3 ms·

A Facebook Scam Siphoned Millions of Dollars from Unsuspecting Boomers

29 points by laurex 7y ago

shaneprrlt 7y ago
This reminds me of this article from a while back: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-scammers-need-suckers-and-facebook-helps-find-them https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-scamme... I worked for a company that hired media buyers that came from this shady world, most of them are the most degenerate people I've ever met. They target people in lower-income parts of the country with "530 FICO Scores" (in the words of a previous coworker). 9 out of 10 times, they couldn't legitimately market a product to save their life if they couldn't rely on scare tactics, snake-oil/miracle cures, and other shady tactics such as "free trial re-billing". They view running an online business as "building a cash printer" and view customers as prey to target. They have a million tactics to keep FB campaigns going such as amassing more credit cards than you'd think a bank would issue (since FB blocks cards from offending accounts), relying on off-shore account farms for fresh Facebook ad accounts, cloaking their landing pages, etc. I once heard a story about a marketer that would pay college students $100 and give them a free laptop with TeamViewer running as long as they stayed logged into facebook and could create ad accounts on their behalf. Needless to say my time at the company was short, as I was not a fan of the aggressive tactics being used to market the products. Most of the media buyers had substance abuse problems, and the sick mindset turned me off to digital marketing completely until I had the opportunity to network and work with more ethical advertisers and founders of ecommerce brands. These people ruin the internet and slow progress by damaging customer trust in shopping online. Background: I'm an engineer, but I joined a DTC brand startup a couple years ago doing basic front-end work just so I could be in that environment every day learning the problem space and getting domain expertise in ecommerce and B2C customer acquisition. I've worked with more legitimate brands, and I'm currently building a product for the industry (on top of Shopify's platform), but I can't wait for the day that these scammers are completely rooted out.
_bxg1 7y ago
> The fake celebrity scandal hinted at in the ad is the hook that gets people to click so they can be pitched on what appears to be a no-risk, product trial for a small shipping fee, such as $4.99. Maybe it's different for people who didn't grow up on the internet, but this checks nearly ever box in my automatic this-is-a-scam heuristic. It reads as not even trying; it's practically a cliche at this point. Amazing that it still works at this scale.
Scoundreller 7y ago
> Dr. Oz also dedicated an episode to a different San Diego company that was using an image of the show’s host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, to sell weight loss supplements. Dr. Oz must be a great target since he sells a lot of junk as it is and his viewers eat it up.
goldenkey 7y ago
From a cursory search, it appears the CEO died in March in a helicopter crash along with other employees. Wondering why this article is coming out now, if somehow everything got unveiled due to the deaths? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-tragic-end-young-entrepreneur-s-ultimate-experiences-n979286 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-tr...
galaxyLogic 7y ago
"Credit card companies also play a key role by largely refusing to grant charge-backs to people who have been roped into a subscription without their knowledge, according to Baker." If you get rolled into subscription without agreeing to that isn't that the same as someone charging you for what you didn't order, so aren't the credit card companies supposed to refund you ?

29 points by laurex 7y ago

This reminds me of this article from a while back: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-scammers-need-suckers-and-facebook-helps-find-them https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-scamme... I worked for a company that hired media buyers that came from this shady world, most of them are the most degenerate people I've ever met. They target people in lower-income parts of the country with "530 FICO Scores" (in the words of a previous coworker). 9 out of 10 times, they couldn't legitimately market a product to save their life if they couldn't rely on scare tactics, snake-oil/miracle cures, and other shady tactics such as "free trial re-billing". They view running an online business as "building a cash printer" and view customers as prey to target. They have a million tactics to keep FB campaigns going such as amassing more credit cards than you'd think a bank would issue (since FB blocks cards from offending accounts), relying on off-shore account farms for fresh Facebook ad accounts, cloaking their landing pages, etc. I once heard a story about a marketer that would pay college students $100 and give them a free laptop with TeamViewer running as long as they stayed logged into facebook and could create ad accounts on their behalf. Needless to say my time at the company was short, as I was not a fan of the aggressive tactics being used to market the products. Most of the media buyers had substance abuse problems, and the sick mindset turned me off to digital marketing completely until I had the opportunity to network and work with more ethical advertisers and founders of ecommerce brands. These people ruin the internet and slow progress by damaging customer trust in shopping online. Background: I'm an engineer, but I joined a DTC brand startup a couple years ago doing basic front-end work just so I could be in that environment every day learning the problem space and getting domain expertise in ecommerce and B2C customer acquisition. I've worked with more legitimate brands, and I'm currently building a product for the industry (on top of Shopify's platform), but I can't wait for the day that these scammers are completely rooted out.

_bxg1 7y ago

> The fake celebrity scandal hinted at in the ad is the hook that gets people to click so they can be pitched on what appears to be a no-risk, product trial for a small shipping fee, such as $4.99. Maybe it's different for people who didn't grow up on the internet, but this checks nearly ever box in my automatic this-is-a-scam heuristic. It reads as not even trying; it's practically a cliche at this point. Amazing that it still works at this scale.

Scoundreller 7y ago

> Dr. Oz also dedicated an episode to a different San Diego company that was using an image of the show’s host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, to sell weight loss supplements. Dr. Oz must be a great target since he sells a lot of junk as it is and his viewers eat it up.

goldenkey 7y ago

From a cursory search, it appears the CEO died in March in a helicopter crash along with other employees. Wondering why this article is coming out now, if somehow everything got unveiled due to the deaths? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-tragic-end-young-entrepreneur-s-ultimate-experiences-n979286 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-tr...

galaxyLogic 7y ago

"Credit card companies also play a key role by largely refusing to grant charge-backs to people who have been roped into a subscription without their knowledge, according to Baker." If you get rolled into subscription without agreeing to that isn't that the same as someone charging you for what you didn't order, so aren't the credit card companies supposed to refund you ?