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One Year Later, Zer01 Web Site Disappears
alphadogg writes "Zer01 Mobile — making promises of flat rate, no contract, unlimited cell phone service — made its grand entrance at the annual CTIA wireless convention about a year ago, but now the company's Web site has disappeared. The site recently began redirecting visitors to Google.com. Zer01, which was lauded for its plans in the mainstream press, aligned itself with a multilevel marketing company called Global Verge (whose founder had earlier been convicted of securities fraud), and the two companies began recruiting salespeople who paid a monthly fee to be part of a sales program. (Since then, Global Verge and Zer01 parted ways and Global Verge filed a lawsuit against its former partner.) But no mobile service from Zer01 ever materialized. Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program, although few appear to have received payment. But as late as the fall CTIA show in October, Zer01's CEO was still promising to launch the mobile service."
So, based on no further information than that in the article... can you say Multi-level marketing scam? I knew you could
Gee an iPonzi scheme. I think scheme is a language. I did not know Ponzi knew Lisp. He did stutter though.
Warning: this troll is illegal, do not read it
It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality', which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to paedophilia.
What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:
I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.
Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'
As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.
And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!
Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:
'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'
Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?
We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of co
Ponzi scheme, anyone?
Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program, although few appear to have received payment.
Seriously? How people ever think this sort of plan makes fiscal sense and isn't at all dodgy I will never understand.
jaymz
A simple adage - "If it's too good to be true, it probably is". People never seem to learn it. Always falling for scams. I'm not surprised.
Give me a call, I got a great car to sell you.
Fools and their money are soon parted. And, frankly, I rephrase that as "Fools and their money money SHOULD be soon parted."
There is nothing worse than fools holding onto capital and they deserve to be separated from it.
Totally gay.
I hope all fags die of teh AIDS.
"Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program, although few appear to have received payment."
The only newsworthy part of this is that Slashdot and others thought this business model was newsworthy in the first place.
It's a Pyramid Scheme with the phrase "Cell Phone" tacked on, anyone who bought into this deserved what they got.
If you market to people's hopes & dreams, you will always find suckers for your hollow ploys.
Cosmetics are generally useless from a utilitarian standpoint, and yet mass marketing pushes that shit out to the female demographic as if they would evaporate without it, and now we're stuck with the fucking Barbie generation. Give somebody the hope that you can fulfill their dream, and you will have their wallet.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
They were just copying Equinox's business plan. You'd think people would know better by now.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I have T-mobile unlimited flexpay. It's a no contract, month to month service. while I only have 500 minutes, I do have unlimited data usage. I pay $75/month for the service, and use skype extensively. Usage limits? I've never run into them. This month I've pushed 7GB on my Nokia N900 over the 3G connection, and nobody at T-mobile has ever complained to me or my service been cut off.
Sure, I pay a premium over MetroPCS and Cricket, but I get a decent service that I can use with a GSM smartphone.
Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program.
And were those other people promised payment based on how many others they signed up? Was the payment structure a hierarchical top down system like a pyramid?
die of aids. all of you. just die.
Is that you Amway?
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
...salespeople who paid a monthly fee to be part of a sales program.
Say. No. More.
Post makes the point that Global Verge is suing Zer01.
Don't infer hostility!!!!!
Collusive (friendly) lawsuits are a fraudulent way one person can transfer money to another person (himself?), thereby dodging legitimate creditors.
Fyi.
Scam is right. Multilevel marketing makes it almost seem legitimate, which apparently it wasn't.
BTW - I'm using the word "apparently" in the "please don't sue me" sense of the word.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Instead of multi tier marketing schemes, we just need more cooperatives: owned and run by members, for the benefit of the members!
That has pyramid scheme written all over it. I wonder why it took so long and why no legal action was taken against them. Or are these scams legal in the US?
The moment somebody comes to me and tells me I can earn a lot of money, but first I need to pay a bit up front will NOT be my new employer. The will NOT be my business partner. They will be sorted under scammer. If I need to recruit people and payed on basis of how many people I can enlist, I will NOT work for that company (unless I am HR.)
Why were they not closed sooner? Even without the links to other dubious companies, this sounds like a first class pyramid scam.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
People who fall for these scams don't know any better. I'd like to change that. Please mail me to join my award-winning program: "MLM Schemes Exposed", and help spread the word. Every person you get to join my program will earn you 10% of their membership fee, and every person they recruit will earn you a further 10% of the 90% they pass onto you. Together we can spread the word: MLM schemes are evil and dangerous. Don't get caught in one!
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com/
Name Server: NS1.PARKED.COM
Name Server: NS2.PARKED.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 07-mar-2010
Creation Date: 13-mar-2009
Expiration Date: 13-mar-2011
The only difference is that it's O1 (the letter 'O'), not 01
Seems to me that, to add insult to injury, the typo-squatter picked the better domain name to begin with...
...and the two companies began recruiting salespeople who paid a monthly fee to be part of a sales program.
Any time that you're required to pay money to work - and I mean this outside of regular expenses such as supplies and travel, etc. - it's probably a good idea to turn around and run as far away as you can. A monthly fee to be part of a sales program? This is even worse than the typical MLM such as Primerica or Quixtar. At least those programs offer some sort of good or service in return, despite having an initial start-up cost.
But to collect money like that on a monthly basis and to vanish?
Best "String" Ever!
Best GNU's on Slashdot all month...