October 06, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Crimes, anonymity, and the Net
An ingenious bank robber dressed as a road maintenance worker pulled a heist worthy of Hollywood last week, thanks in part to the Internet.
The robber pepper-sprayed a guard outside the Bank of America in Monroe, Washington, grabbed a bag of cash from a Brinks truck, and jumped into a nearby creek, where his "get-away inner tube" awaited [video]. He then floated down to the Skykomish River where presumably he had a boat or a car or possibly a zeppelin stashed.
But that wasn't the genius part. Security guards couldn't pursue the robber because there were a dozen other people at the bank dressed exactly like him -- dust mask, safety goggles, work gloves, blue work shirt -- thanks to an ad the robber had placed on Craigslist. They'd all been instructed to show up at the bank at 11 am dressed for a job that promised $28.50 an hour.
So is this what Senator Ted Stevens meant when said the Internet is a really just a series of tubes? Maybe he just meant the Net is going down the tubes... like a bank robber down a river.
It was hardly the first time Craigslist has been used to mask a robbery. Last March, an Oregon home was ransacked after a pair of burglars ran an ad inviting people to come to the home and take everything inside it, to cover up a crime they'd already committed. There's at least one blog devoted solely to crimes committed via Craigslist. It's a long list.
Now the cops are hoping the bank robber left a trail of digital breadcrumbs behind. In this way this story is similar to last week's "citizen journalism" snafu, where someone planted a fake story about Steve Jobs on CNN's iReport site, possibly to drive down Apple's stock price. Now the SEC would like to have a word with an iReports user employing the handle "Johntw." Anybody out there know him?
Whether they'll have any luck finding these crooks depends on how digitally savvy they were. If the bad guys used proxy services to mask their IP addresses -- and those services don't maintain user logs -- it's unlikely law enforcement will get very far.
Does that mean online anonymity is a bad thing? Not necessarily. These same proxy services can be used by political dissidents in regimes like China or Iran, where saying the wrong thing online can land you in prison -- or worse.
Where do you stand on the Internet anonymity debate? Should all of our online activities be traceable? Post your thoughts below or email me direct: cringe (at) infoworld (dot) com.
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Posted by Robert X. Cringely on October 6, 2008 07:37 AM
May 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)
So my phone rang one day last week and, naturally, there was a computer on the other end. But this wasn't a political robo-call trying to confuse me into voting for the wrong candidate. This was a commercial robo-call from a Web site called MerchantCircle, telling me there was a "new review of my service" on the site.
MerchantCircle is an attempt to create a localized Yellow Pages community on a national scale. So if you run a hair salon, you can put a page on MC with a map to your address, information about the salon, photos, testimonials, and ways for potential customers to contact you. Their tagline is
Join the 430,000 businesses across the country who rely on MerchantCircle to prove that their business is trustworthy!
Now as it turns out I do have a MerchantCircle account. In fact, I set up a couple of fictitious MC accounts when I first heard about the service two years ago, then promptly forgot about them. But none of those accounts include my home number. The phone call was about an account in my name set up by MerchantCircle itself, probably based on information culled from the local phone directory. They were trying to drive me to the site to claim my free listing so they could sell my information to advertisers, sign me up for various services, and so on.
When I looked at my account, there were no "new reviews." I can't say I was surprised. In my testing two years ago, MerchantCircle was laughable. In just a couple of hours I discovered how extremely easy it was to a) create a fictional business, b) advertise a business that was clearly in violation of the law, c) claim someone else's legitimate business as your own, d) post your own glowing "customer reviews" on your page, and e) delete the negative ones. Those pages are still up there two years later, by the way.
Trustworthy my arse.
Those robo-calls aren't new, either. Searchblog's John Batelle noted the stink these automated marketing calls caused almost two years ago. MC CEO Ben Smith responded to that blog entry, but didn't stop the calls.
Back then I figured Merchant Circle had so many problems it would die an early death. It didn't seem worth writing about -- until I got the phone call last week, that is. Now I'm ticked off about it. Even if it is a legit business, it uses illegitimate methods to promote itself.
MerchantCircle may not be a scam, in the strict sense of the word. But it serves up sleaze by the bucketful.
Have you been robo-called by MerchantCircle or other Web sites? Post your tales of woe below or email me: cringe (at) infoworld (dot) com. Top swag awaits those with the tastiest tidbits.
