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"Hello, I saw a sign that says you buy houses for cash, can I set up a meeting?" "Yes, when are you available?" > Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Surely ca
by burundi_coffee 7y ago
"Hello, I saw a sign that says you buy houses for cash, can I set up a meeting?"
"Yes, when are you available?"
> Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
Surely can't be that hard to find out if the business owner set up that sign, right?
- microcolonel 7y agoINB4 people complain that this is "entrapment"
- drharby 7y agoCircumstantial. Go watch Zodiac to get an idea of how circumstantial evidence is insufficient
- agrajag 7y agoA valid defense would just be that there was at least one legitimate advertisement that they saw. Just because one sign is illegal doesn’t mean they all are.
- whatshisface 7y agoLet's say you buy houses for cash and I put up a sign with your number on it. The police call you and find out that you do, indeed, buy houses for cash. They throw you in jail and I snicker, knowing that by breaking the advertising law myself but with your name I have put you out of business. While I'm at it, I leave your business card at the scene of a heist.
- throwno 7y agoI was thinking this could be a good way to get lame blogs banned off HN. Just order some upvotes for it from one of those banned upvoting services. No one is going to believe someone else ordered it.
- SamReidHughes 7y agoThey can remove the voters' voting power instead of banning the website. (This has happened with at least company's blog/employees, that I'm aware of, when I got asked as a contractor to help upvote.)
- catalogia 7y ago>"Let's say you buy houses for cash and I put up a sign with your number on it. The police call you and find out that you do, indeed, buy houses for cash." Suppose I were operating such a business with legal advertisements only and the detective asked me "Hey I saw a sign on a telephone pole saying you buy houses for cash, is that right?" why would I answer in the affirmative? > "No, it's weird that you saw that. I don't post signs on any telephone poles, this is a highly reputable business. They'd only say that if they're smart. Many of them probably aren't, and their guard will be down if the detective can do a passable "desperate alcoholic" impression over the phone. But regardless, I agree that false negatives are more likely than false positives.
- dvtrn 7y agoBecause of the inherent and blatantly obvious disparity in the power dynamic that exists between the two parties in your hypothetical? https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/psychologist-explains-why-people-confess-crimes-they-didn-t-commit https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/psychologist-explain...
- catalogia 7y agoIf I didn't in fact advertise on telephone poles, then I would say that wasn't my sign. If I didn't advertise on telephone poles but somebody else was trying to frame me, and then I proceeded to act as though those signs were my own, then why would I not deserve punishment? If those signs advertised my business and I neglected to disown the signs because I was greedy, I think I'd deserve to be fined by the city. If I admitted on a recorded telephone call with a detective that the signs were mine, even if they weren't, then I've screwed myself with my own greed, which is fitting and just.
- thenewnewguy 7y agoWhoever answers the phone is likely not going to know or care about how the business advertises. Like seriously, do you expect an employee to go "oh I don't know of any signs we advertise on, so I guess we can't buy your house"? Even if they know for a fact that the company doesn't have any sign-based advertising they're still not going to turn away the customer.