Saturday, December 3, 2016
Friday, December 2, 2016
The Curious Case of Bogus Amazon Sellers
I’m sure I’m not alone in admitting that I generally love Amazon. The access to massive product variety, frequently great prices, the whole Prime feature, and a sense that you can really trust the entire framework just makes Amazon easy to appreciate. But that trust thing… well, lately I’ve had it rocked a little bit when it comes to Amazon. Here’s the executive summary:
- I have found multiple clearly fraudulent sellers in the “used” category
- I’ve engaged Amazon’s customer service and investigations staff, had my suspicions confirmed and told by Amazon they’d get rid of the bogus sellers
- The same sellers keep coming back, and they are pretty convincing if you don’t know better
- There seems to be no way for Amazon to keep them out
- Dealing with Amazon in this regard is kind of like talking with children who speak another language, and who also happen to be watching TV or something as you speak to them
Now let’s look at a real-world example.
Please note the instructions for how to engage this seller- you have to leave the Amazon framework and communicate through Gmail. We’ll go there in a bit, but also note the seller’s name “Lin.Martone”. This one has also shown up as:
- LI N Martone
- LinMartone
and each variant has a different gmail account to go with it. On this item, there have been NUMEROUS bogus sellers that come and go, all with the same “email me if you want this” and all with a price that’s too good to be true (hence the draw). All of this has been shared with Amazon via emails and calls. In each case, Amazon agrees fraud is in play, yet it it keeps coming back.
Being a veteran of many an investigation, I decided to follow one of these out before enaging Amazon for the first time. Here we go… bogus seller here is ter.kansey@gmail.com (you’ll love the spoofed Amazon page that’s coming):
Realize- we’ve already broken Amazon’s rules here, by leaving the web framework and communicating directly. The response- a sloppy cut and paste of a reply to somebody named Shane.
Here is where it gets good- sent in my inbox, a very official looking “Amazon page” complete with bogus order number. I have to think that at this point, many shoppers might be fooled.
This person was trying to get me to buy an Amazon gift card, and read them the number as payment for an item that would most assuredly never come. When I called Amazon and shared this all with them, I found a number of challenges in dealing with customer service.
- You can’t share any of these sorts of screenshots- only email headers (which I did)
- When I mentioned fake order numbers and well-crafted fake phishing style pages being provided via email, I don’t know if it even registered with the person I was speaking with
- I pointed out over multiple calls and online reports at least half a dozen bogus “sellers” on this item alone, all with same methodology
- You get the general feeling that Amazon could really care less, and that you are a bit of a bother when you engage them on this over the phone
- The same “sellers” keep coming back
- That anyone can join the Amazon used market as seller and then be allowed to tell customers to go through email and break Amazon’s rules WITHOUT AMAZON THEMSELVES CATCHING IT is bewildering
And that’s it. I’ll still use Amazon for new items, but am thoroughly spooked at how loose and sloppy this end of their used market is. I hope this blog can help even one person not to get scammed by what seems to be pretty common on Amazon.
Cheers!
ADDENDUM- Thanks, Stephen Foskett for taking this issue up on your own blog, and summarizing what to watch out for: (lifted from Stephen):
Here are the hallmarks:
- Too-low round-number prices roughly half the retail cost
- Items sold as used but with specific notes that they’re actually new
- Instructions to email to begin the transaction rather than using the Amazon site, including obviously obfuscated gmail addresses with spaces between letters
- “Just Launched” seller profiles with no ratings
Be careful out there!
CNN HOST ALISYN CAMEROTA: WEAR HIJAB IN SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIMS
Maybe there will be a movement where people wear the head scarf in solidarity. You know, even if you’re not Muslim.
Has she lost her mind?
Will she self-mutilate her genitals also?
Vile Rosie O’Donnell Apologizes For Tweet About Barron Trump
However, within only a few days of Melania Trump firing a legal shot across the bow of the creator of a YouTube video O’Donnell promoted that suggested Trump’s son, Barron, has autism, O’Donnell made an abject apology.
