3 ms·

While clearly not a criminal act, the act of sending scammy fake invoices is classless and shows the morals of the individuals involved. To be in any way affil

While clearly not a criminal act, the act of sending scammy fake invoices is classless and shows the morals of the individuals involved. To be in any way affiliated with swindling $29m in this manner is rather low and humiliating.

joshwa 16y ago
Sadly this is a common direct-mail tactic. I get these a few times a year, usually from domain name registrars or for technical magazine subscriptions. There's a lot in the direct-mail industry that just smells, like the fake handwritten addresses and signatures, or the letters that look like they were written Just For You!, and the general creepiness of the standard direct mail sales letter, with its GRATUITOUS BOLD TEXT scattered throughout, and the fun little 'YES' stickers. Publishers' Clearing House is an excellent compendium of annoying direct-mail tactics.
Confusion 16y ago
Why does everyone seem to assume/know that these guys actually did send fake invoices? I've not seen any evidence for that.
- ewjordan 16y ago
  Because we saw pictures of their "advertisements", and they were quite obviously designed to trick people into thinking they were invoices, or at the very least make them think they wouldn't be listed in the real Yellow Pages without paying the fee - only the fine print indicated otherwise. The link posted in that original thread had a picture of one of them, and should be at http://avramc.posterous.com/united-directories-federal-court-indictment-d# http://avramc.posterous.com/united-directories-federal-court..., though Posterous appears to be out of commission at the moment so I can't check... Edit: from a later post on this topic, a working link to the image: http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blog-images/hn/disreputable-things.png http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blog-images/hn/disreputa...

3 ms·

While clearly not a criminal act, the act of sending scammy fake invoices is classless and shows the morals of the individuals involved. To be in any way affil

by extrafresh 16y ago

joshwa 16y ago
Sadly this is a common direct-mail tactic. I get these a few times a year, usually from domain name registrars or for technical magazine subscriptions. There's a lot in the direct-mail industry that just smells, like the fake handwritten addresses and signatures, or the letters that look like they were written Just For You!, and the general creepiness of the standard direct mail sales letter, with its GRATUITOUS BOLD TEXT scattered throughout, and the fun little 'YES' stickers. Publishers' Clearing House is an excellent compendium of annoying direct-mail tactics.
Confusion 16y ago
Why does everyone seem to assume/know that these guys actually did send fake invoices? I've not seen any evidence for that.
- ewjordan 16y ago
  Because we saw pictures of their "advertisements", and they were quite obviously designed to trick people into thinking they were invoices, or at the very least make them think they wouldn't be listed in the real Yellow Pages without paying the fee - only the fine print indicated otherwise. The link posted in that original thread had a picture of one of them, and should be at http://avramc.posterous.com/united-directories-federal-court-indictment-d# http://avramc.posterous.com/united-directories-federal-court..., though Posterous appears to be out of commission at the moment so I can't check... Edit: from a later post on this topic, a working link to the image: http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blog-images/hn/disreputable-things.png http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blog-images/hn/disreputa...