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Fake Raspberry Pi Shops Pop Up

Posted by timothy on from the mind-the-thorns dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It seems that there are the first fake Raspberry-Pi sites out there: 'It's just been drawn to our attention that there's a Russian site (www.raspberrypi.ru) purporting to be an official reseller, which is already offering preorders. [..] If you see a site offering preorders or claiming to be an official reseller at the moment, it's a fake. Please don't send them your money. Initially, this site will be the only place you can buy a Raspberry Pi, and we are not offering preorders.'"

83 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Uhm by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

    They have been selling Raspberry pie at Greggs for ages.

  2. Unfortunate bias by Moheeheeko · · Score: 1

    Why name it Raspberry pie? Im allergic to raspberries you insensitive clods!

    1. Re:Unfortunate bias by vlm · · Score: 1

      This calls for an Arduin of Ivrea joke, but I just can't find one.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduin_of_Ivrea

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    2. Re:Unfortunate bias by Hatta · · Score: 1

      Really? How awful for you.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    3. Re:Unfortunate bias by wrencherd · · Score: 1

      Arduin of Ivrea too, and she even has light brown hair.

  3. Re:Really? by josath · · Score: 2

    There are already several places selling "fake" Arduinos. They are actually identical to the real ones, because the design to arduino is completely open source, and the official one has a rather high margin, so there's space for chinese manufacturers to come in and produce clones for cheaper.

    --
    sig? uhh, umm, ok
  4. Re:What the hell... by CaptainLard · · Score: 1

    Its pretty awesome from what I've gathered in the past 2 minutes of reading their site. Its a tiny ARM based Linux PC designed to teach programming. Its only $25! Think of it as an unofficial spinoff of OLPC, instead its OPCPN (one personal computer per nerd). Although, it would have been helpful to put a link to their site or at least a 5 word description of what it is in the summary instead of a link to a known scamming site in Russia.

  5. Re:What the hell... by vlm · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    ... is a Raspberry-Pi?

    Every other day, for weeks, there's a /. story, complete with at least one mandatory "whats a raspberry pi?" post. That calls for a rickroll. Just check out goatse.ru for a photograph of the board...

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  6. Re:What the hell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Every article that in some way is about a product does not classify as a "slashvertisment". And if you don't know what the Raspberry Pi is, you don't read slashdot very often, as it's been covered here extensively from day 1. It would get a little repetitive if they described what it is for every single article. Should they describe what an iPhone is on every article? How about Linux, does that need a description on every article? Since there are vendors that sell Linux, does every Linux article classify as a slashvertisment?

  7. Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 1

    Did they register a trademark? I didn't see one on TESS. Not that that would really help them in Russia anyway.

    1. Re:Trademark by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Trademarks don't matter if a company is taking pre-orders and delivering nothing. If they want to make a product with an identical name and sell it, that might fly in a country that ignores trademarks of other countries, but taking orders for nothing is illegal everywhere -except for companies that pay off the Chinese government.

    2. Re:Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 1

      You can't prove any of that at this point, though. They said they issued a take down but I am questioning on what basis. If they didn't register a trademark then they really have no thing to go on.

    3. Re:Trademark by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure they didn't ask permission to use that picture of the Raspberry Pi, so I bet that's enough to issue a take down request alone.

    4. Re:Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 1

      Yes the raspberry icon would violate their copyright but they could get a C&D on that icon only - not on taking down the entire site.

    5. Re:Trademark by muon-catalyzed · · Score: 1

      Even if they had a trademark registered at USPTO, is it possible to enforce it at domain level even in the US? The last time we discussed this on /. everybody was against internet regulation whatsoever and people whining about authorities messing with domain names etc. BUT is this not a clear example that we actually need to be able to enforce law over the Internet?

    6. Re:Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 1

      There are a couple of scenarios:

      - No trademark - means screwed all around. They have no case (except for copyrights on images/icons/logos as mentioned above).