“I was insensitive in my RT- i am sorry for the pain i caused – it was not my intent – i am truly sorry,” she tweeted Thursday.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFER: NO PARDON FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS
Days after the election, illegal-alien advocates started pressuring Obama to pardon all illegal aliens before he leaves office. Congressional Democrats issued their plea shortly thereafter for the 740,000 participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
But in a podcast today Munoz said, “It’s ultimately not [the way to protect illegal aliens] for a couple reasons. One is that pardon authority is generally designed for criminal...
In Canada Syrian Refugees Get $3600 Per Month From The Government, $43,000 Per Year, While The Average Canadian Makes $27,600 Per Year
The CBC tours the families house, a three bedroom home that is honestly nicer than most homes.
It turns out the average Syrian refugee receives $3600 from the Government of Canada, or $43,000 per year, while the average Canadian makes a mere $27,100.
Widespread Coverage of Liberal Hate Crimes ‘Study’ Shows Media’s Fake News Problem
Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, there’s been an abundance of hand-wringing over the “fake news” that supposedly is rampant on social media.
Yet missing has been any kind of serious searching among the mainstream media about whether it could learn any lessons from this election—and whether reporters and editors are holding themselves accountable to their supposed values of objectivity and rigorous reporting.
And a new “study” presents Exhibit A as to why the mainstream media should reconsider its own practices.
The Southern Poverty Law Center—an organization that calls the Family Research Council an “extremist group” because of its socially conservative views on LGBT matters—reported Nov. 29 that “in the 10 days following the election, there were almost 900 reports of harassment and intimidation from across the nation.”
“Many harassers invoked Trump’s name during assaults,” the report continued, “making it clear that the outbreak of hate stemmed in large part from his electoral success.”
Cue the widespread coverage:
- “Nationwide, there have been more than 867 incidents of ‘hateful harassment’ in the first days following the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center says,” reported CNN.
- “In the 10 days following the November election, SPLC said it collected 867 hate-related incidents on its website and through the media from almost every state,” wrote the Associated Press.
- NBC News headlined its piece on the study “Southern Poverty Law Center Reports ‘Outbreak of Hate’ After Election.”
- The Washington Post’s headline blared, “Civil rights group documents nearly 900 hate incidents after presidential election.”
“The 867 hate incidents described here come from two sources—submissions to the #ReportHate page on the SPLC website and media accounts,” the SPLC report states. “We have excluded incidents that authorities have determined to be hoaxes; however, it was not possible to confirm the veracity of all reports.”
In other words, who has any idea if these incidents actually happened or not?
Yet, the fact that there was no verification of these incidents didn’t stop the media from covering this “study.”
And let’s not pretend there’s no to very little chance that a Trump opponent would make up a hate crime story.
Just consider this reported hate incident in November: “The men used a racial slur, made a reference to lynching, and warned him this is Donald ‘Trump country now,’ according to the report he gave police,” reported the Boston Herald.
Yet the man wasn’t telling the truth. The Herald reported that Kevin Molis, police chief of Malden, Massachusetts, said “it has been determined that the story was completely fabricated.”
“’The alleged victim admitted that he had made up the entire story,’ saying he wanted to ‘raise awareness about...
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Read About The Horrific Concentration Camps In North Korea Where More Christians Are Being Killed Than In The Middle East
It is commonly believed that the Middle East has the worst persecutions against Christians. But this is not true. More Christian are being slaughtered in North Korea than anywhere else. Christians are being systematically slaughtered in Nazi and Soviet style concentration camps. Recent photos from satellite imagery reveals their structures:
Some tech firms welcome Trump’s H-1B reforms
IT services firms that hire U.S. workers and don't offshore work are looking forward to President-elect Donald Trump's crackdown on H-1B visa use.
This includes firms such as Rural Sourcing Inc. (RSI), an Atlanta-based domestic software development company. RSI employs about 350 people and doesn't hire workers on temporary visas. It has four development centers in Augusta, Ga.; Mobile, Ala.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a new center opened this year.
