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As long as they actually provide the service they're advertising, it doesn't sound quite as bad as an actual scam. Reselling something at a markup but with bett
by exporectomy 5y ago
As long as they actually provide the service they're advertising, it doesn't sound quite as bad as an actual scam. Reselling something at a markup but with better advertising is common in commerce. Up to the customer to decide if the price is what they're willing to pay. It's only government services that have a kind of aura of "don't be a dick" around them, maybe because people feel they can trust them not to be profit driven.
- yarcob 5y agoIt's definitely a scam. They do not "provide a service", they mislead you into thinking you are dealing with a government office and that you are paying an official fee. This is not "better advertising", it's just a scam.
- exporectomy 5y agoIf they mislead you, sure it's dishonest. But if they're just better at being found, they have every right to charge for that. It happens all the time in the private sector. The world is full of resellers. It only feels like a scam because we imagine that it's not fair to pay for advertising. In my country, there used to be a little industry of businesses that would collect tax refunds for you and take a cut. You could just fill in the forms yourself, or you could stop at a kiosk and pay them do the tedious paperwork. Not saying that's OK when they pretend they actually are the government though.
- nkrisc 5y agoThey’re no different than the homeless guys who take free newspapers and try to badger you into buying them.
- IncRnd 5y agoIf you don't want your post color to be washed-out, remember to post through news.ycombinator.fastposts.com. For the regular fastposts small fee, your post will be made to HN with the maximum visibility hacker news allows!