      - Trademark but on different business segment. If raspberrypi.ru was selling raspberry cupcakes shaped like a pi symbol then there is no recourse to the American company.

      - Trademark on the same business segment. Then the domain name issue is irrelevant. It's a trademark violation and good luck enforcing it in Russia. Your only hope is that the hosting company is in the US.

    7. Re:Trademark by JRowe47 · · Score: 1

      And honestly, if you're dumb enough to send Russians good money to preorder a device made by a startup company based in England, you don't deserve that money anyway.

    8. Re:Trademark by rufty_tufty · · Score: 1

      fwiw it's a UK charity not a US company.
      Doesn't make much difference to your points, but it changes what the company is and the legal recourse and the attitude if the people involved quite a bit.

      --
      "The weirdest thing about a mind, is that every answer that you find, is the basis of a brand new cliche" -
    9. Re:Trademark by hedwards · · Score: 2

      You don't need a trademark to get a site taken down for fraud. If they haven't been in contact with the project and are claiming to be official resellers, then they are committing fraud whether or not they ultimately deliver the goods.

      I'm betting that when all is said and done that none of the units are sent out.

    10. Re:Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 1

      What fraud are they committing? I don't see them claiming they are official resellers.

    11. Re:Trademark by hedwards · · Score: 1

      If you read the friendly link they're pretending to be official. But official or not either way they aren't authorized resellers of the devices and the only place where you can buy them new is directly from the project. Claiming to be resellers of any sort to get people's money is definitely fraudulent.

    12. Re:Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 2

      I read the whole site and nothing there made it sound official. They said they are a Russian community around the Raspberry pi project and were taking pre-orders for the product (although the page has since taken that down). They never called themselves "authorized" or "official" resellers. They were just plain old resellers.

      Based on your definition pretty much everybody company in the world that doesn't manufacturer a product themselves is fraudulent.

    13. Re:Trademark by hedwards · · Score: 1

      If you bothered to read the post here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/312 It's abundantly clear that they aren't a reseller of any sort.

      And no, my definition isn't loose, it's within the standard definition of fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud

    14. Re:Trademark by RazzleFrog · · Score: 2

      I did read the post and I don't agree that they are purporting in any way to be an official reseller. You can be a reseller without being "official" or "authorized". Those are special terms reserved for companies that make special bulk agreements with a vendor. I did not see that claim made anywhere on the Russian site.

      The Raspberry Pi people are overreacting and the only thing they have legal recourse against is the unauthorized use of copyrighted images.

  8. Investment in obscurity by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    It's an investment in obscurity.

    Didn't you get the memo? We've run out of descriptive terms in the language, now we have to resort to made up terms like "Revo", "Ninite", and "Blaxor"; or subvert existing terms which have a completely different meaning like "Apache", "Chrome", and "Panty Shot".

    All the good terms are taken, like "Dev" and "Board".

    Having a name which completely hides the function is seen as an advantage - it's a great selling point which will draw in customers. Just wait and see!

    1. Re:Investment in obscurity by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Open source gets trashed a lot for its silly names, GIMP being probably the most cited. But lots of non-FOSS products, even non-electronic products, have stupid names.

      You would name your car company Killed In Action? No war veteran would drive a KIA! How about a Saab *sob*.

      How about Windows? Did they give it that name because it breaks easily?

      How about the Dodge Startus; er, Stratus? USA Toady; er, Today?

      iPod? Sounds reasonable? Er, not to me. TWAIN scanners? WiFi (to my mind an incredibly stupid name)? Bluetooth?

      As to Apache, it got its name because the earliest version was a patchy server. Perfectly reasonable. Far more reasonable than KIA or iPod or Bluetooth.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    2. Re:Investment in obscurity by pjt33 · · Score: 1

      WiFi is even funnier if you're a native English-speaker living in a Spanish-speaking country. The natural pronunciation is somewhat closer to whiffy than wye-fye.

