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Shopping in particular seems iffy for me. I used to use Google shopping to find deals, but increasingly the results are full of scams. I bought a baratta encore

Shopping in particular seems iffy for me. I used to use Google shopping to find deals, but increasingly the results are full of scams. I bought a baratta encore grinder new for what looked like MSRP with free shipping off a site highly ranked in Google shopping. It never arrived, I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company, and the site disappeared a couple of months later. Now if I search "nvidia 4090" on shopping, the top organic result is a card at "Orvamini" that claims to still be in stock at MSRP.[0] I don't believe it after clicking around the site, they have all kinds of high end electronics that are sold out everywhere, at or below MSRP and I have never heard of the brand. For example, they could easily sell this card for over $2k, or 50% more than the below-msrp price they have currently listed, on eBay or stockx.[1] [0] https://www.google.com/shopping/product/5873870201295230510?q=4090+nvidia&client=ms-android-google&biw=412&bih=790&tbs=vw:l&prmd=sniv https://www.google.com/shopping/product/5873870201295230510?... [1] https://orvamini.com/product/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-founders-edition-graphics-card-24gb-gddr6x-titanium-and-black/ https://orvamini.com/product/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-founder...

cma 4y ago
Hotel booking results in Google Maps are almost all scams. They don't care because they use it to force the hotel to pay for a sponsored ranking in the booking listings to be up high.
donmcronald 4y ago
I know people who have been scammed by middleman ads. Search to buy flowers in a specific area and there’s a good chance the top ad will be a middleman that will take your order and flip it to a local business. You’ll think you’re buying a fancy (expensive) flower arrangement, but the middleman will order something small (and cheap) on your behalf. You overpay while the recipient of the flowers gets something mediocre at best. The exact thing happened to my mother while trying to send flowers for a relative’s funeral. She paid something close to $200, the local shop got a small order, and some grifter got a bunch of easy money for gaming the system. But hey! As long as Google gets their cut for the ad / referral the collateral damage of grifting seniors is just smart business, right?

cma 4y ago

Hotel booking results in Google Maps are almost all scams. They don't care because they use it to force the hotel to pay for a sponsored ranking in the booking listings to be up high.

donmcronald 4y ago

I know people who have been scammed by middleman ads. Search to buy flowers in a specific area and there’s a good chance the top ad will be a middleman that will take your order and flip it to a local business. You’ll think you’re buying a fancy (expensive) flower arrangement, but the middleman will order something small (and cheap) on your behalf. You overpay while the recipient of the flowers gets something mediocre at best. The exact thing happened to my mother while trying to send flowers for a relative’s funeral. She paid something close to $200, the local shop got a small order, and some grifter got a bunch of easy money for gaming the system. But hey! As long as Google gets their cut for the ad / referral the collateral damage of grifting seniors is just smart business, right?