These are places "not widely known as big IT markets," said Monty Hamilton, the firm's CEO. That helps to keep costs down and makes it easier to compete with offshore firms. The locations appeal to developers who don't want to relocate to coastal tech centers, he said.
The three IT services firms contacted for this story all said business is...
Two ISIS terrorists captured in Manila after planting bomb near US embassy
A pair of Filipino Muslims, members of the Ansar Al-khilafa Philippines militia, were arrested Wednesday after they planted a bomb in a garbage can near the American embassy in Manila. The bomb was constructed from an 81mm mortar round and a timer. The two men initially tried to detonate the device in an adjacent park but were unable to do so, so they brought the bomb to the area near the embassy, where they were captured.
The suspects admitted under questioning that they were members of ISIS and said that they planted the bomb in an attempt to impress the terrorist organization and draw the attention of the military and the public away from the fight against militants in the southern part of the country.
Carrier Employee Thanks Trump For Saving His Job (VIDEO)
The Mainstream Media doesn’t want to admit it, but the Trump Effect is sweeping across America’s business sector, and saving thousands of AMERICAN JOBS as it does so.
What a great video of a grateful Robin Maynard, a 24-year Carrier employee, telling Donald Trump and Mike Pence thank you for keeping his job here at home:
What a great video of a grateful Robin Maynard, a 24-year Carrier employee, telling Donald Trump and Mike Pence thank you for keeping his job here at home:
#NeverTrumper claim that looks pretty silly now: No reason to believe Trump would be better than Hillary
The #NeverTrumpers would thunder back: There is no reason to think Trump would be better than Hillary.
Oh? I mean, that’s a pretty low bar to clear. Better than Hillary is like better than Brussel sprouts. Pretty much all you have to do is exist. It’s like getting the $100 question right on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Trump couldn’t even do that?
Not to these people. Trump was a fraud. Trump was a con man. Trump was a liberal Democrat in disguise. He was probably a Clinton plant!
This was an awfully implausible argument, but they stuck to it stubbornly because it was the only way to knock down the best argument reluctant conservatives had for backing Trump. If they could somehow make the case that there really was no difference between Trump and...
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
British Prime Minister Theresa May calls Donald Trump to discuss ties, transition and NATO
Theresa May and US President-elect Donald Trump have agreed they should work to build relationships and meet as soon as possible.
During a telephone conversation on Tuesday, the Prime Minister and Mr Trump talked about how his transition plans were progressing.
They also agreed on the importance of NATO and on the need for members to meet the target of spending 2% of national income on defence.
Britain already meets that commitment, but Mr Trump has repeatedly complained about others falling short.
A Downing Street statement said: "The Prime Minister called the US President-elect this afternoon as part of establishing a regular dialogue between both of them.
"They agreed their teams should continue to build close relationships through this period, including...
NYT Urges Internet Censorship
Along with other media scoundrels, it long ago lost credibility, why alternative sources of news, information and analysis are growing at their expense. Following reliable ones exclusively is the only way to stay informed – essential in today’s dangerous world.
The Times and other media scoundrels misinform, distort, distract and lie, vital hard truths banished from their reporting – fake news their specialty.
A previous article discussed Google and Facebook intentions to halt what they call “fake news,” claiming it’s to counter misinformation.
I asked if their real aim is censorship. Will other online companies operate the same way? Is free and open Internet content at risk? Will reliable alternative media sources be targeted for elimination?
Will dark forces controlling America only let their message be disseminated, destroying the essence of democratic free expression?
On Monday, Global Research editor Michel Chossudovsky stressed the danger, saying “(a) smear campaign is currently underway accusing the alternative and independent media online media of producing ‘Fake News.’ “
Never before in America and other Western societies was it so urgent to stay vigilant about growing tyranny replacing fundamental rights – none more important than speech, media and academic freedoms. Without them, all others are at risk.