  9. Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

    The bad news is people are getting cheated, but the good news is that con artists see a big enough market to be worth creating fronts for it. It's a strong indicator that the Raspberry Pi will be successful -they just need to step up official press and YouTube releases with links to the real site.

    1. Re:Bad news/ Good news by Arlet · · Score: 1

      Or maybe they think the target audience is particularly gullible.

    2. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      "particularly gullible"? I don't think anyone finds computer programmers more gullible than the general population. However, any product that has demand with no supply makes people desperate enough to not validate resellers the way they may have otherwise. This is a form of gullibility, but only as much as a square can be called a rectangle.

    3. Re:Bad news/ Good news by Arlet · · Score: 1

      I was just joking of course, but the target audience isn't your average computer programmer. A computer programmer would just buy a regular computer, or, more likely, already own several.

    4. Re:Bad news/ Good news by slim · · Score: 1

      I'm a computer programmer, but I'm also a skinflint. I have my eye on Raspberry Pi as a really cheap, low energy Squeezebox server.

    5. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      I'm a programmer with over a dozen PCs laying around. I want a Raspberry Pi for data-logging and reporting live readouts on an electric car I'm building. These would also be useful for running low-power web servers and running torrents. I can't think of any other full-function PC that uses 1 Watt. Even when they're not turned on most PC power supplies draw more than that.

    6. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Oh, but then again I guess I'm not your 'average' computer programmer. Honestly I'm not your average anything and proud of it :P Wait, does what I just said, the fact that I'm in the largest response column for every pole, and my strange hobbies make me an average /.er? crap.

    7. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Let me know how that turns out. I'm helping a hospital experiment with sound therapy and making little packages of RPs with headphones sounds like a good way to have only large, networked archive to select various forms of music from.

    8. Re:Bad news/ Good news by Arlet · · Score: 1

      Why not get a beagleboard, then ? It's already available, has better documentation, and an active group of developers. Or a beaglebone, or one of several other cheap processor boards that are out there.

      Especially if you're interested in hooking up other peripherals, and don't need 1080p video output, other boards are probably a better choice.

      And the web server you can just run on a regular PC. If you have a dozen PCs, chances are that at least one of them is on 24/7 anyway.

    9. Re:Bad news/ Good news by slim · · Score: 1

      Client-side, you probably want a screen and an input device. Something based on those super-cheap Chinese Android tablets might be a better bet.

      I'm not confident enough to get one for myself, because I read reviews of the WiFi being awful on them -- but if you have a research budget, it would be worth a go.

    10. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      This would be more for during surgeries. Input would be needed only to pick a playlist, then let it run for hours while having as small a footprint as possible. Still, I guess a simple MP3 player with SD slot would just be so much easier on the staff. Personally I would want a central archive, but they would rather stacks of duplicate SD cards.

    11. Re:Bad news/ Good news by shish · · Score: 1

      I am a computer programmer with several computers; my electricity bill is enormous and I need air con in the middle of winter :-P

      --
      I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
    12. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      I considered the BeagleBone, but not only is the RPi cheaper, but I like to get in on the ground floor of stuff. Also, as far as I can tell those alternatives use more power than the RPi. I could be wrong about that fact, but the RPi clearly states that they use 1 Watt idle and I couldn't find the power spec of the other devices. Finally, I like HDMI. If I'm going to have an onboard computer anyway, might as well make it a media hub too -I promise no videos while driving.

    13. Re:Bad news/ Good news by slim · · Score: 1

      4GB USB thumb drive MP3 players are less than £20. Is that enough hours of music?

      Then there's FM radio...

      KISS.

    14. Re:Bad news/ Good news by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      Or maybe "the system" reacts to the new kid on the block, if it turns out that fakes sites are very difficult to remove or oppose, of course. If not we are dealing with normal parasites.
      It's not the first time development of more open systems ran into problems with suppliers so they can't deliver even if they have requests. After some months the product is surely less appealing for the inevitable obsolescence.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    15. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      MP3 players with SD or MicroSD slots are preferred because it's easier to make cards specific to music genres and swap them out according to the patient's wishes. Also, 4 GiB SD cards are ã3 each.

