4 ms·

Is anybody really surprised at this?

• debacle 14y ago
  I'm not really hip to the Brazilian legal system, but in the US this would be highly illegal.
  • potatolicious 14y ago
    Sadly, "highly illegal" is often not correlated with "goes to jail", or even "stopping the behavior". For example: have you ever wondered about the aggressive charity street canvassers that have sprung up over the last few years? The people who would do just about anything to get you to stop on your commute, talk to them, and hand over your credit card? The aggressive tactics they employ are often illegal, and many instances of outright lies and fabrications have been documented. But that hasn't really curbed the behavior - the charities and canvassing contractors (yes, they are predominantly for-profit canvassing agencies that only represent the charities, they are not the charities themselves) know full well that a great deal of abuse happens, but by keeping everything at arms-length they can shift blame and diffuse responsibility up the chain. Whenever a canvasser is caught lying to get the donation, they are a "rogue" employee, cut loose, and the behavior continues. Whenever this happens at a large enough scale to attract media attention, the canvassing agency itself is "rogue" and cut loose by the charity. So on and so forth - nobody actually gets into trouble at any point, except maybe the canvasser on the street who has nobody to redirect the blame onto. So yeah, even in the US, if you are savvy (and evil) enough, illegality ain't got shit on you.
    • Paul_S 14y ago
      Same thing happens in the UK, to the point that I thought you were talking about UK chuggers until I got the last sentence. VISA's tactics don't surprise me. What is sad is that we think it's OK because you can do anything as long as you're maximising shareholder value.
    • ahi 14y ago
      For example: pretty much any of the larger banks over the last decade.
    • Uchikoma 14y ago
      Happens in Germany too. I often ask if they work for a agency or the charity. Not once was there someone working/volunteering for the charity.
  • dgroves 14y ago
    Funny, because that is how the US operates as well. Just talk to you local sales team about how the 'competition' operate. The thing is when 'nobody' does a thing, but 'everybody' else does; it is actually normal behaviour. And the really beautiful thing about corporations is that they are 'legal people.' And a whole lot of crime goes on by 'legal people' that 'real people' would never get away with.
• jeremyarussell 14y ago
  It's less of an issue of surprise, and more of an issue of still not right which way you turn it.