Does the NYT advocate what demands denunciation? It appears so from a Sunday editorial, headlined “Facebook and the Digital Virus Called Fake News,” the title indicating disturbing content to follow, saying:
“(M)illions of people (are) taken in by fake news stories…spread on social media sites” – what Times editors call a “scourge,” claiming “internet companies like Facebook and Google…ma(de) it possible for fake news to be shared nearly instantly with millions of users and have been slow to block it from their sites.”
“Fake news,” according to Times editors, is content disagreeing with what the self-styled “newspaper of record” reports. “Real news” is daily rubbish it publishes – a cesspool of misinformation, distortions and Big Lies on major issues mattering most.
Their solution is what Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky discussed in their book, titled “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy and the Mass Media” – explaining how media scoundrels manipulate and control public thinking and perceptions by filtering news and information.
Acceptable “residue” only is reported. Dissent is marginalized. Government and dominant private interests alone are..
What The Media Is Not Telling You: Deciphering And Unlocking The Message Of OSU Terrorist Proves He Gave Allegiance To ISIS And To Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
Artan posted a lengthy rant on Facebook blaming the US for all the problems in the Muslim world and hailing terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki as a “hero.” … There was no specific threat of violence but a suggestion that the U.S. could stop “lone wolf attacks” by making peace with “dawla in al sham,” an outdated name for ISIS.
What they are not telling you (or perhaps they are still so ignorant about) is that this is no “rant” and “making peace with “dawla in al sham” is (unlike what they stated) is a “threat of violence”.
“There was no specific threat of violence”? Idiots. Real idiots.
They do not comprehend the basics of Islam and its method of communication. Artan was giving out the standard Islamic “Aslim Taslam,” the mandate by Islam “make peace (by submission) and be at peace” or face the consequences. Islam mandates that such a declaration be sent out to justify an attack. This offer of truce is the pre-declaration of war throughout Islamic history. Artan simply posted the Caliphate’s mandate before he ...
Romney praises Trump after 'wonderful evening' discussing world affairs
Romney, a fierce critic of Trump during the Republican presidential primary battle, stopped short of an outright apology but his intention to wipe the slate clean was clear.
The former Massachusetts governor, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and lost, praised Trump for a "message of inclusion and bringing people together" since his Nov. 8 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Noting the appointments Trump has made to fill key cabinet positions for his administration and his desire for greater unity among Americans, Romney said that "all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us" to a better future.
Romney made his remarks after...
AWW! Dem Senator Regrets Making Presidential Appointments Easier Now That It’ll Benefit Trump (VIDEO)
In the clip below, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware admits that he regrets making it easier for the president to make appointments. They never planned for this. Once Obama was elected, they really believed they would be the party in power forever.
The Washington Free Beacon reported:
Sen. Chris Coons Regrets Making Appointments Simpler to Confirm
Senator Chris Coons (D., Del.) said on CNN Tuesday that he regrets the rule change Senate Democrats made to the nomination process.
“The filibuster no longer acts as an emergency brake on the nomination,” Coons said.
The senator was questioned on the nomination process and the rule changes that senate Democrats had made in order to keep Republicans from derailing their selected nominees.
Coons admitted that Democrats had watered down the nomination process after...
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Why Do Democrats Treat Minorities So Poorly?
Let's talk about minorities. Within the African American community there was a small minority of people, about eight percent that voted for Donald Trump. To be a Republican in the Black community, indeed a minority in the Black community is to be attacked, called the most horrific names imaginable, and this comes from white as well as black democrats.
Given the history of white democrats, like creating the KKK, writing Jim Crowe laws and the practice of eugenics on the African American community, you would think white democrats would abstain from again attacking black Republicans. But in today's toxic media landscape, attacking minorities is perfectly acceptible as long as they are the right kind of minorities. That is, the minorities that do not toe the totalitarian leftist line.
There is possibly no one so alone, no one so courageous and no one so abandoned as a black Republican. However, the leftists that control the levers of public media dissemination are unconcerned about them while even the falsely perceived or even faked attacks on leftists are covered ad infinitum.