    16. Re:Bad news/ Good news by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Interesting. So you're proposing that this might be an industry conspiracy -similar to the roadblocks automotive manufacturers put up on any new company attempting to enter the market.

  10. Re:What the hell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The /. summary should explain the necessary background information.

    It does. It includes the name of the product in question. You can then use that information and enter it into your preferred search engine, which will provide further elucidating information.

  11. Re:What the hell... by xero314 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have read slashdot everyday for nearly 10 years and I have no clue what "Raspberry Pi" is. Seriously how hard would it be to have the article say "Raspberry Pi, the $25 dollar PC" or something like that?

    More important, why is this article even posted? I mean we could post dozens of articles a day if we follow the formula "site found selling fake [technology]."

  12. Re:Am I being too cynical that I believe... by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

    The post is taken directly from their website so the quote has no reason to describe the product. The /. editor saw no reason to describe the product because it has been in 13 articles since July.

  13. Nothing fake about the shop, by the way. by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

    And yet again noone bothers to read the actual shop's web-page. Given web-site is nothing but reseller in Russia that is offering to preorder the Raspberry Pi in hopes of making bulk purchases when the product is available and saving a hefty sum on transportation and thus making a quick buck and offering it cheaper to those interested in buying it. But, well, who cares.

    1. Re:Nothing fake about the shop, by the way. by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      The Raspberry Pi company isn't guaranteeing that they will have huge quantities available for order at all. Furthermore, you have to ask permission to use images from the image owners if you want to use them as a promotional tool. I doubt they did that so the Russian website, as it is right now, is violating international law.

    2. Re:Nothing fake about the shop, by the way. by JamesH48 · · Score: 1

      Except they will hang on to your money for months and you will get nothing, as bulk orders are not available from Raspberry Pi at this stage, and probably not for the first batch at all. Bulk buys will be cheaper, eventually. They are also using a trademarked name and logo without permission. And I guess the reason most haven't read the page is that most people don't read Russian, and Google translate (or similar) are not infallible...

    3. Re:Nothing fake about the shop, by the way. by shish · · Score: 1

      Being a reseller is cool. Taking people's money for a product that you don't have in stock and might not ever have in stock (the r-pi guys don't seem to want to have all their stock bought on day one and resold elsewhere, and they're going to be even less friendly now, after they've gone to so much effort to avoid pre-order schemes) is not cool.

      --
      I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
    4. Re:Nothing fake about the shop, by the way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From rasperrypi.ru (translation mine):
      "Expected sales start date - the end of 2011. Until the spring of 2012 you can only acquire RaspberryPi on the official website of the Raspberry Pi Foundation (raspberrypi.org). The first 10,000 units should be on sale in December. We'll buy some part of the 10,000 units (if we're lucky). We will distribute devices at cost, with priority to those who have reserved one."

      Nothing scammy or fake. They are just trying to make it more convenient for people in Russia to purchase this. The entire site actually tracks the project in detail and is basically a Russian forum for RasberryPi developers.

    5. Re:Nothing fake about the shop, by the way. by mirix · · Score: 1

      Russia violating IP law? lmao. not a single fuck was given.

      Maybe the US should start WWIII to protect its IP interests in china and russia. Good luck bro.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
  14. Re:What the hell... by slim · · Score: 2

    I have read slashdot everyday for nearly 10 years and I have no clue what "Raspberry Pi" is.

    One of these claims must be false. There have been loads of Raspberry Pi stories in recent months.

    Or you have some sort of memory disorder.

  15. Re:What the hell... by Shompol · · Score: 2
    I read /. on a daily basis and still had no idea. No, Raspberry is no iPhone, not even Linux.

