Slashdot Mirror
'Free Broadband' Scam Exposed
dslknowitall writes: "It appears that http://www.dslreports.com is first on the crime scene regarding DSLmonster.com's scam to offer free broadband access for the price of only two spam's a day (remember winfire, anyone?).
"If you remember back on December 18th we raised the warning flag concerning a DSL provider known as DSLMonster.com, who's business stank of illegitimacy. With a website made up of plagiarized portions of other providers terms of service, and a qualification system that claimed it could provide service to locations like "the dark side of the moon", it appeared to be a scam waiting to happen." Not only a well written piece but lots o' backgroud too!"
Not@home
tcd004
You get what you pay for. Especially online.
Unless you get less than what you pay for.
Almost never do you get more than you pay for.
As it turns out, our scrutiny only helped to improve the scam, as our users nitpicking of the sites inconsistencies provided a template for DSLMonster to author a more convincing website that would appear a month later and would lead to more bilked customers.
I just hope people don't get angry at DSLReports for what they did. They were only trying to provide a service for their readers.
According to the employees of DSLMonster, many of whom seemed to have legitimate DSL industry experience, they claim they were completely unaware of Mr. Dyer's plans...
The Enron defense, anyone? How can people in a compnay not know of the plans by management. Anyone in the billing department, for example, would have seen the excessive billing practices.
I would think if I was an employee at this company, I'd start to wonder just when we were going to start installing anything.. for pete's sake, you can't tell me the employees didn't have a clue what was going on, unless of course they were too busy bidding on figurines at eBay, and watching their Enron stock plummet....
regarding DSLmonster.com's scam to offer free broadband access for the price of only two spam's a day
What a second. The linked article says that customers were double and triple billed. What did they get 4-6 spams instead of 2? Or is this statement wrong and there was a cost for the service?
The Anti-Blog
While this ISP was not as much of a sham as the ISP the articule links to, they had an executive with access to the company's purse strings. This person outright stole money from the company's bank account for personal use; we are talking about millions of dollars here. Finally, when the company went bankrupt one or two years later, this crook fled the country, and, as far as I know, is living in the Carribian.
Similar to how Enron did things; get a lot of investment money; start a company, hire employees and pay off congressmen to give the company an air of legitimacy; then take as much money from the company bank account as one can get away with. Do this until the company dies and the executives are living in the bahamas.
- Sam
The secret to enjoying Slashdot is to realize that it should not be taken too seriously.
Inocent until proven guilty.
They can go to a judge for a warrant. If a judge won't issue them one, then they don't have any evidence this guy is commiting fraud.
If you start throwingout laws, and privacy concerns just because someone may have committed a crime, you loose everything.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So if I accuse you of fraud you think privacy laws should be suspended allowing me to post your picture all over the place further accusing you?
Remember, even if we all know it was a scam, he's still innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
-Space for rent
I really feel for the people who got ripped off yet...
.sig lunch-lady Dorris?" "Yes, yes we do." "Then .sig me up woman!" "Okey dokey."
Isn't the first rule of life, on the internet especially, is that if it says it is free, you DO NOT give out your credit card number? Just a thought.
--"Do you have any
One time 'hardware fee' of $129 I think.
For the heck of it, I ran a Google Search for "Corey Dyer" "New Jersey" and it brought up one white pages entry. Maybe it's him, maybe it's not. Might as well try.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
access for the price of only two spam's a day
I want to lower my SPAM to only two a day! Where can I get that kind of service?
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
If they'd provided service to 10% of their customers, and stalled the others, they could have kept this scam going for years. It would be hard to distinguish that approach from "legitimate" DSL providers.
I could have told you it was a scam two words into it; "Free broadband"? Who on earth would believe something like that?
Can they garauntee this? I pay for my current ISP and get a lot more spam than that. This sounds tempting...
I know what the Internet is, what the hell is this Interweb business?!
No, and no one is suggesting allowing individuals to act as vigilantes in the case. I do think a legitimate law enforcement agency ought to be able to obtain information, with a warrant (or other appropriate legal document), that may help solve a crime. Now, the case may not yet have reached the stage of issuing a warrant, but when that happens, I have a problem with a state agency not complying with a warrant due to state laws. A doubt a criminal suspect has a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to government records containing information about him or her.
No one is saying state agencies ought to routinely provide information to the police so they can monitor citizens.
Now, if NJ doesn't have a picture (as some have opioned), then that's a different story as to why they won't provide it - but doesn't change my opinion on the need to provide such data when available.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.