3 ms·

Pointyeah.com CEO Threatens University Student's Project

37 points by russAulakh 2y ago

russAulakh 2y ago
Hello Guys, I'm a computer science student reaching out during a challenging time. I created a project, FlyMile.pro, a flight search engine that finds flights on credit card points. Originally designed to enhance my resume and secure internships, it surprisingly attracted over 10,000 sign-ups! However, recently, I've been facing some distressing challenges. The CEO of PointsYeah has accused me of scraping their website, a claim that is entirely baseless (I have my GitHub commits, my code never interacted with his site). I hadn't even heard of PointsYeah until about a month ago, when I stumbled upon a mention in a Reddit post, Despite this, I received a message threatening to shut down my site (see message screenshot). Last night, our website was bombarded with an unusual amount of traffic, which seemed like a deliberate attack, and I've been receiving calls from random international numbers. I even found MilesLife - his previous company having payments issues with merchants - I will not comment anything on that, you are free to explore. I’m feeling quite overwhelmed by this, especially since this project was meant to be a positive addition to my learning and future opportunities. I've worked hard to create something useful and educational, not just for myself but for a broader community. Has anyone here experienced something similar? How did you handle it? Any advice on how to manage these accusations and protect my project?
russAulakh 2y ago
https://imgur.com/a/Fg9QtYn https://imgur.com/a/Fg9QtYn Link to his threats
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
schnebbau 2y ago
Well... did you scrape their site? There are loads of similar tools out there, so it would be quite random for this guy to single out yours.
- russAulakh 2y ago
  I would like to address few thing - I am addressing from my friend's account : This is the only account , since you can check it talks about Concordia university, which is where I study. Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ Email russ.aulakh@gmail.com 1.Since I have posted in 9-10 subreddits , reddit has put a ban for 7 days, thus i am not able to reply you guys. I will respond to each and every comment after 7 days. 2. All companies (PointsYeah , seat.aero, roame.travel scrape airline websites, some like point.me likely buy data from Amadeus, I was also scrapping airline websites like them. I have never touched pointYeah.com ? why would i when I can directly use airline websites.) 3. I have Calendar View , which none of these sites had - ( because In my opinion NO on wants 1000's flight for next 30 days , people want to see prices , which i was providing), also I only had 3 airline programmes , because i could not figure out others , all other guys had 16+. My goal to build flymile was to build a resume project that would lead to internships, as you know tech market is not in well shape now. 4. I am also busy securing my website, and talking to my professors at school for advise and to potentially represent me in the court. 5. I am reaching out to people like Coffeezilla to investigate this guy, because i have found series things about his previous company MilesLife. 6. I also have meetings now with his competitors. 7. Some people said this is marketing , I have no interest to do such shitty thing. I just want to tell people truth of this guy, so he never threatens anyone else (I am a coffeezilla fan , so I have to do it for all people like me.) If you have any questions , You can reach me out at my LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ or my email russ.aulakh@gmail.com. I would make a video message if ever needed Finally, I want to say thank you to all for supporting me, Again I never scraped him. and I would like to add that being a Coffeezilla fan , I am not afraid of his threats , I will fight back. I am not only fighting for myself , I am fighting for all these people whom these guys can eat just with their threats.
ddd967 2y ago
As far as I can tell this is a "he said"/"she said" conflict. What evidence is there that you did not scrape his site? What evidence is there that you did? I'd like to hear from both parties before rushing to judgment. As an outsider looking it, it seems like an attempt to create faux-outrage just to drive traffic to your site
- russAulakh 2y ago
  I would like to address few thing - I am addressing from my friend's account : This is the only account , since you can check it talks about Concordia university, which is where I study. Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ Email russ.aulakh@gmail.com 1.Since I have posted in 9-10 subreddits , reddit has put a ban for 7 days, thus i am not able to reply you guys. I will respond to each and every comment after 7 days. 2. All companies (PointsYeah , seat.aero, roame.travel scrape airline websites, some like point.me likely buy data from Amadeus, I was also scrapping airline websites like them. I have never touched pointYeah.com ? why would i when I can directly use airline websites.) 3. I have Calendar View , which none of these sites had - ( because In my opinion NO on wants 1000's flight for next 30 days , people want to see prices , which i was providing), also I only had 3 airline programmes , because i could not figure out others , all other guys had 16+. My goal to build flymile was to build a resume project that would lead to internships, as you know tech market is not in well shape now. 4. I am also busy securing my website, and talking to my professors at school for advise and to potentially represent me in the court. 5. I am reaching out to people like Coffeezilla to investigate this guy, because i have found series things about his previous company MilesLife. 6. I also have meetings now with his competitors. 7. Some people said this is marketing , I have no interest to do such shitty thing. I just want to tell people truth of this guy, so he never threatens anyone else (I am a coffeezilla fan , so I have to do it for all people like me.) If you have any questions , You can reach me out at my LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ or my email russ.aulakh@gmail.com. I would make a video message if ever needed Finally, I want to say thank you to all for supporting me, Again I never scraped him. and I would like to add that being a Coffeezilla fan , I am not afraid of his threats , I will fight back. I am not only fighting for myself , I am fighting for all these people whom these guys can eat just with their threats.
HenryJZ123 2y ago
That dude is a complete scam artist. He willingly defaulted on millions of dollars owed to airlines, and now he makes a living by scraping airline data, lol. This guy has gone bankrupt multiple times and has single-handedly stolen people's money every single time. It seems this scoundrel has spent his entire life exploiting others and living off money he owes. I told you - https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/171ld1s/while_pointsyeah_is_a_useful_tool_something/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/171ld1s/while_...