    There are some rudimentary publishing rules and adding one sentence in the beginning should not be a problem for those who already know the subject. How about:

    Raspberry-Pi, a start-up promising to sell $25 Linux boards in the near future, already has a knock-off site.

    The concept would be easier to grasp if you read some articles written by professional writers once in a while.

  16. Watch out for the cheap knock-offs by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    As well as the scam sites- I want everyone to watch out for the cheap fakes coming from China.

    The $24.99 Raspbelly Pi, is a cheap knock-off and not a genuine item.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Watch out for the cheap knock-offs by shish · · Score: 1

      I want everyone to watch out for the cheap fakes coming from China.

      AFAIK one of the creators had said that competing against the Chinese would be a good thing, as it would drive the price of components even further down, and making computing available for everyone is more important than personal profit.

      --
      I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
    2. Re:Watch out for the cheap knock-offs by bingbangboom · · Score: 1

      I want everyone to watch out for the cheap fakes coming from China.

      AFAIK one of the creators had said that competing against the Chinese would be a good thing, as it would drive the price of components even further down, and making computing available for everyone is more important than personal profit.

      That's what I was thinking. Chinese knockoffs would be a great thing as demand for official units will outstrip supply for up to a year or longer. I would love to see these in retailers for this year's holiday shopping.

    3. Re:Watch out for the cheap knock-offs by Jamie+Lokier · · Score: 1

      If it's anything like the chinese knockoff of the Nokia N900, it'll look identical (right down to the logo) but be completely different and relatively useless.

  17. Selling vouchers that can be redeemed by tepples · · Score: 1

    Trademarks don't matter if a company is taking pre-orders and delivering nothing.

    Even if one tries the legal theory that they're selling vouchers that can be redeemed for the product in question?

    1. Re:Selling vouchers that can be redeemed by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Good point, but they can't prove in good faith that they reasonably believed large quantities would be available in the future. Raspberry Pi adamantly states that they aren't projecting huge quantities to be available to the public, just that they "hope so" at some undetermined time in the future. Furthermore, they can't guarantee the price will remain the same by that point so pre-orders just aren't viable.

    2. Re:Selling vouchers that can be redeemed by RazzleFrog · · Score: 1

      They don't have to prove anything right now. They said they expect sales to begin by the end of 2011 so if they fail to deliver AND fail to refund your money then it is up to the buyers to go after them.

  18. Publicity by jdavidb · · Score: 1

    I appreciate the fake resellers for creating this situation, and Slashdot for bringing it to my attention. Now I am aware of this product and will be keeping an eye out for it and may buy one from the manufacturer when they are available.

    --
    Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
  19. Re:What the hell... by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 1

    ahem........RTFA

    The......ahem......summary might be more helpful if it told me enough about Raspberry-Pi that I could decide if it was worth the trouble of RTFA-ing. Otherwise, why bother with a summary?

    --
    I am not a crackpot.
  20. Re:Obvious, given the demographic by stevenvi · · Score: 1

    I agree that those interested (such as myself) are probably smart enough to smell a scam, but the target demographic of this product is actually schoolchildren, who I would not expect to know the difference.

  21. Better fake knockoffs by Animats · · Score: 1

    When the original Macintosh came out,it was crippled by the provision of only one diskette drive, and no slot for a second one. Users were constantly changing disks (since the OS and applications lived on one diskette), or had to get an external drive. There was a knockoff Macintosh, recognizable by the inclusion of two diskette drives. It looked good, like an improved version of the original.

    Jobs was furious. There were radio announcements in Silicon Valley warning against the fake Macintosh.

    1. Re:Better fake knockoffs by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Haha, nice history footnote. Additionally, many of the iPod knockoffs have and still are FAR SUPERIOR. I have one, the SanDisk Sansa e260 or something like that. Cost me $25 new, has MP4 support, FM radio, 4 GiB internal, MicroSD slot, acts as a storage when connected to any PC, is proven more durable, has a replacable battery, is slimmer, and (with RockBox) it plays Doom! The only thing a 4 GiB iPod does better is boot faster.