What becomes clear to anyone who closely monitors the left, is that they lack concern for anyone who does not toe the leftist line and are therefore not worth protecting. The left uses this false narrative of Republicans as racists, bigots and homophobes as a crude cudgel to assault and silence all who disagree with their radical totalitarian leftist agenda. They are the greatest hypocrites and liars of all time.
More Mike Miles Opinion:
The New Thought Police
Flashback: Somali Muslim Hacks Four Patrons at Columbus, Ohio Restaurant in February
An Ohio State spokesman says the suspect rammed a group of students then exited the vehicle and stabbed several individuals with a butcher knife.
Some students were stabbed, others injured after being hit by the vehicle.
THE SUSPECT’S NAME: Abdul Artan.
He was a Somali refugee.
Now there’s this…
As Hannity reported — On February 4th of this year, four people were injured when a machete wielding Somali man named Mohammed Barry attacked people in a Columbus, Ohio deli.
The Gateway Pundit reported on this attack in February:
A 20-year-old Somali refugee identified as “Abdul Razak Ali Artan” is believed to be the man behind a knife and car attack on the Ohio State University campus that injured nine on Monday. Although details are still coming in, this is not the first attack perpetrated by a Somali refugee in the State of Ohio this year.
On February 4th of this year, four people were injured when a machete wielding Somali man named Mohammed Barry attacked people in...
The Washington Post has really outdone itself this time. Having served as the primary megaphone for hate-mongering and anti-Trump propaganda since last summer, the WAPO is upping the ante by giving legitimacy to a shadowy group that has published a blacklist of 200 + websites that have been labeled as fronts for Vladimir Putin’s sinister plot to overthrow America. The sites on the list have two things in common: a criticism of an endless series of global wars instead of spending that money at home and a bent for criticizing Hillary Clinton.
On Thanksgiving Day while families across the fruited plain were sitting down to their holiday feast and diving into a daylong slate of football games, the WAPO published an extraordinarily sleazy piece that promoted the work of a murky website called PropOrNot that is recruiting volunteers as monitors of “Russian” meddling. The piece which was written by a guy named Craig Timberg writes that:
“The flood of ‘fake news’ this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.”
Not that the government and the corrupt establishment hasn’t done a good enough job of “undermining faith” in American democracy itself nor one party’s insistence of putting forth as it’s presidential candidate a tainted arch-criminal in a Chairman Mao pantsuit. No, it’s those in the alternative media who called bullshit on the official narrative and are now not only being blamed for...
US will take 400 Muslim Nauru refugees rejected by Australia
The US and Australian governments earlier this month announced an unspecified number of refugees on Nauru or Manus Island would be resettled in the US, with the assistance of the UNHCR. There were reports about 1,600 refugees would be involved.
There have been consistent questions about how many would be accepted and whether the deal would even go ahead under an administration led by Donald Trump, who campaigned on a ban on Muslim immigration. Senior Republicans have also criticised the deal.
However on Tuesday Sky News, citing US government sources, said the US would take just 300 to 400 people, and only those in family groups.
According to the report, officers from the US Department of Homeland Security would arrive on Nauru this weekend to begin their own processing of applicants, and it was not expected to be finished until well after President-elect Trump is inaugurated in January.
If only families are accepted then none of the detainees on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island – all single men – will be eligible, and the Australian and PNG governments remain at an impasse about....
JIHADI JAIL HELL Inside the ISIS dungeon where tortured inmates were locked in tiny cells and hanged from staircase near Mosul
Footage and pictures taken inside the derelict building reveal seven small windowless cells where hundreds of captives were brutalised by torture instruments and killed.
Smashed glass was littered over the floor of the jail which was disguised to look like other houses on the street.
Thick curtains were also placed over the windows to ensure no neighbours or outsiders could look inside the ISIS interrogation room.
Jihadis set fire to the building where they made their escape to destroy the evidence – so it is now just a burnt-out shell.
Riad Ahmad, a resident of Hammam al-Alil, said the terrorist group held hundreds of people in...
