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The pizza delivery app Slice does something similar... they buy domains that look like they could be legitimate and then outrank the actual website of the small
by covercash 7y ago
The pizza delivery app Slice does something similar... they buy domains that look like they could be legitimate and then outrank the actual website of the small local pizza shops with SEO. Then they tack on additional Slice fees and send the order through to the pizza place. Here’s an example:
Actual site: http://www.mariostogo.com/ http://www.mariostogo.com/
Slice scam site: https://www.mariospizzaphiladelphia.com/ https://www.mariospizzaphiladelphia.com/
Most of these small pizza shops have no idea this is happening and Slice is just ripping off customers. They even claim listings or suggest edits on yelp, foursquare, google, etc. with their Slice domain so customers assume it’s the shop’s actual site. I wish someone from Yelp, Google, etc. would blacklist Slice sites and kill the company and their scammy business practices.
Edit: I forgot to mention they created fake phone numbers for the shops too which is what alerted me to this scam in the first place. I googled the number for Mario’s and called it but a young female answered the phone and I heard call center chatter in the background... normally when calling Mario’s one of the guys with a thick accent answers and speaks in broken English. I’ve never seen a single female employee work there in the 15 years I’ve been ordering from them. On top of it all, the delivery address got screwed up between my call in order that Slice intercepted and Slice then calling the actual Mario’s number to relay my order. Come to think of it, I payed with a credit card over the phone so Slice took my CC info and then relayed that as well... that doesn’t seem kosher.
(I now have the real Mario’s number stored as a contact in my phone.)
- xur17 7y agoInterestingly the prices appear to be identical on these two websites (but it's still quite scary to see this happening).
- harrisonjackson 7y agoThey're probably taking a commission on the orders coming in through the bogus website or call center. The call center is what really gets me. I can understand how the website with a much better seo rank could drive more business to a mom and pop shop, but supplanting a legitimate phone number on yelp or wherever else is seriously shady.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y agoThat is utterly diabolical.
- xfitm3 7y agoHome advisor also does telephone # MITM.
- chrshawkes 7y agoYep, terrible company. I made the mistake of calling them to get my roof repaired... actually I didn't call them but some bogus website for a local roofing company led me to those shady clowns. I chose a local contracting company instead and they did a really good job as far as I can tell. No leaks after a year and a half.
- sdoering 7y agoI realized that they even copy the logo. Is this even legal? How can it be in any way legal to "impersonate" a business, just to funnel business away into a funnel that forces the business to pay fees.
- CriticalCathed 7y agoMaybe this is a case of we're a giant corporation and why don't you please sue us?
- lopmotr 7y agoSeems analogous to buying a product from a retail shop then reselling it in your own shop with a markup. If your SEO is better, then you can do that successfully, and why not? The original seller was leaving money on the table or failing to reach potential customers.
- michaelmrose 7y agoYou own the object after you buy it. Wherein did you pay for the use of their trademark?
- SmellyGeekBoy 7y agoIt is - if you call your shop "Tesco" for example and use their logo and branding to resell Tesco stuff at a slight markup. Of course this would get you shut down very quickly in the real world. I don't know why it should be any different just because it's online.
- shakyshakyshaky 7y agoMore like pitching a stall outside your local Costco, calling it Costco, and charging dimwits a fee to enter the warehouse
- brlewis 7y ago> Is this even legal? This infringes the businesses' trademarks, which exist even if not registered. They can and should be sued. The article says grubhub uses business names and images for "businesses they either work with or are pitching to get on the platform". In the latter case there's no contract fine print to defend themselves with.
- Apocryphon 7y agoSlice exists? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYu-d6y5HRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYu-d6y5HRo
- RomanBob 7y agoHow is this bad? They are providing a service. If somebody does marketing better than you, why shouldn't they be able to make money from that? If the restaurants don't want to work with them they can just not. That they do proves that it is a net benefit.
- HyperTalk2 7y agoDid you just ask how impersonation is bad?
- simonebrunozzi 7y agoMaybe we should create a comprehensive list of these bad companies / bad actors? Something like: https://gitlab.com/simonebrunozzi/dark-companies/blob/master/README.md https://gitlab.com/simonebrunozzi/dark-companies/blob/master...
- dang 7y agoPlease don't post duplicate comments.