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"Reserve’s software engineers noticed a spike in prospective fraudulent activity on the afternoon of February 14" Interesting that they would be monitoring for
by hw 9y ago
"Reserve’s software engineers noticed a spike in prospective fraudulent activity on the afternoon of February 14"
Interesting that they would be monitoring for fraudulent reservations. Are fraudulent reservation 'wars' between these companies pretty common that they would be tracking such behavior?
Also, if this isn't criminal, is DDoSing a SaaS competitor not criminal then, since they are pretty similar?
- GCA10 9y agoI don't know about the restaurant business, but I've been told by people in the flower trade that the long-stemmed rose business right before Feb. 14 is full of antics, deceptions, broken promises, dummy orders, etc. that are absolutely terrifying if you're new to the game. So much money to be made so fast. It tends to attract . . . operators.
- dpflan 9y agoDo you know of good sources, articles, documentaries, etc exploring this or these events that attract “operators”?
- patrickyeon 9y agoNPR's Planet Money did an episode on the Valentine's Day rose craziness. I don't recall it being about particularly offside tactics, but it's from three years ago. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/13/386005044/episode-603-a-rose-on-any-other-day https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/13/386005044/epis...
- GCA10 9y agoIt would make for a fine bit of investigative reporting. Wish I had an article to recommend. My source is a medium prominent tech executive who tried to disrupt the Valentine's Day flower business (with its high mark-ups). His plan was to set up his own, lower-priced regional alternative -- which would bring in planeloads of flowers from Central America, right on time. Things did not work out the way he had hoped. Everything went sideways the first year. He tried again, and the second year was catastrophically worse. There was no third year.
- thomasz 9y agoThat's why you should always have a domain expert on board when trying to enter a business you deem ripe for disruption. Chances are very high that you do not completely understand it.
- ggg9990 9y agoSuccessful person overestimates his own abilities and underestimated those of his rivals.
- petee 9y agoIts also rival restaurants, not just rival apps attempting to undermine their competition. Happens all the time on Amazon too apparently in the form of fake ratings right before a holiday.
- acomjean 9y agoI made an open table reservation for that day. It required a credit card deposit to prevent no-showing...
- lotsofpulp 9y agoSimple fix is requiring a deposit payment with cancelation deadlines.
- lr4444lr 9y agoPerhaps competing restaurants or jilted employees of a restaurant would look to sabotage someone.
- astura 9y agoEven if uncommon, monitoring for fraud is certainly a good selling point. It gets clients to trust you.