37 points by russAulakh 2y ago

Hello Guys, I'm a computer science student reaching out during a challenging time. I created a project, FlyMile.pro, a flight search engine that finds flights on credit card points. Originally designed to enhance my resume and secure internships, it surprisingly attracted over 10,000 sign-ups! However, recently, I've been facing some distressing challenges. The CEO of PointsYeah has accused me of scraping their website, a claim that is entirely baseless (I have my GitHub commits, my code never interacted with his site). I hadn't even heard of PointsYeah until about a month ago, when I stumbled upon a mention in a Reddit post, Despite this, I received a message threatening to shut down my site (see message screenshot). Last night, our website was bombarded with an unusual amount of traffic, which seemed like a deliberate attack, and I've been receiving calls from random international numbers. I even found MilesLife - his previous company having payments issues with merchants - I will not comment anything on that, you are free to explore. I’m feeling quite overwhelmed by this, especially since this project was meant to be a positive addition to my learning and future opportunities. I've worked hard to create something useful and educational, not just for myself but for a broader community. Has anyone here experienced something similar? How did you handle it? Any advice on how to manage these accusations and protect my project?

russAulakh 2y ago

https://imgur.com/a/Fg9QtYn https://imgur.com/a/Fg9QtYn Link to his threats

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

schnebbau 2y ago

Well... did you scrape their site? There are loads of similar tools out there, so it would be quite random for this guy to single out yours.

russAulakh 2y ago
I would like to address few thing - I am addressing from my friend's account : This is the only account , since you can check it talks about Concordia university, which is where I study. Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ Email russ.aulakh@gmail.com 1.Since I have posted in 9-10 subreddits , reddit has put a ban for 7 days, thus i am not able to reply you guys. I will respond to each and every comment after 7 days. 2. All companies (PointsYeah , seat.aero, roame.travel scrape airline websites, some like point.me likely buy data from Amadeus, I was also scrapping airline websites like them. I have never touched pointYeah.com ? why would i when I can directly use airline websites.) 3. I have Calendar View , which none of these sites had - ( because In my opinion NO on wants 1000's flight for next 30 days , people want to see prices , which i was providing), also I only had 3 airline programmes , because i could not figure out others , all other guys had 16+. My goal to build flymile was to build a resume project that would lead to internships, as you know tech market is not in well shape now. 4. I am also busy securing my website, and talking to my professors at school for advise and to potentially represent me in the court. 5. I am reaching out to people like Coffeezilla to investigate this guy, because i have found series things about his previous company MilesLife. 6. I also have meetings now with his competitors. 7. Some people said this is marketing , I have no interest to do such shitty thing. I just want to tell people truth of this guy, so he never threatens anyone else (I am a coffeezilla fan , so I have to do it for all people like me.) If you have any questions , You can reach me out at my LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ or my email russ.aulakh@gmail.com. I would make a video message if ever needed Finally, I want to say thank you to all for supporting me, Again I never scraped him. and I would like to add that being a Coffeezilla fan , I am not afraid of his threats , I will fight back. I am not only fighting for myself , I am fighting for all these people whom these guys can eat just with their threats.

ddd967 2y ago

As far as I can tell this is a "he said"/"she said" conflict. What evidence is there that you did not scrape his site? What evidence is there that you did? I'd like to hear from both parties before rushing to judgment. As an outsider looking it, it seems like an attempt to create faux-outrage just to drive traffic to your site

russAulakh 2y ago
I would like to address few thing - I am addressing from my friend's account : This is the only account , since you can check it talks about Concordia university, which is where I study. Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ Email russ.aulakh@gmail.com 1.Since I have posted in 9-10 subreddits , reddit has put a ban for 7 days, thus i am not able to reply you guys. I will respond to each and every comment after 7 days. 2. All companies (PointsYeah , seat.aero, roame.travel scrape airline websites, some like point.me likely buy data from Amadeus, I was also scrapping airline websites like them. I have never touched pointYeah.com ? why would i when I can directly use airline websites.) 3. I have Calendar View , which none of these sites had - ( because In my opinion NO on wants 1000's flight for next 30 days , people want to see prices , which i was providing), also I only had 3 airline programmes , because i could not figure out others , all other guys had 16+. My goal to build flymile was to build a resume project that would lead to internships, as you know tech market is not in well shape now. 4. I am also busy securing my website, and talking to my professors at school for advise and to potentially represent me in the court. 5. I am reaching out to people like Coffeezilla to investigate this guy, because i have found series things about his previous company MilesLife. 6. I also have meetings now with his competitors. 7. Some people said this is marketing , I have no interest to do such shitty thing. I just want to tell people truth of this guy, so he never threatens anyone else (I am a coffeezilla fan , so I have to do it for all people like me.) If you have any questions , You can reach me out at my LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-aulakh/ or my email russ.aulakh@gmail.com. I would make a video message if ever needed Finally, I want to say thank you to all for supporting me, Again I never scraped him. and I would like to add that being a Coffeezilla fan , I am not afraid of his threats , I will fight back. I am not only fighting for myself , I am fighting for all these people whom these guys can eat just with their threats.

HenryJZ123 2y ago

That dude is a complete scam artist. He willingly defaulted on millions of dollars owed to airlines, and now he makes a living by scraping airline data, lol. This guy has gone bankrupt multiple times and has single-handedly stolen people's money every single time. It seems this scoundrel has spent his entire life exploiting others and living off money he owes. I told you - https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/171ld1s/while_pointsyeah_is_a_useful_tool_something/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/171ld1s/while_...