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Cameras Online? How The Shysters Work

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the Psst!-Hey,-Mister!-Cheap-cameras-online? dept.

earlylate writes "How do certain photo and electronics dealers thrive despite widely-circulated warnings by unhappy customers? According to a new investigative website "many apparently separate and competing dealers are actually jointly owned and run" and "go to great lengths to conceal their locations and management." Further, some comparison-shopping sites "are in effect marketing partners with their affiliates," the very dealers they rate. There's a contest based on the suspicious "flood of similar, glowing reviews some dealers receive," as well as links to several sources of information and advice for the careful online shopper."

5 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. Some interesting pictures of the storefronts by line-bundle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are some interesting pictures of the storefronts

    Front doors

  2. Re:Vigilante justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean something like this?

  3. No, it just means unscrupuolus lawyer. Or shitter by karlandtanya · · Score: 5, Informative
    Probably alteration of German Scheisser, son of a bitch, bastard, from scheissen, to defecate, from Middle High German schzen, from Old High German skzzan.


    unscrupulous lawyer 1843, U.S. slang, probably altered from Ger. Scheisser "incompetent worthless person," from Scheisse "shit," from O.H.G. skizzan "to defecate" (see shit).


    shyster--'shIs-t Etymology: probably from German Scheisser, literally, defecator
    : one who is professionally unscrupulous especially in the practice of law or politics : PETTIFOGGER


    You're not helping anyone. You make people with a legitimate beef look petty and you present people with no bad intentions at all as anti-semitic (or specifically anti-Jewish, as there are a lot more semitic people than just Jews).
    Now, go into a closet and say "niggardly" a hundred times.

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
  4. Re:Finding good reviews by cetan · · Score: 5, Informative

    resellerratings.com is generally quite good and the results can be trusted. Of course, one should browse to be certain a particular store wasn't recently flooded with fake positive reviews.

    --
    In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
  5. Re:"Shyster"? by theonetruekeebler · · Score: 5, Informative
    You're thinking of "Shylock", which is indeed a slur against Jews. "Shyster" gets confused with shylock, but its etymology is fairly well understood to be from the German "Scheisser", lit. "shitter" but more figuratively "bullshitter" or "son-of-a-bitch."

    In all likelihood it got dragged into the U.S. via Yiddish, hence the Semitic connection. Calling a Jewish lawyer a shyster is probably rather tasteless.

    --
    This is not my sandwich.