twitpic, mashable and many other
"reputable" websites.

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pkaler
Google AdWords has a policy against "Negative option or unclear billing
practices". There is also a section on "Support advertised prices, discounts,
and free offers."

[http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?page=guid...](http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?page=guidelines.cs)

I'm going to assume that Scamville offers would fall under one of those
categories. Hard to say without actual legal precedent.

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aaronwall
"Google AdWords has a policy" ... but the problem is policies which are
loosely enforced may as well not exist.

Google was quick to point out their policies to the FTC on the scammy
government grant ads, and yet months later Google was running the very same
scam ads <http://www.seobook.com/buying-links-vs-buying-rankings>

some more background on Google's ads <http://www.benedelman.org/ppc-scams/>
<http://www.seobook.com/how-make-easy-money-google>

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bilbo0s
Am I misunderstanding that video, or is Pincus admitting to distributing
malware and spam? On camera? In front of an audience?

Do these guys have legal advisers, or are they just winging it?

That's a serious question by the way, I am not trying to be a smart ass.
Aren't there lawyers that tell them hey, you are not allowed to distribute
even solicited malware?

As an aside, about 8 months ago I was party to a conversation on the subject
of investing in a Facebook social gaming company. One of the investors made a
snide comment that I didn't really understand at the time. He said he'd save
his money to invest in an internet company that was in a more respectable
industry . . . like porn.

This guy is in a fairly conservative investing circle, so you can imagine what
a damning comment that was. I'm starting to get an idea of the research that
led him to that conclusion.

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jfarmer
If the Zwinky toolbar is "malware and spam" then IAC should be more worried
than Zynga.

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nzmsv
If the Internet is to be cleaned up, then this is the way to go. You can't
crack down on file sharing and turn a blind eye to these types of scammers.
And the "wild west" days of the net are numbered, for better or worse.

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electromagnetic
The internet is becoming a market place, that's been accepted for a long time.
Rules and regulations don't follow far behind in any market, either they're
imposed by a seller consortium or by a government.

These rules usually cause problems to innovation in one way or another
(usually by increasing the cost to enter the market), however they inevitably
end up appearing.

Personally I'm unsure if they'll be for better or worse, but ultimately I see
it as inevitable. Although I also believe they'll likely only ever be applied
to large companies, so there will always be potential for scams just as
organized crime manages to money launder through legitimate small businesses,
there'll be many shady things performed with small online companies.

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dtap
I hope that this type of action will serve to clean up the web in general.
Overall, protecting consumers is a great thing.

This case seems easy because these are real companies committing the fraud,
not random Russians who populate a lot of spam.