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• Test Your Geek IQ
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Posted by Robert X. Cringely on May 12, 2008 12:00 PM
June 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
And now a word from the pumpees
Re "Pump & Dump goes 'legit'," I did get a response, finally, from Steven Bigley at Aero-Financial, GZGT's stateside representatives. Rather than append it to my last long blog entry I present it here, unedited and unspellchecked, for your enjoyment:
I do not promote this stock and Aero-Financial knows nothing about Growth Stock Guru or Eminiar VII as Aharon Brofman I do not know him personally or who he is or is not affiliated with go to www.guangzhouglobaltelecom.com and look at their employee or management and that is who I know at GZGT other than that I cannot help you and will not try to fabricate anything for you ..... I am merely here due to FD Reg Fair Disclosure Act and I am here to disemenate information to the investor and answer questions for investors and possible investors I have know stock in GZGT and I have no interest in promoting this stock I am here to offer cooperate counsil to GZGT and help them legally combat the short sellers as well as to help the investor I am the nuetral 3rd party in all of this between the investor and the company so I am not the guy you want to talk to about such matters because I have no knowledge on such things.
Meanwhile, here is a statement direct from GZGT, which appeared in a press release dated June 11:
Yankuan Li, CEO of Guangzhou Global Telecom states, 'The Company is aware of the massive media campaign surrounding our company and our stock, good and bad. Much of what is being said is out of our control and the Company would like to distance itself from much of what is being circulated. One thing that we suggest to all potential investors is to speak to a registered investment advisor before making any investment. That being said, the fact is that we are a growing company inside one of the greatest growing wireless markets in the world. We are open and available to talk to our shareholders, brokers, and media to address any questions, comments, or concerns that they might have.'
And there you have it.
Posted by Robert X. Cringely on June 20, 2007 08:06 AM
June 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
When you receive an email touting the latest 'can't miss' penny stock, you know to hit the Delete key. Only a major league rube falls for that crap.
But when Cringester D. F. received a slick prepaid mailer touting Guangzhou Global Telecom (GZGT) he was intrigued, so he started digging. And the deeper he dug, the weirder it got.
If you read only the boldface type in GZGT's pamphlet (PDF), you'd assume the company was a major player in the Chinese telecom market. But what it really does is sell prepaid phone cards. And at the time of the mailing the stock was trading at less than two dollars a share. Not exactly the next Google.
Strangely, however, D. F. began to find ads touting the stock all over the mainstream business media. Investors Business Daily, Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, SmartMoney, Marketwatch.com, and Reuters all carried ads. In fact, the only publication known to have declined the ad was Kiplingers, which also did a little sleuthing into GZGT.
It turns out the ads were purchased by GrowthStockGuru.com, which also produced the mailer. GSG in turn, claimed it was being paid to promote the stock by Eminiar VII LLC, a "non-controlling shareholder" in GZGT.
As any Star Trek geek can tell you, Eminiar VII is the name of the planet in episode 23 of the original series, "A Taste of Armageddon." It appears the folks behind this stock promotion were not of this earth.
Likewise for GrowthStockGuru's alleged president, Aharon Bronfman, who doesn't seem to exist in corporeal form. Neither Kiplingers nor I have been able to locate him on the planet. None the less, the trick worked: Shortly after the first ads appeared, GZGT's stock price zoomed from $1.75 to $2.62 before crashing back down to about a buck. Roughly 25 million shares traded hands over three days.
D. F. was a bit appalled at how blithely these magazines and Web sites accepted the ads. But when he tried to contact them, he was mostly ignored. (And when I tried to contact them, I was also ignored.) Forbes told him it had decided to not run future ads for GZGT, while Investors Business Daily essentially said 'tough toenails.' Apparently this sort of thing is not uncommon at IBD. Here's part of what they had to say:
Most of the ads that run in Corporate News are penny stocks. Many of our readers regularly read this advertising feature searching for new and interesting investment opportunities. The section is labeled as advertising and in no way is an endorsement by Investor’s Business Daily. We also run a small disclaimer in the section stating that we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information in the ads.
The ad is still available on IBD's Investor.com site. Nice.
A couple of things to keep in mind. One is that companies whose stock is touted are often not involved in the scam itself -- and in some cases, they are unwitting victims, as their stock price goes haywire. In this case, the principals behind GZGT appear to have had a run of similar events with other companies they've invested in, which makes the whole 'unwitting victim' concept harder to swallow. (Calls and emails to GZGT's US-based flack have yet to be returned.)
[UPDATE: Their response can be found here.]
The other thing to note is that magazines and Web sites can also be scammed. The difference between a legit advertiser and an illegitimate one is often not apparent until the check bounces. But you would hope they paid a little closer attention to what is being advertised in their pages and -- in particular -- would react in horror and shame to think they'd been helping out stock scammers. Apparently not.
As for Infoworld, I am assured that all advertisers are vetted carefully. In part that's because unknown companies showing up at the door with cash in hand are rare; if they advertise here they're usually large, well-known firms or small, well-researched ones.
This is another case of large US corporations doing business with likely criminals -- unintentionally, perhaps, but also profitably. I guess the money spends just the same, regardless of how tainted its source.
Been scammed lately? Tell your tale of woe below or email it to me here. The saddest stories may elict a Cringe bag as small solace.
Posted by Robert X. Cringely on June 20, 2007 03:00 AM
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