    2. Re:Better fake knockoffs by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      The design. C'mon, 4 arc shaped buttons around a wheel for volume, around a large center button. Then having a vertical, screen over buttons, layout instead of the side-by-side SanDisk had before. I like SanDisk, but this was clearly intended to be a knockoff and that did always bother me a bit.

    3. Re:Better fake knockoffs by egranlund · · Score: 1

      Do you have a citation for this? I'd be interested to read more about it.

  22. Re:What the hell... by hplus · · Score: 1

    If you don't know what a product is to begin with (especially one that has had such extensive /. coverage) then why on earth would you care if somebody is selling fake ones?

  23. A Russian Scammer? by Reverand+Dave · · Score: 1

    Now I've heard of everything!

    --
    I got here through a series of tubes
  24. Fake vapourware? by Rogerborg · · Score: 1

    Now, that's a new low, like putting on a black dress and molesting little boys freelance rather than through the regular Catholic church.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    1. Re:Fake vapourware? by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

      Or using a discussion about international trade to be a troll.

    2. Re:Fake vapourware? by JamesH48 · · Score: 1

      Why do you think this is vapourware when all the evidence points the other way?

  25. Re:What the hell... by PowerCyclist · · Score: 1

    The /. editor saved space by not summarizing the product in question because IT APPEARS IN 13 /. POSTS SINCE JULY. If you read /. often, you would know what Raspberry Pi is, and if not, don't worry about it. If you don't know what a product is, chances are it will never effect you personally so just skip the post and move on.

  26. Re:What the hell... by Frenzied+Apathy · · Score: 2

    At the risk of exposing myself as a total /. noob, I must come to the defense of the parent: I've been reading /. daily for four months now and don't remember coming across "Raspberry-Pi".

    --
    The cake is a lie.
  27. Re:What the hell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Four month ? Here you go
    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/11/02/1715218/10k-raspberry-pi-units-available-in-december
    http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/10/30/006256/25-pc-prototype-gets-award-at-arm-techcon
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/09/07/1353258/ask-director-eben-upton-about-the-raspberry-pi-foundation
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/09/02/0156214/details-about-raspberry-pi-foundations-25-pc
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/28/1259236/raspberry-pi-running-quake-3
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/07/29/1523225/raspberry-pi-25-pc-goes-into-alpha-production

  28. Re:What the hell... by slashworkninja · · Score: 1

    Hm. I guess RTFA is just not enough for you. Anyways, would it be so hard to google it?

  29. Re:What the hell... by RevGregory · · Score: 1

    I not only follow /., I follow a few other tech sites...and Raspberry Pi is one of the most OVER reported stories out there. I'd be extremely happy if I didn't see another mention of it until it's released since the scads of articles out each week simply remind me that I can't have one yet.

  30. What the hell... by mcgrew · · Score: 1

    ...is Google for? Maybe it's so you can find this site? Hint: it's a tiny $25 computer.

    Raspberry Pi has been covered numerous times at slashdot. I'm surprised you haven't seen it before.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  31. Re:Really? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Not only that, the first Raspberry Pis are not out as yet, and of all things that hackers can do, they chose to make knock-offs of this?

  32. Free advertising!!! by UnifiedTechs · · Score: 1

    1. Make fake website taking preorders for hot new item. 2. Submit story containing URL to News sites like Slashdot declaring site a fake. 3. Watch fake site shoot up in Google rankings due to links on popular news sites leading to tons of sales. 4. Profit! An editor seriously fell for this?

    --
    iRepairIT - iPhone, Mac, & PC Repair
    1. Re:Free advertising!!! by JamesH48 · · Score: 1

      Do you think that is what happened? (Clue - no it isn't) 1 RaspberryPi are a charity, and therefor profit isn't a motive. 2 RaspberryPi don't really need the publicity as likely to sell first batch of 10000 fairly quickly.